Salt, Scenery and Elvis: Uyuni
Every time someone on the road asks me about Uyuni I immediately think of one word to describe it: Spectacular. The whole experience was fantastic between the surreal, one of a kind landscapes we observed and the wonderful time we had with our group. Uyuni truly is a treasure and the most marvelous thing about Bolivia. It was the perfect way to end our visit to this country and something I will never forget.
After a whole lot of research we decided to book our tour with Cordillera Traveller for 800 Bs/115.75 USD per person. This included a guide who drove us around for 4 days, basic accommodations, meals and a transfer over the border to San Pedro de Atacama. In addition we paid an entrance fee to Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa at a cost 150 Bs for foreigners.
Like many of the tours we had been on before the guide really made a difference this time. Our guide Elvis was fun, easy-going, stopped for pictures and even helped us take some photos. There has been concern in the past with different companies having issues with irresponsible and drunk drivers so you need to do your research before booking. However, we feel we got lucky and ended up with a great guide and a great group.
Our adventure really started back in Oruro where we hopped on a train to Uyuni. Some friends we met in our previous hostel in La Paz had just been in a bus crash on the way back from Uyuni so I was definitely not ready for a long bus ride down. Instead we took a 3-hour ride to Oruro and stayed in the town overnight in order to catch the train the next day.
There are two trains to choose from: Wara Wara del Sur and Expreso del Sur leaving at 7:00pm and 2:30pm respectively. We read that the Expreso el Sur was a better choice so we booked two tickets for the executive class at 120Bs/ 17.36 USD and never looked back. It was a great decision as the ride was smooth and comfortable and the scenery—well that was really hard to beat.
Over the 4 days of the tour we visited the Train Cemetery, the Salt Flats (the world’s largest), Inka Wasi, Arbol de Piedra, the Red Lagoon, White Lagoon, Green Lagoon, Sol de Mañana Geysers, hot springs and the Dali Desert. It is hard to describe just how incredible all the places we visited were so I will let all of the pictures do the talking!
