Day 48 - 50 / Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni

The first day, April 16, 2018

After we all repacked our luggage for the next three days in the desert, we were picked up by the car. The first stop was at a railway cemetery near the city. There were hundreds of rusty trains that you could climb over. If it weren't for the many other tourists, it would have been even more beautiful, but we'll probably have to get used to that in the next few days.

The next stop was in the salt desert, on the way there we drove through a completely water-covered area. The desert is snow-white and the ground is very flat. We were lucky to come during the rainy season but before the dry season, so we could still see the remnants of the water-covered desert as well as dry areas.

After a lunch break, we drove to Isla Incahuasi, a cactus island in the middle of the salt desert. The cacti here were sometimes more than twice as tall as me, unlike the ones at home that don't grow taller than my arm. It was cool to climb around the island among the cacti and rocks. From here we had a beautiful view of the kilometers of white around us.

The last point for today was a spot in the desert near the mountains, which was completely covered with water except for a road for cars. We watched the sunset here, which was beautifully reflected in the water. However, our drive through the water towards the only road for miles around failed. We got stuck in a particularly deep spot and with every attempt to continue driving, the rear part of the car sank deeper, luckily no water entered the car. We then walked the last two meters through the water to the land and watched from there as our car was pulled out by another one.

As it got dark (still no sign of the moon), we drove to our hotel. Probably nowhere else will you see the stars as well as here in the desert, kilometers away from the nearest city.

Our hotel was mostly made of salt, the floor was covered with salt grains and the wall was made of solid salt, which we all tried. Luxuriously, there were even showers with hot water, which we all took advantage of. The food is not bad, our driver Luis, who can't be older than us, always prepares it for us.

Although the tour started not at three in the morning but in the morning at half past ten for once, it was a long day and we all went to bed exhausted.

~Lenja

The second day of our tour started at half past 8 in the morning with breakfast. The tables and benches were made of salt stones, just like almost everything in the hotel. At 8 we were supposed to leave, but that was a bit difficult with only 3 tires on the car.. Obviously something had gone wrong with the brakes the day before. But our driver Luis was already busy repairing it. For us, that meant waiting. Unfortunately, there was nothing interesting to do or see in the hotel and surroundings anymore, and the next interesting place was 2 km away. Luckily, the hotel owner lent us his motorbike and each of us took turns riding it to pass the time. After just over 2 hours, everything was finally repaired and we were off. The first destination was a beautiful small lagoon with flamingos. Lunch was also served there.

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 The good thing about our breakdown was that we were almost always alone at all the places we went to and there were no other tourists, because we were always late. Next, we went to a larger lagoon with even more flamingos and salt islands. There were tall clumps of grass on the edge where mice and birds live.

 It was also very windy and we could see a mini dust tornado nearby.

 While driving further, we passed large rock formations and suddenly saw desert rabbits on the side of the road on a few rocks. Of course, we stopped immediately. The tourists who came before us and went that way had left leftovers (noodles and vegetables) and several desert rabbits and a small mouse were in the middle of eating. We could get very close to them and even feed them and touch them briefly. They were really cute! After 30 minutes we continued on our way.

 By the way, the landscape was also filled with volcanic rock everywhere, which looked like liquid cheese running down the rocks.

You could also see the volcanoes with their peaks covered in snow from time to time. The next stop was at the stone tree. It is a large rock formation that is thin at the bottom and thick at the top like a tree.

Finally, we arrived at the Red Lake, but we only took a brief look from the lookout point because it had become quite cold and windy by then.

 Right next to it was the entrance to the national park, where we paid the entrance fee. Then we went straight to the hostel, where there were no showers and only limited electricity. But there was a bottle of wine for dinner! 😂

~Velina

Day 3

Today we started at 5:00 a.m. First we went to the geysers, where hot steam shoots out of the ground with deafening noise, leaving behind a huge column of steam.

 It smelled very strongly of rotten eggs, probably sulfur, which is blown out of the ground. All of this was before the sunrise and the temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius.

We were really looking forward to the next stop, the hot springs.

Unfortunately, our SUV didn't really have heating. We were so cold that it was painful to go into the water. That's exactly what we needed. After a short adjustment period, the springs were just beautifully warm and relaxing. From the pool, you could watch the rising sun. When we sat at the edge of the pool after a while, with only our legs in the water, we got dizzy. Ideally, you should stay in the water for a maximum of 20 minutes, but we had more time. Our Italian travel companion really wanted to go to a remote lagoon, so we were left at the springs for about 2 hours, which was good for us.

We had lunch at a small farm in the middle of nowhere.

Then we headed back towards Uyuni. On the way, we stopped at the Valle de las rocas, an area with many unusually shaped rocks and stones.

 We had 30 minutes to climb around and take photos.

The last stop before Uyuni was San Cristobal, an old church in some small village. There were also many typical market stalls and local women who pressed fresh juice.

We arrived back in Uyuni around 5:00 p.m., grabbed a snack, and got on a bus to Potosi.

~Viktor