Bolivia: Salar de Uyuni Adventure

We weren’t originally planning to go to Bolivia, but we had to see it. For the last 2 months as we met travelers throughout South America, we kept hearing tales over and over about the one and only Salar De Uyuni. With over 4,086 sq miles of salt, and a depth of over 32 feet in the center, the world’s largest salt flat was calling us.

We started researching when we got to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, and learned that you could do 3 or 4 day tours that leave from San Pedro and they either come back to Chile or end in Bolivia. The tours are all conducted in 4×4 vehicles, (usually Toyota Landcruisers) which are necessary because of the rugged dirt (and salt) terrain. Josh and I decided that we wanted to end in Bolivia and explore the country in more depth for a couple weeks afterwards, so we did the 3 day tour that ends in the town of Uyuni, Bolivia.

Our trip started in San Pedro, but within an hour we arrived at the Bolivian border. Once we got through customs into Bolivia the tour official started, and we chose our Landcruiser, which would in turn be who we drove with for the next few days. The SUVs can fit 6 passengers, and typically fill up. We found 2 other groups of 2 who were together, and paired up to form our group for the trip.

We aren’t usually fans of multi-day tours. We tend to find them overpriced and rigid, and they can sometimes feel like cattle herding. Not to mention, if you end up with people you don’t mesh well with it can ruin your trip. Well thank gosh, this was not one of those trips. We picked our team well, and had the time of our lives packed in way too tightly into our half broken, white Landcruiser.

Pepe

There was Myriam and Steph, who are travel buddies that met a year ago in South America. Myriam is a Frenchie living in Holland, who loves traveling the world and speaks fluent Spanish. Steph is from the States and quit her job almost 2 years ago to travel through South America. She was a guide in Patagonia for 6 months, then met back up with Myriam to travel through the Atacama Desert and Salt Flats together before she headed back to the US. They brought Pepe with them, our mascot who Steph traveled the world with.

Then there was Fred and Daniel, the dynamic Brazilian duo. They were both on a shorter trip, visiting Chile and Bolivia before heading back to work. They were absolutely hilarious, and also spoke incredibly flawless English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Jorge was our driver. He was a man of little words, but when he did speak it tended to be way too fast, way too quiet, and in Spanish. He liked to chew on Coca leaves, and always had so many packed into his right cheek that for the first day we actually thought he had something wrong with him because his speech was slurred and his cheek was puffed out the size of a baseball. We grew to love him though, and he put up with all our antics.

We called ourselves Team Ryan Air, because our Cruiser was definitely the most run-down, busted up car of the three that caravanned together through the middle of nowhere (via Cordillera Travelers). Words cannot describe the silliness, chaos and craziness we all went through together, so I won’t try to capture it here. These three days were some of the best on the trip thus far. I don’t think I ever laughed so much on the trip as in these three days, and we made some amazing new friends. Not only that, the scenery was stunning and the adventure incredible.

We made a video to capture this unforgettable experience, check it out HERE:

On our first day we drove through the Bolivian Highlands, climbing up to 15,000 feet elevation within an hour, passing by several extinct volcanoes and snowy peaks. The altitude made me feel really light headed and dizzy, but it was beautiful. Next we drove through the National Reserve of Andean Fauna Eduardo Abaroa. We saw over 30,000 Andean Flamingos at Laguna Colorada, countless wild Vicunas, hot springs, steaming geysirs, and lakes filled with color.

Our second day we passed through a large desert with famous rock formations known due to their winderosion. We passed through several more colored highland lagoons, and ended our second night sleeping in a Salt Hotel, which was incredibly unique.

Our last day was the amazing Salar de Uyuni, where we drove for miles across the salt, only seeing white and blue. We stopped in a small island in the middle of the Flats, Isla Inca Huasi (Fish Island) located in the middle of the salar with limestone formations from the remains of coral and shells when the Salar was an Ocean. We ended our time at the Railroad Cemetery, then said our goodbyes in the town of Uyuni, where Josh and I parted ways with Team Ryan Air, who was heading back to San Pedro.

*Special Shout Out to my Ryan Air peeps: Thanks for an unforgettable journey, We’ll see you in Brazil for Carnival! P.S. Where’s Lufthansa?*