Bolivia: salar de uyuni 4wd roadtrip

Altiplano, Bolivia / Various / 1-5 days / 4WD Roadtrip

One of the most incredible places in the world. This world’s largest salt flat, also know as playa, is over 10,000 square kilometres in area, located in a high altitude of over 3500 meters.

The depth of the ancient lakes is at some points over 130 meters. These prehistoric lakes are covered by a few meter thick salt crust, which gives the unique feature of the area. The extraordinary flatness forms the flat into the world’s largest mirror when raining - and therefore you can choose to experience this surreal view of reflection, or travel across the playa during the dry season. Either way, it is a magnificent experience.

I wanted to experience three days long road trip across the flat, from Uyuni to the border of Chile, and further on to San Pedro de Atacama during my adventure across the South America just to make sure to get full experience of the flats. What a great way to relax after massive hikes in Peru by exploring the area with a 4WD road trip across the Bolivia.

There are also alternative for longer, as well shorter trips but I suggest you take at least few days for this to really have a chance to travel deep into the desert, out of the reach of town lights.

Arrival: Uyuni, bolivia

There are few ways to arrive to Uyuni. Probably the best, and the most cost effective way is to take a hop on hop off bus and explore the places along the way such as Lake Titikaka and floating islands. The total distance thou is over 1000 kilometres and if you are limited with time, you might choose a train or plane. Due my time restrictions and plans to complete such a variety of the activities and paces, I took a flight from Cusco to La Paz, and further on to Uyuni. There are not many flights available and therefore you have to consider breaking the trip inbox a two sections, and stay over night at the capital La Paz. I had a solid plan with fair amount of time between the transfer however even then, I had too run though the airport just to reach the gate on time due the delays in Cusco. This is fairly common issue in South America as I came to notice later on.

Uyuni is a small town with a population of 30 000, and is a gateway to the salt flats attracting thousands of visitors every year. I arrived early evening to explore this little gem before the next day’s tour. Just to add an extra experience, I stayed in a hotel made fully of salt. As the night settled in, I took a short walk around the town, exploring street markets and experiencing Bolivian street food cooked in a smoky bbq. Rustic yet of so delicious!

day 1: main salt flat

Early morning I packed all of my gear as I wasn’t going to come pack to Uyuni. To make most of time, I made a plan to cross the border and continue directly to Chile, instead of spending hours driving back to Uyuni.

I made my way to the tour office, where our little group was split into two. Last minute shopping for gear, pack the cars, and it was time to hit the road.

Before we reached to flats, we took a side tour to explore few sites along the way. First one was right at the edge of the town - train cemetery. These were used by mining industry on 1940s, and once it collapsed, the trains were abandoned to rot. The scenery is unreal, and few people have died while trying to capture that perfect insta shot. Next stop was to get familiar with salt. Yeah… that’s right, salt. Different kinds of salt, the usage, history of the salt industry of Bolivia and anything salt related. Who would have thought this would be as interesting as I found it hahah!

Just a little drive away the playa started to open up slowly wider and wider… pure white salt as fas as your eyes can see. It’s out of this world, no photo can prepare you what it is to be there in person. As the land marks slowly fade away, your mind is starting to lose its sense of perspective and the whole world become this dream like, oblivion. We stopped to take photos, absorb the scenery and just immerse with this nature’s wonder. I wasn’t prepared to this unreal experience at all. This is the place also to take those ‘dinosaur is hunting me’ or ‘do not step on me’ photos you probably have seen before. It was fun, and I started to imagine this place during the wet season, when it becomes this world largest mirror, where earth and sky merge without any visible horizon… Thing to add on to the bucket list!! I however wanted to travel across it, which wouldn't be possible during wet season.

Next stop - Isla Incahuasi. This hilly and rocky outcrop of land is in the middle of the flat. This ex island is filled with a massive cacti, and unusual coral-like structures and deposits often filled with fossils and algae. Why I keep on saying island you wonder? This is a top of ancient volcano which was submerged when the are was part of a prehistoric lake about 40000 years ago.

