Bolivia Salt Flats: Salar de Uyuni (Part 2)

Earlier this week, we shared our post about our 3-day safari through the Bolivian outback. Now check out the main reason that brought us to Bolivia in the first place.

Day 4

Cactus Island

Another freezing 5am wake up call except today we finally made it to the salt flats. At first, I couldn’t believe it. The salt flats stretched for miles (over 4,000 sq mi to be exact), it was so big. We cruised the flats at zipping speed in order to get us here (below) just in time to catch sunrise!

We drove our way on white flat lands for miles before reaching cactus island – an island in the middle of the flats with more than five thousand 1,200 year old cacti. The view from the top was pretty surreal, a 360º view of Salar de Uyuni.

Salar de Uyuni

From cactus island, we drove out to “the spot” famous for all those Uyuni perspective photos you often see. Our drivers are seasoned photographers by now so they gave us great suggestions on different poses and even offered to take our pictures for us.

We came prepared with a spoon.

This is our tour group. I don’t know how G and I ended up lying on the ground, but can you guess what we’re trying to spell?

Once we had our photo fun, we headed to the only mini-shop on the salt flats also the only hotel located ON the flats and saw this cool flag display representing visitors from all over the world.

Our last stop before leaving the salt flats was here at the mining production area. Interesting facts: The Uyuni salt flats contains 10 billion tons of salt and local workers earn close to $1 USD for a full day of work!

After lunch, we ended our 4-day with a last stop at the train cemetery before getting dropped off in Uyuni.

I’ll admit. I was the least excited to spend 4-days of no shower driving through the Bolivian desert. Even tried to get out of it all together when the miners went on a national strike causing road blockages throughout the country. You know, just being a girl I guess. But I was glad to be proven wrong.

Bolivia: a country I knew nothing about. This was a long overdue bucket list item for G, to visit the salt flats. But Bolivia is so much more than that. I never imagined it would be this stunning, this natural. The country surprised me in more ways that one – far more underrated that it should be but maybe that’s a good thing. I am happy we had the chance to explore this remote part of Bolivia and can’t wait to share the rest of the country with you in later posts. We highly recommend you all to add this to the top of your next destinations’ bucket list.

Tips:

• Rent a sleeping bag if the tour company offers that option. Seriously, don’t freeze your butt off if you don’t have to for a few extra bucks.
• Bring music if you don’t want to listen to Bolivian folk music on repeat 10-hours a day.
• Charge your electronics beforehand since many villages have limited electricity.
• Tupiza Tours was recommended as the most reliable company doing any Salar de Uyuni tour and for us they worked out great.

Read Part 1 here.

Have you been to Bolivia?

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