Salar de Uyuni tour to Chile

In America, Bolivia 2001 On  11/08/2001  One comment

The tour starts in Colcachi, a city by the salar in which the main activity is salt extraction. We saw the salt process, the withdrawal, the drying and the wrapping up. Later we visit the salt hotels. They are all constructed with salt blocks: walls, chairs, beds. When we went back to the car, it didn’t start. We had that to push it.

We drove to “Isla Pescado”, the original name was Inca Huasi, that means ¨House of the Incas¨. There I decided to stay for the night. In the island, the only inhabitants are a couple that takes care of the place. I slept in a room offered by them. I had gotten a permit by the Turist office to sleep and photograph the island. Next day I continued the tour with my group. We went back to Uyuni to get a 4 wheel drive car. Next stop was San Cristobal, a small village where we slept.

Second day we woke up early, we had an 8 hour trip to “Lagoa Colorada”. We passed by the Valle de Rocas and a few lagoons (lagoa Cañapa, lagoa Hedionda, lagoa Ramaditas, lagoa Chiar Khota and lagoa Cachi) with flamingos. We stop to photograph one of the rocks called ¨Arbol de Piedra¨, it looks like a tree. At 4 o’clock we arrived at Lagoa Colocada, it was very cold and the wind strong.

The third day we woke up at 5am. Our first stop was the Geysers and hot springs. It was so cold that nobody from my group had the courage to undress and go into the water. We had breakfast and kept going.

One of the last stops it was the “Lagoa Verde”, green lagoon. It wasn’t that green. The color of the water depends on the wind, since it wasn’t blowing, the color wasn’t so green. The landscape is beautiflul. We could see the Licancabur volcano by the other side of the lagoon.

From there we head to the border where a mini bus took us to Chile.