A few years ago, I hosted a Korean friend in my house. He had saved money for a long time to make his life-long dream come true: Touring around South America.
When I asked him where he'd go next, he said a word I had never heard before: Uyuni.
What is Uyuni? Where is Uyuni?
When I saw the first images online my eyes opened wide and I asked myself how come I had never heard of that place before?
Uyuni, in the highlands of Bolivia, is the biggest salt flat on Earth!
I immediately wrote it down on my bucket list and in February 2012 I packed my bags and headed North.
I took a 25-hour bus ride from Santiago to Calama, a city stranded in the middle of the Atacama Desert, in the Northern area of Chile. From there, I took another bus: Calama, Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia. Uyuni Salt flat salt flat salt flat
This bus left Calama at 04.00 in the morning and as soon as we left the city lights behind, we were wrapped up in the pitch darkness of the driest desert in the world. The starry night, turned this desolate place into a sparkling display of stars and galaxies!
Around 06.00 am dawn started to break, we were already high in the Andes mountains, following a crapy and narrow road that was, unbelievalbly, the international road that would take us to the Ollagüe customs office. The bus was not the most comfortable, it had passengers sitting even on the floor, the road was in regular and sometimes pityful condition but the surrounding landscape made everything worth while.
We were side by side with the clouds that caressed the moutain peaks, trying to find a way to cross to Bolivia. We saw many Andean lagoons and flamingoes feeding in them, we saw salt flats and all the colors of the highlands. I'm really in love with the highlands! They never fail to amaze me!
After 6 hours we arrived in Ollagüe, 3700 m.a.s.l. A very small village made us wonder what is life like in such a place. Every night must be a luxury in the sky, feeling that you can almost touch the stars with your hands, but the cold at night, the wind like razors over your skin... I'm a coastal dweller so I really admire people who live in an environment so different to mine!
Crossing both customs offices (Chilean and Bolivian) took us 4 eternal hours! Most of them, we had to wait inside the bus and waiting became really boring!
At last, I was entering Bolivian territory, for the second time in my life. This time my targets were Uyuni and Potosi, one of the highest cities in the world!
It's really surprising but the whole world changes when you cross the border... even the season changes. February is Summer season in the Southern Hemisphere but it is the rainy season in the Bolivian highlands, a period also called Highland Winter or Bolivian Winter. It didn't take long for the sky to turn black and threatening. Bolivia
A sky so dark as I had never seen before! Uyuni Uyuni Uyuni Bolivia
When we finally arrived in the city of Uyuni, it was dark... we spent the whole day on the bus. I went to my hotel and next morning was up early to go to book my tour to the biggest salt flat in the world. I was really excited to be there at last! I booked a tour for the next day and spent that day going around town. Uyuni town is not a touristic destination in itself, I went to buy some postcards and books, they were surprisingly cheap, as most things in Bolivia are. I went to a cyber café to try to send a few photos home... it was useless... internet never connected for more than a minute... after an hour of failing again and again a huge lightning storm started and there was a blackout! No chance to send a word or a photo over. Uyuni Uyuni Bolivia Bolivia
There was a small salt market here, which was the gate to a salty world ahead.
They sold all kinds of arts and crafts made out of salt, salt rocks in pure white. After half an hour of the, always present, merchandizing we jumped in the jeep again and left the humble group of houses behind. Uyuni Uyuni Bolivia Bolivia
There were men at work, making little salt mounts which were loaded on trucks and taken somewhere else. I couldn’t help to think about their poor eyes, blinded by the utter bright white of the place or the merciless sun drying their skin, no sunglasses, no shadow over their heads but a simple straw hat. Bolivia Bolivia
We seemed to be from another planet, a whole different reality. All this was a wonder for us while for them it seemed to be a hard labor sentence.
In the distance, right in front of us, another tiny black spot started to grow up. It was the Salt Hotel. Our final destination. Uyuni Uyuni Bolivia
Somewhere in this vast white desert, there is an island: Incahuasi. I have read about it, it’s amazing and unique, an oasis in a salt desert… but there were no tours going up to Incahuasi during the rainy season. It was too dangerous of an adventure!
So, after a while, we reached the Salt Hotel. As its name suggests, it’s all made out of salt… everything but the roof. Walls, floor, table, stools, beds… salt, just salt.
He laughed at our surprise so, one after another, we got down and took some salt from the ground… after all, there was nothing under our feet but salt! Uyuni Uyuni
After lunch I went to explore around. A group of flags from different nations was the only extra thing to see… the rest, as I have said, was an endless salt desert all around but the beauty of it was, nevertheless, breathtaking! Uyuni Bolivia Bolivia
Lots of people from many different tour groups were taking funny photos in this place… as there are no reference of the distance... anything was possible… to stamp over a friend, to run away from a T-rex, to be eaten on a plate or trapped in a paper bag! Uyuni Uyuni Uyuni Bolivia
Time flew as we were all having fun but the new born storm in the distance was growing into a threatening dark gray monster, almost like a supercell and it was time to get away. To be caught by it in the middle of the salt flat could mean disaster!
All of a sudden, all jeeps in the place started the race back to Uyuni city.
Far behind in the distance, the Salt Hotel turned into a little black dot again and disappeared… in time the storm fell over the area like the worst blitz in WWII and also disappeared.
My trip continued around Bolivia. Potosí was another amazing place to visit but that's food for another entry.
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