The Salt Flats – a most magical journey! Ernie and I traveled with Margaret, Danny, Sharon, Nova, and Ximena to the Salar de Uyuni. Once we arrived at the La Paz bus depot from home, we rode for four hours in a pretty comfortable bus to Oruro. After waiting for a couple of hours at the Oruro train station, we boarded our train car and traveled for seven hours on the Wara Wara del Sur to Uyuni–dining car and all. Blankets and pillows were provided for our comfort. Upon arrival in Uyuni at 2:30 a.m., we were greeted by Diego, our guide for the week, who escorted us to our first hotel–Jardines de Uyuni Hotel. The next morning, our Salt Flats adventure began in Uyuni and surrounding areas — incredible adventure for all! The Salt Flats were a most unique, magical experience. Surprisingly, this week was the warmest I have ever been in Bolivia! The sun was out every day–the weather was perfect! Of course, at night it was pretty cold and very windy at times, but we were toasty for the most part inside our hotels.

 

Our first day in Uyuni found us departing to the village of Pulacayo where we saw the train robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and also the first train that arrived in Bolivia. Afterwards, we headed back to Uyuni for lunch at Jardines de Uyuni Hotel and then on to our next hotel in Villa Mar Village–Jardines de Mallku Cueval Hotel. Danny and Margaret’s room was actually part of the inner rock wall. From the outside, the size of the hotel was quite deceiving. 

 

The second day our group visited White Lagoon, Red Lagoon, and Green Lagoon. While at Red Lagoon, we spent a long time just watching the flamingos–Chilean, James, and Andean. We also saw the white flamingos. Later in the day we stopped back at the Red Lagoon, which had truly turned red from the winds which had whipped up churning algae in the water. All of the places we visited today were contained in the Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, which covers an area of 7,150 square kilometers. Geyers and mudpots were also on the agenda today (here we were in the Atacama Desert, which also is part of Chile at 16,250 feet), as well as Chalviri Lagoon where Danny got into the hotsprings.

The next day we visited cave/rock paintings which are 10,000 years old in the ruins near Tomas Lajas. We continued on to Rock Valley, Culpina K, and San Cristobal. We viewed a salt processing plant and then arrived at the very first salt hotel at the edge of the Salt Flats.

Salt, Salt, EVERYWHERE! The Salar was an incredible experience!

Here’s our luxurious hotel–Palacio de Sal–all built of salt–even the beds! It truly was luxurious–sleeping accommodations and the meal. Only hitch was, the next morning–no hot water or power–somebody had cut the line to the power some ways out from the hotel (accidentally, of course). While we were there, there was a film crew making a documentary on the salt flats for Discovery Channel–the documentary is supposed to be aired in November, we think.

“With an area of ​​12,000 square kilometers, a height of 3660 meters above sea level, a thickness of 120 m and with 11 layers from two to twenty the Salar de Uyuni is the mirror surface and the world’s largest salt flat is seen from space.”  Source:  http://www.palaciodesal.com.bo/

Our last day of travel in the Salar took us over the surface of the great salt flats. We began by watching the process of salt being extracted by shovel from the surface of the flats into conical-shaped piles for drying before being loaded onto trucks and transported out. Then we began the long, slow journey at 15 mph to Incahuasi Island, also known as Fish Island (the island is shaped like a fish). Once we arrived at the island, we “watched” the giant Trichoreus cacti. The tallest cactus we saw was 12 meters tall–these are really old cacti–an amazing place! Traveling from the edge of the salt to the island was incredibly surreal as it felt we were floating along on clouds–at times no horizon could be seen! Part of the flats were dry and part had maybe 3 or 4 inches of water, so we felt as if we were in a boat just floating along. All in all, this journey was incredibly magic each and every day!