Uyuni Salt desert
After 3 months of several border crossings between Argentina and Chile from south to north, it was time to leave Chile for the last time. This time to Bolivia. A trip through the Andes and the Uyuni salt desert, was my next goal. The trip over 3 days in a Jeep had been high on my list from the first time I read about it during my research and I was not disappointed. It was a fantastic tour and together with some lovely people, where we in the 3 days, were like a small family and where we were surrounded by the most stunning and beautiful scenery all the way.
The tour started in the morning in San Pedro de Atacama, where the first stop was to be checked out of Chile. It happened in San Pedro city and in our bus we were lucky to be almost the first to arrive with a very short queue. Already when we were done the queue was long, so I knew that there were a lot of people doing the same tour as me, but for the most part of the tour, we were alone. From the same company we were 3 cars going on the same route but with a good distance. The rest must have used other roads. Or calling it roads are perhaps too much, as there most of the time were no really roads. It was like driving in no mans land, but luckily our driver knew the route well.
Our next stop came shortly after we had crossed the border. Here there was a small shed where we had to check in to Bolivia and have a stamp in the passport.
While we were waiting for everyone to be checked in and for the arrival of the cars we were going to continue with, a nice breakfast was served next to our bus. Cars and drivers from Chile are not allowed to take tourist further, similar the Bolivian cars can’t collect passengers in Chile.
Our 3 jeeps arrived almost at the same time and as soon as they had unloaded the returning passengers and their luggage we were divided by 6 people in each jeep. Our luggage were loaded up on the roof of each car and wrapped well in blue plastic and then we were off.
When you have to be so close to other people for 3 days, you are curious about who they are, but we were a super nice group and our driver was great too.
I had read about the trip and was well prepared. The first night all 6 sleeps in the same room and it is not possible to get a bath. The next day you stay in a double rooms. The roads, that are not really roads, are bumpy and uneven. Drivers do not speak english and some might have had too much to drink. Luckily I did experience a drunk driver. I had checked out the companies before I bought the trip, but the rest is correct. However, bumpy roads were not a problem for me, as my young travel companions allowed me to have the seat in the front next to the driver, where it is definitely less bumpy.
It was not a problem to sleep all 6 in the same room and maybe a bit unbelievable, 18 people sharing 2 toilets and 2 sinks was not a problem either. It was only a single night and we were tired.
Day 1
On the first day of the trip we passed incredibly beautiful scenery and were constantly surrounded by volcanoes and snowy mountain peaks. There were Lagoons – White Lagoon, Green Lagoon – an area of stone settlements called Dali Desert, Hot Springs where we could get a swim and geysers,
The trip took place between the Andes mountains tops which can be almost 7000 m and we were all the time on an altitude between 3-5,000 meters, so a lot of water had to be consumed. We were recommended to bring minimum 5 liters of water each. One of my fellow passengers had trouble with the altitude on the first day, but he got a few tablets which helped him immediately. Even if you are not affected by sickness you can easily notice the consequense of being so high up. At 5.000 meter you move veeeery slowly and not very far.
Our driver also made food for us on the first day and both lunch and dinner were served at our hostel. We arrived at about 2.30 p.m. but when you come from Chile, it is actually 3.30, so we were all hungry. We ended the day with a trip to the Red Lagune, where there was a lot of flamingos.
Day 2
On day two we drove through narrow gorges, amazing rock formations and more lagoons with flamingos. In the middle of the afternoon we reached a more normal road and we had lunch at a restaurant in a small town where it looked as the llamas were part of the city’s population. The trip continued on the normal roads and we had a stort stop at a train station in the middle of nowhere and we even saw a train passing but still going through amazing scenery. It was dark before we reached our hotel – a salthotel – where we could get a bath before dinner.
Day 3
At dinner we enjoyed ourselves as the only guests at the hotel, but everyone went to bed early. The next morning we had to leave at 5 a.m. and so we did. No breakfast, it was served from the back of the cars later. The goal was to see sunrise in the salt desert and what an experience. Because of the time – month of March – there was water in the desert, so we got some beautiful pictures. It took 7-8 hours before we were out of the desert again. We had a couple of more stops after watching the sunrise. First, to have some breakfast. Here our guides were so kind to find a place where it was dry, which also made the place suitable for taking some fun pictures. On the last stop on the other hand, we were far from being dry, so our shoes looked quite awful and were full of salt after the tour. We had been warned, but few of us had suitable footwear available
The last kilometers in the desert was like driving towards the end of the world. We could not distinguish between clouds and mountains, fortunately our driver could, he did not have a GPS, but were using the mountains to guide him. Almost out of the desert we passed a Museum for the “Paris-Dakar” race, which is now taking place in South America. Here we also had our only problem on the trip. Suddenly people in the back of the car could hear some dunk from the wheel. It turned out, we had lost some wheel nuts so our driver had to call for help from one of the other cars. We could see the museum in the distance and were asked to WALK there while they fixed the car. In the burning sun with lots of gloss from the white salt. Fortunately, the museum was not that far away and before we were picked up again, it was possible to use a very “special type” of toilet but it was free of charge, if you instead bought something in the souvenirshop.
Last stop before Uyuni was a small market with plenty of handmade and woven goods and after lunch we visited a train museum. Here were old trains from when the area was used for mining and silver was transported to the coast. In close by Potosi, it is possible to get a look of the mines.
In the late afternoon it was time to say goodbye. Some were going back to Chile, this time a little faster while others were going by bus to different places in Bolivia.
I went by a night bus to Sucre and spent the rest of the day in a restaurant with some of my tour participants. Uyuni was a rather strange and dirty city, where I fortunately chose not to stay.
There are no common bus terminal in Uyuni. Next to each other in the same street, each bus company has their own small office / room where it is possible to wait for the bus. Apparently, the same office serves as a postoffice, and before the departure of the bus at 10 pm more and more packages and passengers filled the room.
Link Uyuni Photos
This entry was posted in 3 Days tour Uyuni Salt Desert, Bolivia, Destinations, South America
