As today is a holiday in La Paz, we decided to take Monday off and make a long weekend trip. We left on Friday night and took a 12-hour bus ride to Uyuni. From Uyuni we hopped in a jeep with a tour guide and did a 3-day, 2-night tour of Salar de Uyuni.
I had known that the tour of Salar de Uyuni would include the largest salt flats in the world, but I was pleasantly surprised with everything else the tour included.
Day One
First we were whisked off to the train cemetery. The trains used to be used to carry minerals from the salt flats but were abandoned around the 1940s. Now it is basically a giant playground for tourists.
We then ventured off into the big bad world of the salt flats. I had previously been to the salt flats in Argentina, and I was a little unsure that I wanted to do the salt flat thing again. However, these salt flats are almost twice as big, and once we were there I was definitely not disappointed. We also enjoyed a delicious lunch of quinoa, llama steak, and veggies while sitting on the salt flats.
We began driving again, seemingly off into nowhere. Suddenly, we came across an island of cacti called Incahuasi. It makes sense that there would be islands since the salt flats were originally prehistoric lakes, but I was not expecting it at all.
After Incahuasi, we drove off toward the location where we would stay the first night, stopping once more on the salt flats to enjoy the sunset.
The first night we stayed in a hostel made of salt. The floor, bricks, beds, tables, and chandeliers were all made of salt. It was so cool!
Day Two
We left early in the morning to head out toward our destinations for the day. First we hit up a series of cool lagunas. What really blew my mind were the lakes filled with flamingos. Never in my life did I picture flamingos living in an ice-covered lake in Bolivia.
We also spent a good amount of time playing on rock formations. It was the strangest thing: we would drive for about 45 minutes listening to 90s techno music, and then our driver, Ronald, would say, "Ok, you have 15 minutes here." We were always absolutely amazed with where we had ended up.
The second night was the coldest I had ever been in my entire life, but it was absolutely worth it. The hostel was located at least 15,000 feet above sea level, and our tour guide said the temperature gets to -25 degrees Celsius at night.
Our hostel had electricity from 7-9pm, which was fine because we had to wake up at 4:30am to be on our way in the morning. I slept in a sleeping bag underneath blankets in layers upon layers of clothes, gloves and a hat, and my toes were still freezing. But we woke up in the morning to tea, pancakes with dulce de leche, and yogurt with granola, so even though my body hated me my belly was happy.
Day Three
In the morning we stepped outside the hostel and there were more stars than I had ever seen. It made me feel so small, and it was so strange to think that if anyone had wanted to contact me during the weekend, there would be no way to contact me.
We made it to the geysers before sunrise. I had never seen geysers before, and I still don't really understand how they work. Even though my toes were freezing, walking around the geysers while the sun came up was soooo cool. It felt like we were on another planet.
After the geysers we drove around some more until we were at the border of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. Located at those borders is the Laguna Verde which really isn't verde anymore, but it was still awesome to think about where we were in the world.
Next we took a dip in some thermal springs, which finally warmed up our toes. It was amazing to be soaking in hot water and surrounded by steam and snow-covered mountains.
The rest of the third day was mostly spent driving back to Uyuni, where we were to catch our bus back to La Paz. We had a lot of ground to make up since we had been driving south for the past two days, but the amazing scenery made the long drive worth it.
We had the company of some sun-saluting llamas where we stopped for lunch.
We also came across some more awesome rock formations, which we climbed all over, of course.
The last hour and a half back to Uyuni definitely dragged on. We were tired, smelly (we hadn't showered or changed clothes in three days) and not really looking forward to the 12-hour bus ride ahead of us. But even while my toes were frozen and my nose was filled with dust, everything about our trip to Salar de Uyuni exceeded all of my expectations. I can't believe I have less than a month left in Bolivia. While I am ready to be back home, this trip has definitely left me recharged for the few weeks left we have here. Most importantly, traveling to this region has left me with more questions and curiosity about the world and the many strange places in it.
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