October 2nd and 3rd 2015

We arrive in Uyuni two hours earlier than expected around 4 am and find that at this hour there’s very little open, and it’s quite chilly, that said in our long wanderings through the street ringing hotel doorbells and hoping for a response we do make an awesome doggy friend who loves playing with bottles.  Eventually we find a small hotel where the owner opens the door and we get a private room with shared bathroom for (70 BS for a night and a half).  The room is basic and quite cold but enough blankets makes anything cozy and we grab a few hours of sleep before heading back out to book our tour to the Salt Flats.

Booking a tour in Uyuni can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make it.  My general advice is to see a bunch of agencies, negotiate the price as you can often get a significant discount, and also always look up your company online prior to making the booking. If you have the money Red Planet is supposedly the best in town, but there’s lots of other cheaper options which can work out great as long as your not unlucky.  The truth of it is this, the places you are going are amazing, so barring a horrible guide or mechanical failure you are going to have a good time.

A little more advice is to book at least a 3 day tour (longer if you can) as while the salt flats are incredible, in many ways some of the lakes up in the mountains are even more impressive. To come all this way and not see them would be a great shame.  If you’re headed to Chile next as well both the three and four day tours can finish with a transfer to SanPedro de Atacama, a great place to start your Chilean adventure.

Wandering through the streets of Uyuni we stop in at a few different agencies, though we find Betto tours, the company I went with last time closed.  Sadly we end up breaking my third rule and take a deal from a woman named Fatima on the street corner who brings us to her office and sells us a four day tour for 875 Bolivianos (165 CAD) (not including 140 Bolivianos in National park fees) after some hard bargaining.  Sadly we didn’t look up hr company online and so it comes to pass that we are standing on the street corner at 11:30 am the next day, half an hour after our appointed meeting time with no sign of her.  We ask many of the other tour operators who try to call her but know nothing about it and can only say she’s not picking up and suggest we go to the tourist police.  Great!

At 11:50 just as we’re about to give up a woman shows up and tells us to follow her and she’ll bring us to Fatima.  I try over and over gain to get an explanation of what has happened but she is very good at deflecting my questions. Either way she shows us to the bus station and Fatima outside a small tourist agency with one swiss guy named Janosch waiting like us. She also offers no explanation at first saying a jeep will be here soon. Eventually I get out of her that the english couple and dutch person who were supposed to accompany us have had massive bus delays so she’s been scrambling to organize something for us.  Honestly, I’m pretty sure it was all bullshit, but by about 12:30 we’re piling into a Lexus SUV and headed out to our first stop on the tour, the Train Grave Yard 20 minutes outside the center of Uyuni.

It might not be going smoothly, but I’m just relieved it’s going and as I climb up onto the top of some of the ancient and rusting trains, something I didn’t have time to do last time, my worries melt away and Sara Janosch and I enjoy the beautiful views and fascinating ancient Iron Giants.

It’s only about a 15 minute stop but we make the most of it heading to the railroad tracks which stretch out across the endless desert and the all enveloping blue sky.  I swear the skies in South Western Bolivia are some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen, and this holds just about everyday of the year or at least all 7 days I’ve spent there.

We head back to our jeep only for our driver to tell us we’re switching cars and drivers, our bags having already been transferred.  This time in to a Toyota Land cruiser, but for now at least there’s still only the three of us, so the space is ample. We speed out towards the edge of the Salt Flats and through the small town at their outer limit, past it and off the main road to some sort of fancier hotel.  Our driver tells us he’ll only be a second and ducks into the hotel for about 20 minutes.  When we finally go in to get him we find out we’re getting two new passengers who also we’re expecting a different program.  Luckily during the wait some Vicuna’s wander by to entertain us, and our two new passengers are very friendly Brazilians, one of whom speaks more french than Spanish or English, which gives me a chance to practice my French, something I’m in dire need of after more than a year of Spanish every day.

From the hotel we eventually get going again and speed out onto the Salt Flats proper, our first stop at the Dakar monument and salt museum where we’ll be eating lunch.  Even though I’ve already been on the flats, it remains hard for me to fathom just how vast, flat, and glowing white they really are.  I feel like it’s my first visit all over again and as we walk past the salinated pool of water (don’t wash your face in it)  to the collection of flags, I’m lost in the feeling of Awe this world seems able to constantly provide me.

