Our flight from La Paz was around one hour. Uyuni is unique, like nothing I’ve experienced before.
The tiny airport here receives one flight a day in and out to and from La Paz. Apparently in high season they get the odd flight from Santa Cruz or Succre,
As we flew over the salt flats you could see what appears as an unearthly planet landscape.
The large white expanse must surely be snow as found at the Poles, but this was a dried lake bed of pure white salt.
I think it would be helpful to show you where the Salt Flats of Uyuni are.
They are South of La Paz, Bolivia, in South America. They are so large that they can be seen from space. About a third of the size of the Serengeti ecosystem we visited last year. This high-altitude salt bed covers more than 4,000 square miles!
On arrival, our guide Wilson and driver Vladimir loaded up the 4×4 Land Cruiser and we set off to his local office where the days plans were set out.
Our bags would make their way to the hotel whilst we explored.
It would have been good to know all this in advance because we were told to change, dress warm and that we would at some point be wearing provided wellington boots.
Anyway we were in Uyuni, a town like something from the Wild West. Unfinished buildings, dusty streets and a few street sellers.
We first visited the train cemetery, and a once busy railroad.
Trains abandoned over time and now rusting provide a great tourist photo stop.
We were taken into the back of a souvenir shop to see and understand the salt extraction process and get a better understanding of how salt is produced and then bagged and sold. They call this place the salt museum.
In the sun you felt relatively warm but step in the shade and the wilderness cold seeped through the layers.
We set off into the vast emptiness. It’s hard to visualise an expanse so white, flat, cold and isolated as the expanse we were crossing to reach our next stop, Cactus island.
To describe driving for over an hour into the vast wilderness with nothing in front of you is difficult to comprehend. So let me show you where Cactus Island is. It’s that dot I am pointing to.
Thousands of years ago this area was a salt lake created when the Andean tectonic plates pushed up and trapped water. That is how Lake Titicaca and the Salt flats of Uyuni were created. With climate change however the water evaporated leaving behind a thick crust containing salt and lithium.
I’ve only ever seen 360 degrees of the earths curvature in the Serengeti where small grassy outcrops, kopjes and dangerous animals roam, but here in the salt flats was pure solitude and nothing but a void.
As Vladimir drove towards … the horizon, where you could see nothing other than the sky, land marks gradually became visible. His experience ensured that we were travelling towards a place that once rose up above the water that was once here.
The island was covered in huge Cacti that grow 1cm per year, making some of these cacti hundreds of years old.
Birds and chinchilla exist in this isolated place which has a coffee shop, toilets and a place to stay.
Around the side of the island we ate lunch by the vehicle as others groups were starting to do.
It’s amazing to be here in this vast white space where sound is removed, the air is thin and humanity barely exists.
After our lunch we trekked up to the top of the island along well trodden paths,
The spectacular views give you the sense of being on top of the world. You feel you are looking down over clouds covering the land below, but you’re not.
My heart was racing on the way up, the strain of catching my breath surprised me. Regardless of ones fitness, altitude sickness can hit anyone and we were taking Diamox to assist our acclimatisation.
You would honestly think there was nothing to do here, but there were many photo opportunities and Wilson was making use of the remaining rainy season wet patches to get unique photo reflections of our group.
The colours between the crisp blue skies and the ground were like paintings by Monet.
Eventually we reached our hotel, Luna Salada on the edge of the salt flats.
This beautiful hotel built from salt and lava was spacious, clean and isolated. Thankfully food was included in our two night stay.
There were multiple log fires burning as the plummeting temperatures brought extreme cold.
Our room was warm due to the aircon unit over the bed, but the bathroom lacked both heating and ventilation.
That first night we were picked up to go star gazing.
If you’ve not read my post about the Bortle Scale I suggest that you do here.
The darkness here is serious. I needed a headlamp to set up my equipment as without kit I couldn’t see my hands, but I was organised.
I had two setups I wanted to use. One was the Dwarf Mini and you can read more about it here and my A7iii camera and Onooda device.
Looking up at the sky you could see the Milky Way with the naked eye and stars.
I was wrapped up well and keeping warm so standing about whilst we captured the night sky was all about the time to capture that perfect photo of the universe.
Wilson our guide wandered away from the vehicle and suddenly he was lost! Our driver using the light from his phone eventually guided Wilson back to the car. Scary!
We got to bed late that night and woke early the next morning for sun rise.
Exhausted we again had photos in a reflection area wearing the provided wellington boots whilst our feet were freezing. The sky’s colour again changed through hues of lilac and blues as the sun rose above the perimeter mountains.
This was to be our final day and Wilson advised that we would be visiting a cave of stalactites and stalagmites but that we needed to cross the vast ocean of salt at 3700 metres above sea level and this would take approx an hour to get to the other side.
We arrived at a remote location where Wilson announced the ground was not stable, the driver and guide left the vehicle, the engine still running. Without explanation Vladimir walked off towards what looked like a remote farm and Wilson headed ashore towards a cave entrance.
Eventually both returned and Wilson announced that the man they were to meet that had the key to get in the cave was not there and could not be reached, but not to worry we would visit another site.
The remoteness and feeling of isolation in this vast waste land is difficult to put into words. It is surrounded by mountains once driven up by tectonic plates and volcanoes.
As we came to a stop around 10 minutes away we stopped by a small flock of flamingoes. Here in the bitter cold and wilderness were these beautiful birds that can live for around 40 years.
After a delightful lunch set up by Vladimir using the parasol, chairs and tables found on the roof of the vehicle we packed up to visit a cave up the mountain where after walking for 10 mins we came to a stone building to be met by a man smiling and welcoming us.
We proceeded along a path to the entrance of a locked cave that required a key. Wilson unlocked and then took us inside.
Here we found the skeletal remains of a family from the Inca period 1200 BC. They were in the foetal position and are untouched. Left as they had died.
The cave has evidence of fires on the blackened ceiling and our guide told us that every year a ceremony takes place in the cave to remember the dead.
Our time in Uyuni was drawing to a close and we headed back to our hotel.
We were again up early and taken to the airport.
Our next stop was La Paz where our original plans to stay overnight and see the city were compromised as there was civil unrest in the city so a decision was taken to not leave the airport but instead to take another flight to Santa Cruz and another to Lima. You can read more about the unrest and what prompted us to make the changes here.
Visiting Uyuni was unique, vast and felt like the furthest place on earth you can get to.
