Special Feature - Uyuni Salt Flats

This post has some extra photos from our salt flat tour! This was a 4 day trip that took us from Bolivia across the Uyuni salt flats and Atacama desert to Chile. 

The main weekly summary post can be found here. 

Day 1:

The tour started with some quick introductions between our 6 person group, and Axel, our tour guide. Soon after we hopped in our 4x4 vehicle which would be our transport for the next few days, and headed out to the salt flats! 

Being on the salt flats was surreal. It was flat and white as far as you could see, with the occasional volcano in the distance. 

Next, we drove over to Tunupa volcano for our afternoon hike. This hike had a bit of everything: a cool crater, some creepy skeletons in a cave, a llama party, and a great view out over the salt flats. 

As the sun was setting, we drove to a wet part of the salt flats to see our reflections in the water. Cam got pretty creative with his poses.

After the sun went down, we were off to our cold hostel room for the night. The walls were made of salt bricks from salt flats which was kind of neat!

Day 2:

The day started off super early, as we were out at 5am to look at the stars. It was freezing. I wore almost every piece of clothing I brought to South America and I was still cold. 

However, despite the cold, the sunrise that followed was one of my top highlights from the tour. Being out on the flats by ourselves, with our reflections in the water and the sky painted above us was awe inspiring and a surreal experience. 

Later that day on the salt flats, we had some fun taking some perspective photos while Cam fished in the water underneath the salt flats for souvenir crystals. 

In the late afternoon, we got to explore an island on the salt flats with massive cacti everywhere. 

After another sunset on the salt flats and some stargazing, we were off to a different salt-brick hostel for the second night.

Day 3:

We said goodbye to the salt flats, and day 3 was mostly driving to different spots in the Atacama desert. Overall, the day felt a little touristy. We would stop at a cool spot where I could easily spend a few hours exploring. However, we would usually only have 30-40 minutes at each spot before we would be back in the car and off to the next viewpoint. 

Despite the touristy vibe of the day, we still saw some very neat things! Here are some pictures from the different stops we made. 

Train tracks through the desert

David exploring some rocks

A vicuña 

Hundreds of flamingos

Can you spot the ostrich?

Zoomed in on the ostrich 

Rainbow coloured mountains

Cool rocks in the desert

Red lagoon 

Day 4:

Day 4 started with an early wake up to see some geysers, then to some hot springs for a morning swim. 

With one more lake stop to say goodbye to Bolivia, the tour was finished! We crossed the border into Chile and were dropped off in San Pedro de Atacama shortly after. It was a long but amazing 4 days!