Uyuni Salt Flats and Sucre

After a bumpy night on the Bolivian roads we arrived in dusty Uyuni; not a particularly attractive place but the point from which we would embark on our 3 day salt flat tour. So on Saturday 21st November we clambered aboard a Toyota Landcruiser with 4 other Brits and made our way to the world's largest salt flats.

Our first stop was the Train Graveyard, self explanatory really, a load of rusty old trains sitting out in the Bolivian desert. Dave had great fun climbing all over them , until he smashed his flip flopped toe on a rock and proceeded to bleed profusely.

After some arty black and white shots and some walking on rail tracks it was back in to the jeep and we were heading to a salt processing plant on the edge of the flats.


It's a good job that they have 14,000 square kilometres of the stuff as they only get 10 Bolvianos (about 80p) per 50kg that they produce, absolutely crazy!

After lunch and some exploration of Isla Incawasi, an island of fossilised coral now covered in cacti rather than water, we attempted to produce some hilarious salt flat photos. Unfortunately we were all rubbish at setting up the shots and on the whole failed miserably to get any which actually worked; this one below is about the best!

Great fun trying to do them though and a very enjoyable journey to our first night's accommodation, a salt hotel. If they can't sell the stuff for a decent price they'll make everything they possibly can out of it; the beds, the tables, the walls.


Day 2 of our tour took us away from the saltiness and introduced us to a whole range of different Bolivian landscapes. From desert first thing to a lava filled landscape next, we were realising that Bolivia is an incredible place, full of surprises.

There were 3 lagoons on the agenda today Flamingo lagoon, Stinky lagoon and Red lagoon. Guess which one we stopped to have lunch at?


Filled with a tasty lunch of Llama meat we made our way across the Siloli desert, the world's highest and driest according to our guide Oscar, taking in the ever changing landscape as we sped along. The next time we stepped out of the jeep it was like a hurricane had hit, the sand whipped painfully against our legs and it was easy to imagine how the surrounding rocks had been blasted in to the strange shapes. This one is called 'El Arbol de piedra', the stone tree and I lasted about 2 more seconds in this position before dashing back to the safety of the Landcruiser.

Our 3rd day started extremely early so that we could see the fumaroles (like a geyser but emitting steam and gases not water) at their volcanic best. It was incredible to wander through the steam and peer into the pools of bubbling volcanic mud and all before breakfast.

So, due to all this volcanic activity, handily, just down the road there is a set of hot springs ready and waiting for groups of grubby, salty tourists to jump in to and enjoy the sunrise. We did just that and it was a magnificent ending to an un-Bolivia-ble few days.

Having dropped half of our merry band off at the Chilean border we made the long journey back up to Uyuni, taking in a few more jaw-dropping sights on the way.

And just to break up up the monotony of beautiful lakes, amazing landscapes and amusingly shaped rocks, there were several 'dust devils' thrown in to keep us on our toes.

After the extremes of the Uyuni tour we made our way back up north to Bolivia's constitutional capital Sucre. A gorgeous colonial city where we enjoyed a couple of days of relaxation and extremely cheap food, beer and colourful fruit; before moving on to Brazil.