Salt licking wilderness adventures

Potosí and its rich mountain are only half the story. Part two - and the main reason for the trip to Bolivia - was a family trip with Hansi's dad and sister.

The two of them were on a 4-week South America discovery trip, where we met them as close to Paraguay as possible to travel together to Asunción. The closest stop was the largest salt flat in the world, the Salar de Uyuni, in southwestern Bolivia, pretty close to the end of the world. So it was a fortunate coincidence and a wonderful opportunity to travel to meet them and also delay the visa issue and add a new entry date to Paraguay...

The desert is actually a desert and surrounded by such spectacular expanses that you can only visit this piece of land with a tour, so we booked a 3-day tour of the salt flat from Asunción. The night before, we met Hansi's sister and dad in Uyuni, the city of the same name. You can imagine the reunion, the first time after a few months, somewhere in Bolivia, both of them had a lot to tell about their trip, we had a lot to tell about our life here, and we were all extremely excited about the coming days, really nice!

A little spoiler: :)

Our tour started with a small group gathering and the cheerful words of our guide that "Everything is possible, nothing sure" during the tour. Okay, you can't be lied to here :D So our tour started with a typical delay and a lot of changes in the plan, which finally led to a super nice addition to the group with a family from French Guiana and a nice Australian couple on a 1-year trip in America as fellow travelers in the jeep.

As the first destination and the opening, we visited the old train cemetery. Bolivia was one of the first South American countries to have a functioning railway system for transporting minerals such as salt and silver. And now you can see them in their final resting place, partly decorated with graffiti, partly marred, in any case a huge playground and photo opportunity with a lot of artistic potential.

Climbing training ground

Then we went directly to the salt flat and you can't really imagine it: everything is white except for the mountains on the horizon, just like a desert, but made of salt. The ground is relatively hard and stretches completely flat to the mountains or the horizon. Incredibly beautiful!

And it was in this spectacular landscape that we had a picnic, with no one else in sight. The desert used to be a lake that dried up, and so there is an island in the middle of the white, with a small hill and covered with giant cacti. The perfect place for a spectacular sunset walk. By the way, it should be mentioned that the whole tour takes place at an altitude of 3800-4800m, crazy how short of breath you get while walking.

We stayed overnight in a hotel partly made of salt, at temperatures below 0°C and with no heating. After the heat in Paraguay, it was quite a change. To counteract this, we stayed sitting after dinner, drinking wine and making friends with the kitchen staff. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of the long-awaited hot shower, as the warm water was gone by the time we went to bed... Well, actually, no one expected to be able to shower on the tour :D

You can't see it very well, but the floor was covered with about 2 cm of coarse salt... perhaps for slippery surface prevention?

For the next two days, we said goodbye to the salt flat and drove through the impressive neighboring highlands.

Seemingly endless railway tracks that stretch to the horizon

also offer a nice photo playground

Lots of dust, even more wind, some colorful lagoons, long drives, and flamingos that couldn't look more in place in this area. Fun fact, the flamingos are pink even though they don't have any crayfish to eat, something's not right...

The highlight on the second (veeeeery cold) evening were hot springs next to the inn. At 4500m, with -10°C and strong winds, the 100m back and forth were quite a challenge. We were rewarded with a breathtaking starry sky, warm water, and peaceful tranquility. Well, until about 20 drunk tourists arrived with headlamps, speakers, and shouting, and we decided to dash back to the hotel for some peace and quiet.

Hansi was quite jealous of the headgear

You could almost get blown away during the 30-second stop at the sulfur springs.

The last day was characterized by a lot of driving, but with a great lunch stop with llamas.

Hola Guapo!

Back in Uyuni, we were confronted with the ongoing unrest in Sucre, so we decided to go to Santa Cruz instead. A very last-minute decision, bought 2 bottles of wine and sausage sandwiches, and off to the night bus. Ari fell asleep quickly as always, and Hansi had to pass the evening with three and a half Undisputed sequels (a fighter movie of moderate level) :D. The good thing is that you can understand the movies excellently in Spanish too!

In Santa Cruz, we found that the city itself doesn't offer much tourist potential, so we made trips to the nearby surroundings before heading back to Asunción in two days. The rainforest starts right near Santa Cruz, and within an hour you can completely leave the city behind and enjoy deep green, hills that remind the untrained eye of the landscape around Machu Picchu (or how we imagine it), and simply nature!

and on adventures

Then we all flew back to Asunción together to give Hansi's sister and dad an insight into our life here. Fortunately, we arrived just in time for the national holiday, which greatly improved sightseeing in Asunción! On the first evening, we all had Paraguayan delicacies and strolled through the city center, where a huge festival with live music, Paraguayan dances, a market, and absurdly large cocktails to go was organized! It was clear that we had to go there again the next day!

Making Asunción sightseeing easy

During these days, in addition to sightseeing, if that's possible, we spent time doing everything else that you need to do if you want to see our life here: a magnificent asado at casa asadito with Oscar and Lidia, with Vale and Oscarcito, a pasta lunch loaded with eggs at our current family's house (with the whole family gathered), and a visit to Pofi at our workplace.

Asado at Oskar's and family with welcome gifts for the visitors

So it was a crowning finale for this family gathering! Thank you again for visiting us, we were thrilled that everything worked out and we enjoyed the trip and your visit tremendously!!

Asunción is waiting for the next visitors ;)