Salar de Uyuni

To make our way from Chile into Bolivia we opted to go via a 3-day overland jeep tour, which would take us over 5000m high passes into the altiplano of Bolivia and to the famed salt flats "Salar de Uyuni".

We ended up sharing a 4x4 jeep with a lovely swiss couple from Bern and together with our guide Felix and the amazing cook Lydia we explored some of the most desolate landscapes we have ever come across. We saw huge expanses of dry, sandy deserts, blue/white and even pink coloured lagoons, lots of flamingos and of course, one of the most iconic inhabitants of this region... the llamas. Fluffy and curious looking with colourful tags in their fur (we are assuming to mark them to whichever farmer they belong) they provided us with some great photo opportunities.

The natural hot springs we stopped at were crowded with tourists, who were on the exact same itinerary as us, which detracted from the experience somewhat, but still nice to have a quick dip in the hot water with the outside air temperature close to 0°C.

We slept at some basic accomodations, including a salt hotel (built entirely out of salt, even the bed), the food provided by our own cook was surprisingly varied, fresh and very yummy. Sleeping at an altitude of 4300m and going over 5000m during the day caused us all to have rather sleepless nights, headaches and shortness of breath. Because the temperatures dropped below 0°C at night and there was no heating and very poor insulation, we were crouched in our thermal underwear under a ton of woolen blankets, trying to get warm, but had to stick our heads out of our little forts occasionally for the feeling of being able to take a full breath and take in some oxygen.

All of these minor hardships were quickly forgotten once we were on the road again, especially when we finally reached the famous Salar de Uyuni. The worlds largest salt flats, which depending on the season can be flooded with water and create a mirrorlike effect. For us, we found the flats completely dry, but the huge distances combined with the absolute flatness and the feeling of a huge void still created some stunning visuals and optical illusions.

One of my favourite spots to date on our travels turned out to be the "Islita", an island filled with huge cacti in the middle of the salt expanse, where we arrived super early to witness the sunrise. Colour like we had rarely seen before.

To round of the trip, we visited the Anaconda river snaking through a huge canyon, the black lagoon with fresh ice coverings on the marshland leading up to it, a small, desolated village in the middle of nowhere housing 5 families, and the train graveyard in the town of Uyuni.

After the official tour finished we caught a ride with the tourguide to his hometown and our final destination, Tupiza.