Like Cusco, La Paz is overflowing with tour companies all offering similar excursions to the Salt Flats ranging from one to three night tours. For us the Salt Flats was a major attraction point of our trip to South America so we spent a lot of time researching the best one and deliberating between our shortlist. There’s a lot of worrying reviews about drink driving on some of the other tours so some in depth research was warranted. In the end we chose the three day tour with Red Planet Expedition booked via Kanoo Tours. At $215 it was the most expensive ‘mid-range’ offering in English (the Spanish tours are about 30% cheaper). Aside from Red Planet having the best reputation the two main reasons we chose it were because they pride themselves in giving their clients more exclusive, isolated tours and they are the only company to stay in close proximity to the hot springs on night two (more about that in a bit). Apparently if you travel to Uyuni you can get a last minute rate with some companies but as Red Planet is so popular they tend to book up a couple of days in advance so we paid the slight premium to book with an agency rather than travel to Uyuni and book with them directly (Red Planet don’t have any offices in La Paz).
We took the Todo Turismo tourist night bus from La Paz to Uyuni. It departs the capital at 9 pm arriving in Uyuni the following morning before 7 am giving people the opportunity to start tours that morning rather than wait another day. Timings of transport meant that we didn’t have to spend a night before or after the tour in Uyuni which suited us fine, not a particularly interesting town it would only have been a stop gap anyway.
Due to the terrain it is necessary to travel in 4x4s. With 6 people to a car, all luggage is stored in the limited space on top of the vehicle. Our big bags were left behind in storage and we carried just what we needed for the trip. We were in a car with two other couples from Israel and New York. With one guide for every two cars it seemed that people were grouped loosely on age demographics
Day one of the tour we departed at 11 am and travelled the very short distance to the train graveyard. Essentially just some rusting, abandoned trains from the 1940s the site has become a photo opportunity and adult climbing frame on the edge of town. After this we drove for a while to a small village where we learned about the traditional process of extracting salt and had our first meal of the trip. The tours are well prepared with each car transporting its own food and supplies, in this case a picnic style lunch. Wary of the food quality in Bolivia I had optioned for vegetarian for the trip however, the standard of food was better than expected and we enjoyed a buffet of salads, cold chicken thighs (in my case omelette) and apple crumble.
After lunch we had time to stock up on toy dinosaurs and pringles for the afternoon’s photoshoot on the flats. The first stop on the actual salt flats was tri-fold at the Dakar Bolivia sculpture, the salt flat building (only one on the flats) and the location of the international flags. Next we made a lengthy stop as our guide showed us how to take the famous perspective pictures and even acted as videographer/director for a short video! The photos are much harder to take then you’d think, here are some of the better ones (we took so many, if you look closely you’ll see a stray foot ruining the illusion!)
All snapped out we made our way to Inca Wasy island, an island of cacti and rock formations in the middle of an expanse of salt. Entrance is additional. We climbed the 20 minutes to the top to enjoy a cerveza while watching the sun sink lower in the sky. After another beer at the bottom with our group we were back in the van to make it to a certain viewpoint closer to the mountains for sunset. The cloudless sky and uninterrupted landscape made the perfect canvas for the setting sun. Next stop was our accommodation for the night – a salt hotel complete with salt walls, salt beds and a salt gravel floor (not quite sure how they managed to clean or sweep the floor). After dinner we played cards with our new friends before calling it a night.
The next morning we awoke early and left behind the salt to head towards the desert. The extreme landscapes of day two included brightly coloured lagoons featuring flamingos and even a live volcano complete with geysers. We stopped at multiple locations as we hugged the Chilean border, traversing through barren desert of rock formations and roaming alpacas. Towards the end of day two you pay to enter the Andean Fauna National Reserve where the Red Lagoon is located. The red algae in the water is apparently the cause of the flamingos’ pink coat and is home to three species of flamingo. This revelation opened up a whole host of other questions and left us wondering about the rest of the flamingos in the world as surely the don’t all have access to red algae?
After the Red Lagoon you travel to an elevation of 5000 m and the location of the geysers. The landscape is interspersed with open craters of hot, bubbling mud and natural steaming vents. With dark approaching and temperatures rapidly falling we headed for the second night’s accommodation. From the outset Red Planet warn that the accommodation on night two is very basic – shared dormitories, electricity curfew and no showers (which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because there seems to be an abundance of boiling water just below the surface, a bit of geothermic engineering would go a long way). It does however boast a very desirable location next to the hot springs. Most tour groups visit the springs on the morning of day three but miss out on the chance to star gaze from the water. The view of the stars from here is incredible. With zero light pollution, the constellations reach in every which way. With piercing clarity it was easy to see shooting stars dart through the night’s sky. The sub zero weather was offset against the temperature of the 35 degree water and we easily spent hours here swapping stories and sharing red wine with our group. I wish my photography skills were competent enough to have captured the incredible sight but I guess some moments are better heightened in memories only. We retreated in darkness to our beds and much needed sleeping bags, needed they were as the next morning we awoke to find our swimwear frozen solid.
Really the tour is just two days with the third and final day used to deliver people back to Uyuni or onwards to the Chilean border. After Chile, our next destination was Argentina and specifically the northern city of Salta. We’d been advised that it was easier to travel back to Uyuni and go to the Bolivian/Argentinian border rather than try and make the way across from Chile as there was no direct route to our destination. I’m still not convinced this was the best use of our time because we had to make the backwards journey of 7 hours to then get a night train to Villazon on the Bolivian border. We arrived back in Uyuni at 4 pm and searched out some dinner and WiFi before taking the 9.40 pm train from Uyuni station (apparently the train is by far the superior option to the bus as the unpaved roads are terrible in rural Bolivia).
Bolivia is so much more than the Salt Flats and Death Road. The poorest of the South Americas what it lacked in the kinds of comfort we are accustomed to, it made up for with it’s diverse landscape, both beautiful and severe.
Our last full day in La Paz we explored Sopocachi and sought out supplies for our impending Salt Flats tours (snacks and warm socks!). We also did a round trip on one of the cable cars to see the full extent of the city. Like Medellin, La Paz is situated in a valley with the centre in the middle and neighbourhoods climbing up the sides of the valley. A number of cable cars connect these areas providing efficient transport for the locals and an affordable bird’s eye view for curious tourists.
