By car for a visit to the world's largest salt Lake in Bolivia: Salar of Uyuni
Bolivia is a land of contrasts where it is impossible to get bored. Somewhere in the southwest of this great country lies a mirage, a geological miracle: the Uyuni salt desert.
Located at an altitude of almost 4,000m (3,600m to be exact), this desert area is flat as a pancake and white as snow. This area represents 10,500km², it is the largest salt reserve in the world: about 5 billion tons. If we believe the Bolivians, the salt of this prehistoric lake, now dry, is found up to 120m below the surface.
It’s all well and good, but why on earth would you want to go for a trip in the Salar de Uyuni?
It may seem repetitive to walk through this perfectly flat expanse, always white with little relief. However, every day is a grandiose spectacle that is offered to the visitor: a new landscape, hills to climb, crazy landscapes of clouds reflecting on the coloured waters… The Salar d’Uyuni is a geological wonder, a unique experience.
For the landscape: Uyuni’s Salar is unique in the world
A salt lake of this size, the largest in the world, is a real eye-catcher. A trip to this natural wonder is well worth the diversion. To find yourself in this immaculate immensity is a unique spectacle. This white as far as the eye can see contrasts with the blue of the sky, this sky of Bolivia so pure that makes it an extraordinary landscape.
For the sky: no light pollution, no noise, nothing around but stars, Salar of Uyuni is one of the best place on earth to watch stars
Contemplating the stars in the Uyuni Saltworks is an experience like no other. The purity of the sky and the luminescence of the ground create extraordinary conditions for admiring a starry sky.
For the Lagunas: exploring the geological wonders of Uyuni
For the Flamingos: admire the thousands of flamingos in the Uyuni salt flats
The Salar d’Uyuni is a journey with twists and turns: from makeshift refuges between huts and garage to Spartan comfort and a hotel built in blocks of salt, from floor to ceiling, including furniture…
In the middle of this dazzling expanse, of a blinding whiteness, a coral island…
The tour-operators include it in all their programmes, it is a must, getting up at 3:00 am to admire the rising sun is worth all the sacrifices: getting up early and shivering while waiting for the rays to come and warm the visitor.
This dawn is memorable, the pure sky, the ground sparkling like ice and the waves of heat, like a golden aurora borealis, advancing over the ground is a breathtaking spectacle.
We love everything about the Uyuni Salar, even the most reluctant to follow the marked out routes will accept this well-crafted epic
A lot of time spent in the car to visit the lagoons, bizarrely shaped rock formations and above all, the unobstructed perspective and the immaculate whiteness of the desert attract tourists in search of selfie and funny photos where the waist scales are upside down.
The salar of Uyuni, this is a well-oiled tourist circuit but it is still worth every diversion. It deserves 100 times to brave the icy wind, the endless hours in the car, the hard beds, the meagre meals.
Uyuni’s salar is an encounter with the planet, its imperious nature, a grandiose visit between blue sky, white salt and pink flamingos.
