Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

SALAR DE UYUNI - THE LARGEST SALT DESERT IN THE WORLD

 

Day 1 - Train Cemetary

 

From Sucre we took an 8 hour bus ride to Uyuni, the desert town bordering the salt flats. Not much in this town, just a jumping off point to see some spectacular views in the desert. Our first stop on our tour was an old train cemetary, where decades old train and train parts have been left to rust in the desert sun.

Gotta get the workout in

Swing time on the train

Cory and Fabio (our Italian friend)

Great day to ride a train

The train conductor

                                                                                 Train boneyard

 

Next we visited the salt museum and learned how the salt was processed. After that we had lunch by mounds of salt, the salt is raked into mounds for ease of pickup and transportation. We also visited a spot where there were a bunch of flags put there by fellow travelers, no USA flags though, we shoulda brought one had we known. We then had a chance to take some cool photos with a beautiful desert backdrop. After the photos, we visited Inca Huasi (Fish Island) to see the giant cacti and have great views of the salt flats all around.

                                                                         Tastes like salt

                                                                    The salt mounds

                                                                                 Not too comfortable

                                                                                 Come on America!

Other worldly

 

                                                                             Our 4runner and our crew

                                                                                         "It´s this big!"

                                                                  She´s got the whole world in her hand

                                                                                       JUMP JUMP

                                                               Lost some weight (and height) on this trip

We knew there was still dinosaurs on Earth

 

Fish Island

                                                                                        Big ol´cacti

                                                                 The salt flats around us

                                                                             Our first night in a salt hotel

                                                                      Even the table is made out of salt

 

Day 2

 

The next day we drove through the Chuguana desert past some extinct volcanoes and the semi active Ollague volcano. We then had a lunch by a laguna where there were a ton of flamingoes, in the middle of the dessert! Crazy! After lunch we drove to the "tree of rock", then onto our final destination of the day, Laguna Colorada. Laguna Colorada was an amazingly colored red lake, there we slept in a dorm for the night.

                                                                                   Lamas in the desert

                                                                             "Train keeps a rollin"

                                                                                    Ollague volcano

                                                                                Flamingos in the laguna

National Geographic, here I come!

 

Just like Florida

 

                                                                                          Tree of Rock

                                                                                  Future tumbleweed

                                                                                 Laguna Colorada

                                                                          Not a bad view for the night

                                                                          Last night in the salt flats

Day 3

 

The last day we woke up at 4am to get an early start, but boy was it cold. -7 celcius that morning, brr!Our first stop was "Sol de Mañana" geysers to see the bubbling mud pools and the steam jets. After the geysers we continued on to some much needed hot springs for a dip. Warmed up now, we headed to the "Dali desert" and onto our final destination of the tour, Laguna Verde (Green Lake). We arrived at the Bolivia-Chile border around 10am and made it to San Pedro, Chile in the Atacama Desert around 12pm. Chile updates to come!!!!!

 

                                                                                         Steam jet

                                                                        Kinda smells like rotten eggs

                                                                              Bubbling mud pools

                                                                                      Dali´s inspiration

 

                                                                                      Laguna Verde

                                                                                Last pic in Bolivia