We spent few hours walking around the island, which turned out to be much longer as high altitude started to affect few members in our group, which had to be taken back to the last place, to further on to be taken back to the Uyuni to get medical help for their symptoms.

Luckily we were able to hop to other cars doing the same tour, and start our journey towards our first night’s accommodation. It was wild to see some people doing the crossing with their bicycles and camping on a flat itself. Now that is a true adventure of a lifetime! Maybe some day…

As the sun was settling for the night, we made a stop to witness this incredible beauty of the nature. Whole flat covered with gentle hue of ever changing soft colour. Once sun disappeared below the horizon, we continue the last hour of drive to the salt hotel for dinner and well earned rest. Who would have thought ever these little activities are taking such a toll in a high altitude. Now rest and sleep.

day 2: the lagunas

The second day seems to be packed with sights. Traveling thought the desserts, admiring rainbow colour mountains and visiting lagoon, then another one, and another while getting up and close with local wildlife, and top top it off active volcano in a distance.

The landscape of the Chuguana Desert is breathtaking as we continue to make our way towards the Chilean border (it’s a LOT of sitting in a car today but luckily we have breaks, and who would have thought car breakage would be such a welcoming issue just to get out of the car and immerse with the surrounding other than staring it through a car window) and to cross it over.

We stopped at a several lagoons filled with wildlife and birds, and especially flamingoes, however the most famous and memorable ones were red coloured Laguna Colorada (photo above). Another place I didn’t have no idea, coming out of the blue and making me to appreciate the uniqueness of Bolivia I had never heard of. And therefore not prepared either. Talking about trip which keeps on surprising nonstop….

As we arrive to the accommodation we are high up on an altitude of 4600 meters or so, my altitude sickness kicked in. I kept on waking up in the middle of the night as I stopped breathing, gasping air like I have just done a marathon, panicking how I am supposed to get my heart rate down as I am literally not doing anything. I thought I was all climatized after Peru and Salkantay Hike however this wasn’t the case. Maybe it was due being high altitude constantly - higher in fact than in Peru.

First of all, calm the heck down and concentrate, and it will pass. The night was long thou this happening every half hour. I knew. following day will be one hell of a long day without much sleep. Oh the joys of travelling, no complaints here lol!!

Day 3: geysers and chile

We hit the road before the sun was up. Driving through the desert in darkness and witnessing sun slowly rising was magical. All this was just to reach out the geyser fields upon sunrise to make most fo the sight and steam when the sun is low. From here, were were heading near by hot pools before the crowds, where we had a chance to dip in and have a WELL needed coffee.

Althou there wasn’t much time to spare, as this was the last day and we needed to hit to border to make a earlier crossing, and rest of the group still had a long drive back to the Uyuni.

Last stop, Laguna Verde with Licancabur Volcano. Car karaoke with Celine Dion, Dali deserts, which inspired Salvador Dali’s paintings of melting clocks and happy goodbyes, and just a feel of our little family coming apart. We had a cheerful goodbyes, collected our gear and prepared to cross the border. Hop into the bus and into the queue we went. This took roughly few hours to complete, including the passport check, back inspection, re-packing and crossing the border itself. Pretty painless process.

As I was waiting a lengthy and slow manual process of crossing the border to Chile, and further on to San Pedro de Atacama, I couldn’t help but smile as my expectations were only to see salt flats, yet the tour was so much more and Bolivia… you truly surprised me! What a magnificent country with such a variety of natural wonders! Truly one of the best trips I have ever done!

Quick tips:

You have two options: Cross the desert fully on a dry season, or experience world’s largest mirror over the wet season however you are not able to cross the desert. Both have the good and bad - yet maybe a great reason to return!

You can experience the salt flats even on a one day trip however I strongly suggest crossing the desert as it has so much more too offer I ever expected!

Altitude sickness… prepare prepare prepare. Either start a medication, or try to spend as long as you can in higher altitude prior your trip. You don’t want to get sick while on your tour as it’s a long distance away to lower altitude.

Bring money if want to shower or purchase extra food or even beerailong the way haha! There are some sneaky little bars along the way which are fully worth experiencing.

Let your mind free on this dreamy place with a constant surprises! And believe me, there will be more than you ever dream of.