Introduction
Formed as a result of the transformations that created the Andes mountains and the drying of a large prehistoric salt lake (Lake Minchin), the salt flats of Uyuni are the larger salt flats of the world covering an area of over a million hectares. This exceptionally flat area for is covered by a crust of salt a few meters deep that covers a pool of brine exceptionally rich in lithium.
They are located on the southwest of Bolivia, in the Potosi region of the country and have become a major touristic spot. From one to three day tours depart daily from Uyuni or Tupiza. Tourism is the first economic activity of the region followed by llama meat exporting (to countries such as China, for example) and mining (tin, silver and gold).
- Day 1: Uyuni to Agencha
Meeting at 10:30 at the tour operator’s office where our tour guide Lucio briefly explained the itinerary of the three day tour through the salt flats to the south of Bolivia near the border with Chile.
Our first stop was in the train graveyard in the outskirts of Uyuni where the oldest trains of Bolivia can be found, English machines dating from 1895 and working till the 1950’s.
Back in its day, Uyuni was a major train hub that connected all parts of the country in a vast train network. The train company was later privatized and nowadays only exist the train line that connects the south with the north of the country.
From the graveyard, we went to small Bolivian town of Colchani where there is the salt processing plant where the salt from the salt flats is dried (as is humid), iodized on special machines and the sold for its consumption. They gave us a small packet of salt as a gift after the tour to the salt processing plant (10 Bolivian per person).
We entered into the salt flats themselves soon after leaving Colchani. A wide white expanse stretched in front of us with its mirror-like surface and mirages and optical effects. In fact, we ate near a hotel made out of salt bricks, near the monument dedicated to the Dakar rally.
The high plateau where the salt flat is located was formed about 50000 years ago together with the formation of the Andes mountains. For a period of time there was a huge salt lake in the area where corals grew, nowadays evidence of this geological past can be found in its 73 islands of petrified coral. Some of them, like Incahuasi Island, were once volcanoes.
Once we went deeper into the salt flats, the natural hexagonal formations of the salt crystals appeared everywhere, as far as the eye could see. We drove through the salt flats for 1 hour to reach Incahuasi Island, stopping on the way in the area of the salt where there was water (it was the rainy season) for some interesting and funny photos due to the mirror reflection of the water and the salt. At a given point it even looked like we were floating on the sky.
We arrived to Incahuasi Island, a former inactive volcano that consists of petrified corals, close to sunset. The island is home to a native species of large cactus. From the highest point of the island we could see the SUV floating on the mirror surface of the salt flats. It was truly spectacular.
The Inca arrived to Incahuasi Island in the height of their power and crossed the salt flats of Uyuni to reach San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. In fact, Incahuasi means Inca house in Quechua.
We stopped one last time on the salt flats to watch the sunset and make a funny video of the group. Then we drove all the way to our first accommodation near the border with Chile, where we had dinner.
- Day 2: Agencha to Chiguana
We took of early towards the south driving on off-road paths through quinoa and potato fields until we reached a salt desert in the high plateau at 3900 meters of altitude. This was a muddy, soil desert interspersed with white patches of salt.
We stopped at the entry of the National park with its fantastic coral formations and small bushes. In this area live red and black vipers, scorpions, Andes’ fox, ostriches and pumas.
Like the Uyuni salt flats, this area was formed thousands of years ago in the tectonic transformations that created the mountains. Long ago, it was a large salt lake where coral reefs lived. When it dried out, the strong winds left their mark, as can be seen from the inclination of the petrified corals.
We ascended slowly on the arid flats of the national park, getting closer and closer to the Chile and Bolivia border. This was the region Bolivia lost to Chile in the late 19th century and is still a sore point for them because now they no longer have access to the sea.
From there, we drove around the semi-dormant Ollague volcano (partly in Bolivia and partly in Chile) to reach the lava fields where the viewpoint is located. There we saw muña, a medicinal plant that helps with altitude sickness, and rock-like yague, a good anesthetic also used for rheumatism.
Up the mountain we went, on a bumpy off-road path that climbed the semi-arid hills of the Occidental Andes. The Andes mountain range is divided into the Oriental Andes (from Peru to Oruro in Bolivia, a verdant landscape full of life that gets rain) and the Occidental Andes (from Oruro all the way to Chile, much drier as the winds push the clouds away).
We continued on the bumpy path for one hour until we arrived to the first of two small lakes in the high plateau, lagoon Cañapa, a shallow wetland where lives a colony of flamingos. We had lunch on two small lakes while watching the flamingos and then walked for 10 minutes around the lake for some excellent photos of the birds.
Much like lagoon Cañapa, lagoon Hedionda (stinky lake) is a shallow wetland with a sulfur smell, hence it’s name. Underneath the lagoons there is geothermal activity that favors the growth of microorganisms that feed the flamingos.
We stopped one last time in the lagoon area at a viewpoint where we could see the Lagoon Honda. So far we had been traveling through a semi-arid area with small bushes all around, but as we turned towards the inactive volcano, we entered the windy Siloe desert.
Kilometers and kilometers of brown soil surrounded by high mountains, the Siloe desert is at 4600 meters of altitude. Our road crossed this windy and cold desert until we saw a rock formation where live the viscachitas, a large rodent that looks like chinchillas.
We kept going on the desert, stopping on some fantastic volcanic rock formations in the middle of the area to take some photos. But we stayed just for a short time as the wind was very cold. We entered the Eduardo Avaroa park about 40 minutes later, and after registering we went towards the last stop of the day: the red lagoon.
The red lagoon is a normal lagoon on the morning until the sun hits the phosphites that change the color of the lagoon to red. The phosphites are a great food source for the microorganisms that feed the flamingos. The lagoon used to be bigger but global warming is drying it up.
From the red lagoon we went directly to our second accommodation. It had been a long but interesting day.
- Day 3: Chiguana to San Pedro de Atacama (Chile)
The dark starry night greeted us when we left the accommodation with the goal of seeing the sunrise on the geysers farther south. The sky lightened slowly as we kept climbing the Andes hills of the Eduardo Avaroa park.
The dry brown hills gave way to a rugged landscape of greys, reds and yellows surrounded by the vents at 5000 meters of altitude. Small holes and large craters filled with a bubbling watery grey mud, an extreme landscape ideal for photos. We stayed at the geysers fields until the sun had risen.
Not far away from the geysers, at 4900 meters there were some hot springs, product of the same geothermal activity that creates the geysers. The locals had built two pools in the mountain to collect the hot water and it costs 6 bolivianos per person to use them. We were still cold from the freezing morning, so we decided against bath. Instead we walked around taking photos.
We kept getting closer to the border to Chile, but first we crossed a desert surrounded by colorful mountains, called Dali desert because of the colors Dali used on some of its most famous compositions. There we recorded some funny videos making use of the perspective.
Our final stop in the national park Eduardo Avaroa was the green lagoon that contains arsenic and copper. It only appears green when it is windy but the lagoon is beautiful nonetheless.
This was both our last day of the tour and our last day in Bolivia. Our driver took us to the border between Bolivia and Chile where the tour guide helped us with the Bolivian migration office. Most of the group, like us, was taking a bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.
Exiting Bolivia coated us 15 bolivianos per person and it was an easy process. More cumbersome was getting into Chile as they are very strict on what can be entered into their country. It took a while as the officers checked every single piece of luggage but we finally retook the trip down to San Pedro.