From here after a hearty and tasty lunch we climb back in the car and drive through the vast expanse of white until the driver stops and tells us it’s time to take our standard salt flat photos.  We try lots of different things, but sadly many don’t turn out and I once again find I’ve gone too complicated with some ideas, wasting time and not accomplishing what I hoped to.  Still we did get some good ones.

As we pile back into the car I do notice how strange it feels to have to tour start at the salt flats, coming from Chile back in may they were the grand finale, and the reversal is strange.  As we drive along the perfect flatness for what seems like forever I end up dozing in and out of sleep until we pull up at the edge of the flats.  Before us is a narrow moat like body of water between the edge of the salt flats and the rising landmass in front of us, crowned by one of the most impressive volcanic craters I’ve ever seen.  In the lagoon are some flamingoes, and on the grass behind them some Llamas.  It really couldn’t get much more perfect.

Eventually we’re called back to the car and drive up onto the land mass for a few minutes pulling up outside a hotel.  Janosch Sara and I are told we will be spending the night here, while the Brazilians will head back to Uyuni.  Our driver tells us he will be back with us around 2 pm the next day and suggests we climb up the volcano tomorrow morning, and tells us we’re free to do whatever we want.  This is another ancient from poor planning on behalf of the tour company, and while it does have some costs (higher individual price for the path up to the volcano)  so much free time alongside the salt flats feels like an incredible gift.  Oh and the little hotel had some amazing murals in the dining area.

After a brief repose Janosch Sara and I decide to head out for a walk towards the flats and emerge out onto the fields which fringe the flats to find about 50 Lamas and a small family of wild vicuna grazing.  We’re accompanied by a friendly and brave little white dog from the hostel who sticks close to us, clearly a little nervous around the Llamas.  As always seems to happen in South Western Bolivia, we take way too many pictures.

Eventually we pull Sara away from the Llamas and head out along the road through the stone gateway which lets us out onto the salt flats.  We’re immediately greeted by some flamingoes taking flight and landing in front of us, and I’m able to capture some photos I’m pretty proud of.  It’s funny, Ive seen a lot of Flamingoes in the past year, but no matter what, I don’t seem to get sick of these bizarre looking birds.

As we continue out further onto the flats we also find the family of Vicuna has left the grass behind and instead our headed out into the endless abyss of the salt.  I find myself wondering where they are headed as I snap a few more photos.

We continue further and further from land as the sun sinks low in the sky and the temperature starts to drop.  Our puppy friend courageously stay with us despite visibly shivering as we marvel at the endless changing colours of the sky.  It’s quite a show, the sun behind us bouncing off the endless whiteness, light lilac hues intertwining with pinks and oranges above the distant mountains on the horizon.

As the sun fades lower, touching the rocky tops of the closer mountains behind us the sky gives way to the electric orange of a proper sunset, and despite the ever growing cold we cannot force ourselves to head back yet, utterly enthralled by nature’s spectacle.

This entry has been immensely photo heavy, but believe me I trimmed my selection carefully from the over 800 photos I took in one day, and it’s just too hard to narrow it down further.  Eventually our shivering combined with our Puppy friends clear discomfort forces us to start back towards the hostel, but just before we reach the gate off the salt flats we get one more amazing set of views, the orange sky reflecting off the shallow moat of water between the salt and the land, glowing like liquid gold held up to a roaring fire.  We can’t help but stop and snap more photos, even Janosch, who takes very few photos is snapping away by this point.

We head back to the hostel and eat a tasty if simple dinner before deciding to take one more walk out towards the flats, to see the night sky.  It’s bitterly cold and despite wrapping up in all of our warmest stuff we don’t make it all that far, luckily since the town is tiny and barely uses any light at night, we don’t need to, and the blackness above is illuminated by countless tiny sparkling gems in the distance.  I test out my camera and manage an okay night sky photo, but I suspect it’s capable of better once I get to know it’s inner workings.

Sara and Janosch succumb to the cold before I do heading back to the hostel and leaving me alone in the night.  I linger a good while always staring up.  One thing’s for sure, there’s nothing like staring up at an incredible night sky in some strange corner of the world to make you realize just how small you are, or maybe better to think of it in terms of how big the universe is and how many wonders it must hold that may forever remain out of our reach.  Its why I love travel though, I’m trying to see as many of these incredible places as I can, and I revel in the knowledge that there will always be a brand new page to turn to.