Uyuni Salt Plains and the Ultra High Desert

After making our way down to Uyuni in the Southwest of Bolivia, we hopped into a Jeep for 4 days to check out Bolivia's famous salt flats. We had absolutely no idea how unique the scenery would be.

Uyuni's salt plain is the largest in the world. It is estimated that the amount of salt that exists in this areas weighs 64 millions tons...now who's feeling dehydrated? Apparently, the salt plains are remnants of a sea that used to fill the entire high plateau up to Lake Titicaca, but has dried up over the course of millions of years.

Due to the rainy season and the excess of water on the plains, we only had access to the perimeter. We were far from disappointed because the few inches of water on the surface made the scenery super surreal. The photos turned out great, but still didn't do justice to what we saw.




The following day we woke up at 4 am in order to beat the other jeeps to the next night's stop. Needless to say, we all fell back to sleep as soon as we started moving. Our driver woke us up to a strong hissing sound. First thing I thought was, "great, we're broken down in the middle of nowhere." After I woke up a bit more I realized that we were parked next to a geyser. We were actually smack in the middle of a huge thermal area. It literally felt like we were on the surface of the moon.





We drove for a few more hours through scenery none of us had ever seen before. We witnessed desert at about 3700 meters of altitude. The colors of the sand and dirt were strikingly gold, red, and green. Most of the mountains were topped with a light layer of snow...I thought it looked a bit like powdered sugar. We stopped at a lake for breakfast and then took a dip in this thermal pool. I think we all agreed that we'd never been in a jacuzzi with a view like this. The water was a perfect temperature for a long soak. There were also warmer thermal rocks in the pool if we wanted to turn up the heat a little bit. I'm surprised our driver actually convinced us to get out and get back on the road.




The next day we headed to Laguna Colorada. I could definitely see how it earned it's name, "Colorful Lake". Not only was the actual lake excessively colorful, but it was filled with hundreds of pink flamingos. I always envisioned flamingos in a stereotypical tropical setting. I was shocked to find them in a thermal lake at almost 4000 meters of altitude, but they seemed to think it was totally normal.





A little bit later, we went to check out a famous rock formation called Arbol de Piedra...in english "Rock Tree". While it was interesting, the multiple rock formations around the "Rock Tree" were pretty cool as well. We climbed around a bit to find what we thought was the best view in the area. What do you think?





On the way back to Uyuni the main highway cuts through the Valle de Piedras...in english "Valley of Rocks". It was, basically, a forest of free-standing rock formations. Absolutely amazing! We ventured away from the road a bit to find that it wouldn't take much to get REALLY lost. Yet again, none of us had even seen anything like it.

I apologize for the lack of narrative, but the landscape we saw is best left for the eyes...pictures are close second. You can check them out in the album.