Uyuni Salt Flats

The Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia are a highlight of anyone’s trip to South America . When Charmaine, Steve, Roxana and I reach the Agency (La Torre Tours) with whom we booked the tour The 4X4 is waiting for us already loaded with 4 days provisions, cooking equipment and two 150 litres barrels of diesel for refueling.

Only a 4x4 will do

Delvira and her assistant Jeremy (from  South Africa) introduce us to Isabel and Vicente who will be our guide/driver/cook/companions for the next 4 days. Vicente is in his early forties and he is a very nice gentleman whose calm and secure driving reassures us straight away. Isabel, the cook is a very sweet lady. A mother of 5, she must be in her fifties.She is always trying to make us laugh with a joke or two. 

The sense of imenseness is humbling

We stop right at the edge of town because she spotted one of her daughters with her two children. She picks up her grandson whose head is shaved just like mine, and to our great surprise the little boy of 2, point s to my head and exclaims “Coco Manzana!” (which means: Apple Head!).

The twin volcanoes are quite a sight

We set off in high spirits and don’t have to wait more than 5 minutes before the scenery gets spectacular. We drive through impressive valleys and high plateaus, along dried river beds and breathtaking ridges. We speed past Llamas (domesticated)  and Vicuñas (wild).

Vicente has identified the origin of the problem

Then at some point Vicente stops the Jeep because his wheel was stiffening. He checks and discovers that we are losing hydraulic fluid for the power steering. Vicente syphons the remaining hydraulic fluid in a container, finds the leak, repairs it and refills the circuit. He turns on the vehicle and tests the wheel: everything works perfectly. We climb back on board and set off. It turns out Vicente is a mechanic by trade!

Isabel getting everything ready

Next stop is for lunch. Isabel labors around and quickly sets up our meal. It’s hot food: chicken in gravy, salad and pasta. Yummy. In the afternoon we continue driving amidst more incredible scenery.

Lago Verde (Green Lake)

In the next few days we visit Lago Verde (the Green Lake) which changes colour from almost black in the morning to a greyish green due to temperature change and speed of wind. We also visit the Lago Colorado (The Coloured Lake) which turns to a brick red colour in the afternoon. We’ll also visit lakes with thousands of pink flamingos and swim in thermal bath coming down from the volcanoes.Some other highlights are the Arbol de Piedras (The Rock Tree) and the geisers which were spurting out toxic fumes and boiling mud.

Hot water springs at 35°C - Air is at 8°C

The red lake - quite biblical really

Geisers of toxic fumes

From 3 metres deep to only "flakes" now

We are hoping the "tree" does not tip over

Pink Flamingoes with a jaw dropping background

Amazing sunrise in this special place

The accommodation (as we have been warned)  is very basic during this tour: hardly any running water and  electricity for only a couple of hours at night. The temperature after sunset plummets in the desert. The coldest night we spent was the eve of the Uyuni Salt flats and it must have been -5°C outside because it was just above zero in our room. We had plenty of covers and a thick sleeping bag. We managed to scrape through the night and had a 4.30am rise to see the sunrise on the flats.

Gazing over the huge spans of the flats

We drove over the Uyuni Salt flats which are the biggest in the world. It is 12.000km² (that’s 6 times the size of Mauritius) and  is between 40cm to 1m thick with salt. The people around the flats “harvest” the salt and send it off to the rest of Bolivia for domestic consumption. One can purchase a  50kg bag of salt here for 12Bs (that is 1.20€)!!!

Roxana in equilibrium on a nescafé pot

It is truly  breathtaking. Such a huge spans of immaculate white salt surface. We readily start our photo shoot session with all the props we brought along with us.  When we return we are tired but filled with a sense of accomplishment.  


For more pictures of the tour : Uyuni Salt Flats

To see us having fun with the props : Salt Flats With Props

On Isabel's braids

50kg of salt for 1.20€

Changing a tyre after 4 days of battering