Surreal Treasures of Bolivia, Uyuni and the Surroundings
From September 19 to 21, 2015, we joined a three-day, two-night tour to the Uyuni Salt Flat and Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve of Andean Fauna in Bolivia. We shared this unforgettable experience with other 4 travelers and a guide: Sergi from Spain, Katerina from Greece, Veronica and Lennon from Brazil, and Gabriel, our driver and guide, from Bolivia. We could not have been more pleased with the group. Everyone was kind, friendly, respectful, happy, and had a great attitude towards life and passion for adventure!
The Uyuni Salt Flat has an extension of 10,582 sq km (4,086 sq miles) and it is the biggest salt flat in the world. We were told that the famous astronaut, Armstrong, said the Uyuni Salt Flat can be seen from space like a big mirror on Earth when it is filled with water. He did not know what it was when he saw it and felt so curious about it that he actually traveled to Bolivia to visit the Uyuni Salt Flat. On the first day of our tour, we visited the Uyuni Salt Flat, the whiteness and pentagonal shapes of this amazing salt flat kept our minds trapped for hours. We thought about the recurrent pentagon shapes we had seen in other wonderful natural formations around our world, such as the inside of the Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand and the pinnacle rocks of the Causeway in Ireland. We could not stop to wonder what is the science behind these shapes created by nature and the magical presence of geometry all over the world. Although at the end, we could not have an answer to our question, we had plenty of fun on the Uyuni Salt Flat. We took pictures by playing with the perspective and visual effect of this endless white scenario.
We also visited Incahuasi Island, one of the many islands in the middle of the salt flat. Walking through this island was like being submerged in the ocean, the rock formations are the remaining proof of ancient coral that hundreds of years ago were underwater. Now the island is covered with giant cacti raising to the overpowering sun. We simply loved it there!
We ended the first day of the tour at a salt hostel in San Juan, a town just a little south of the Uyuni Salt Flat. The hostel was built of salt, the walls had solid salt blocks and the floors were full of loose salt that felt like sand. The smell inside was pleasant and healing, a unique experience we will never forget.
On the second day of the tour, we drove by many more natural wonders on the way to Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve of Andean Fauna. We enjoyed spectacular landscapes, lakes, rock formations, and fauna, including the volcanic rock formations at the view point of the Ollague active volcano and the lagoons of Cañapa, Hedionda, Charcota, and Onda that contained three different species of flamingos. We also saw vicuñas and a fox along the way. We made a stop at the famous Rock Tree, where huge rocks have been shaped by the strength of the wind and rain throughout centuries. Standing between this group of natural rock sculptures, we felt like miniatures in the middle of a giant zen garden!
At the end of the day, we reached the Laguna Colorada, the redness of its waters caused by algae is surreal! Beautiful flamingos also live here. We had never seen something like this lagoon, how gorgeous is our mother earth, how fortunate we are to have her! We ended our second day at a hostel inside the national reserve, sharing another great night of laughs with our fellow travelers.
The third day we had an early start, visiting the Sol de Mañana Geysers and taking a reviving bath at the Polques hot spring, a perfect choice to warm up during a freezing morning at about 4,800 meters (15,750 feet) of elevation. We then drove by the intriguing Salvador Dali desert, which was reminiscent of his surrealist art.
We reached Laguna Verde, its turquoise color in contrast with the white sands surrounding it made our eyes believe we were at in the Caribbean, but the cold and strong wind quickly took us back to reality. The green color of this lagoon is due to the mix of arsenic and copper. It is crazy to think the pleasant color is toxic and that no form of life can actually live in its waters.
Then we went to the Bolivian – Chilean border to drop off and say goodbye to our friends Lennon and Veronica, because they were heading towards the Atacama Desert. We continued the journey with Sergi, Katerina, and Gabriel back to the town of Uyuni. On the way back, we saw other beautiful landscape, including Capina Lake, the Valley of the Rocks, and we made a brief stop at the town of San Cristobal.
This entire tour has been one of the best in our world trip. We were happily surprised by how many unique and surreal natural wonders Bolivia has to offer and the continued excitement the journey holds for its visitors. We hope our experience and pictures can give you a fair and close testimony of this magical area of our planet. We highly recommend anyone with the opportunity to visit it to do it. If you are a nature lover like us, you will not regret it and will have priceless memories for the rest of your life! 😉
