The Salt Flat in Bolivia

With the nostalgic train “Expreso del Sur”, we embark on a unique journey through the Bolivian Altiplano to Uyuni.

 

It is not a luxurious tourist train and the trip costs only $11 for 9 hours. The vehicle has a special charm but moves slowly and sways through the lands. Long-distance trains are a dying breed in South America, buses are generally faster and cheaper nowadays.

From Uyuni, we begin an epic 3-day tour in a jeep through fantastic landscapes: salt flats, cactus islands, lagoons with flamingos, hot springs, and geysers.

We are lucky with our group; everyone is very nice: a young British woman, a South Korean flight attendant living in Hong Kong, and a teacher couple from Cuxhaven.

On the outskirts of Uyuni, we first stop at the iconic railway graveyard where decommissioned trains rust away.

 

The salt flat “Salar de Uyuni” is the largest salt pan in the world, formed 10,000 years ago by the drying up of a lake.

With a width of 110 km and a length of 140 km, the “Salar” is massive. The salt forms a massive surface, beneath which lies water up to about 200 m deep. Currently, lithium is also being mined alongside salt, with the help of the Chinese.

We quickly realize that, in addition to Argentina, Bolivia is also in a crisis. Due to the power struggle between former President Morales and current President Luis Acre, there are supply bottlenecks. Morales' supporters keep blocking several transport routes. Gasoline is scarce, so our driver had to wait 4 days at the gas station to get fuel 🙉 We are glad that we can make the tour!

The salt flat offers very creative opportunities to play with perspective in photos.

 

We climb the cactus island in the middle of the salt lake, an unreal place!

On the second day, it gets intense. We drive all day from one natural spectacle to the next and finally land in the evening at an altitude of 4200 m. There is so much to see: several lagoons in bright colors, flamingos, endless desert landscapes, green stripes in the barren surroundings, populated by llamas, Dalí rocks.

 

The 3rd day is also the day of our return journey, we spend a good 7 hours in the off-road vehicle and are infinitely glad when we arrive back in Uyuni. During the trip, we particularly struggled with heat and extreme dust. The enormous altitude also had an effect. But there is hardly a more beautiful tour to admire so many natural wonders at once 🤩

To round off, we are taking a star sunrise photo tour the very next night. Thanks to the optimal conditions in the salt flat, we can admire the Milky Way. We almost made a detour to the neighboring Atacama Desert but believe that the starry sky there is not that much different.