By Nick Neumann

We arrived in the town of Uyuni sick and beaten down by the altitude. There is nothing to see or do in Uyuni and the hostels ($10 for a dorm) and restaurants ($15 for a pizza) are nothing special and expensive. The only reason anyone visits the town is because it is the jumping off point for the Bolivia’s extraordinary Southwest Circuit.

Walker got even more sick, so we ended up spending three nights. While he was in bed, I attempted to stream the Giants playoff games and some football, with little success. There really is nothing more frustrating than terrible internet. We learned the hard way that no one should spend more than one night in Uyuni. If you are planing on going, book your tour when you arrive, have dinner at Minutemen Revolutionary Pizza, an awesome restaurant run by Chris, a friendly Bostonian, and his Bolivian wife Sussy, then hit the hay and leave in the morning.

Picking a Tour Company

There are over 80 tour agencies in Uyuni. Each one offering basically the exact same tour and they all have a myriad of bad reviews online because drivers were hungover, drunk, or there were problems with the vehicles. In the end we decided to go with Cordillera Traveller and we are glad we did. The price was midrange at $125, which covered food, lodging, and a guide for three days. Our guide, Jorge, was young and energetic, and didn’t drink on the job! There were six people total in our Toyota Landcruiser; a Dutch couple, a German guy and an Argentinian girl.

Day 1

10:30 AM – Finally Leave Uyuni… First stop was just outside of town at the old train graveyard. It was basically a just a photo-op with some cool old trains. Then we drove about an hour to a rest area at the beginning of the salt flat. Jorge set up a delicious lunch of rice, salad and some tasty slaps of llama meat.

1:00 PM – Start heading straight into the salt flat. The sky above was clear, but billowing clouds lined the horizon, which reflected them and the distant mountains like a mirror. At 4,086 sq miles, it is the world’s largest salt flat. Once a prehistoric lake, it is now a ridiculously flat salt covered plain. The altitude only varies by three feet across its entirety. Bolivia is rich in natural resources. The salt flat is exceptionally rich in Lithium, containing 50%-70% of the world’s lithium reserves. However the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, has denied foreign companies access to these reserves.

During the rainy season when the salt flat is covered in a layer of water it reflects the sky seamlessly, like the world’s largest mirror. During October it is dry and crusted over, but you can still take advantage of the flatness and take some funny pictures.

2:30 PM – After driving for hours with no change in our surroundings at all an “island” appeared in the distance. Incahuasi island is a strange outcropping completely covered in giant cacti. We spent an hour walking and staring in awe at the otherworldly landscape that enveloped us.

5:30 PM – As the hot sunny day turned into a cold, windy, moonlit night we arrived at the salt hotel where we would spend the night. The hotel was made entirely of hardened salt blocks, about the size of a cinder block. The salt floor was covered in a white salt dust. After another good meal and a bottle of wine we went to bed, but we were viciously attacked by bed bugs living in the porous salt walls. I’ve never seen so many bed bugs in my life. They were everywhere. I ended up finding an empty room that wasn’t infested and Walker slept in the hallway.

Day 2

7:30 AM – Day two was full of lagoons, flamingos and volcanoes. The landscape transformed into a desert moonscape. Giant volcanoes loomed over head all day as we traversed bumpy roads from lagoon to lagoon. The Bolivian Altiplano is a major breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos. The shallow, salty lagoons are perfect for flamingos, so we saw many in each lagoon we passed.

2:00 PM – We ascended to 15,500 ft onto a high desert plateau with no vegetation at all. It seemed as if even the clouds were below us. While the salt flat is the most famous part of the tour, the journey through the desolate, stark land of volcanoes dotted with colorful lagoons was the highlight for me. It’s a totally bizarre, unique world like nothing I have seen before.

4:00 PM – The final stop was the Laguna Colorada, a strikingly beautiful blood red lagoon fringed by volcanoes. We learned that what initially appeared to be floating ice was actually a series of borax islands and that the brilliant red color of the water was caused by red sediments and algae pigmentation.

8:30 PM – We all went to bed early in a six person dorm near the Laguna Colorada. We were at such high altitude that other tour groups brought oxygen tanks. Due to the lack of oxygen it was nearly impossible to sleep.

Day 3

5:00 AM – We ate a quick breakfast and began driving as an eerie red glow appeared beyond the horizon. Just as the sun was rising we arrived at a series of steaming geysers. I reluctantly got out of the car because the temperature was still below freezing. I felt like I was on the set of some crazy action movie. There were no safety precautions so we were able to walk freely on the precarious earth between boiling mud pools and holes billowing sulfuric steam.

7:00 AM – Freezing and tired, our next stop could not have been more appropriate. It was a natural hot spring on the edge of another large salt lake. We lounged in the hot water for an hour, warming our bones in a state of euphoria.

9:00 AM – The Laguna Verde was a our final stop. The green lake is turquoise in color due to arsenic in the water and changes shades depending on the disturbance of the wind. It is overshadowed by Licancabur, a 19,420 ft extinct volcano at the southern most part of Bolivia on the Chilean border.

7:00 PM – After a full day of driving we completed the loop and returned to Uyuni sore, tired and still trying to take in everything we had just seen. It was an amazing journey, and definitely one of the highlights of our South American odyssey. If you are ever in this part of the world, don’t miss it!