The night bus from La Paz arrived on time at 7:50am. The air in Uyuni was so dry, welcome back to the desert. Our hotel was less than a 10 minute walk away, it was a very small town. Our hotel was not fully booked and we were able to check in right at 8:00am, which was fabulous. We stayed in a salt hotel where the walls were made from bricks of salt, the grout was salt, chairs were salt, and the decorations in each room were made of salt. The room was huge and everything smelled of salt and essential oils. It was a little splurge, relatively speaking, compared to our usual accommodations. At $60 a night it still felt like a steal, though.

We arrived when the weekly market was in full swing. Several streets right in front of our hotel were buzzing with vendors. There was everything we could imagine like clothing, shoes, food, candles, etc. Lunch was a build it yourself food tour of the market. We shared popcorn, drinks, somewhat stale donuts, and a pastry that was like a deep fried empanada filled with potatoes, egg, chicken, and delicious seasoning. It ended up being easily the best meal we had in Uyuni.

Back at the hotel we took advantage of the jacuzzi and steam room. They felt perfect after a long night bus. Uyuni is the hub for the tours to the salt flats. It felt like the opening hours of the local restaurants revolved around that. 90% of the places we tried to go to were closed at 5:30pm even though they served dinner. We ended up finding one open place called Tika where we had burgers. It was fine, but definitely over priced and bland. It was sadly just the beginning of the bland food trend we’d experience for the rest of our time in Bolivia. Back at the hotel we admired the Bolivian version of the last supper hanging in the common area.

The easiest way to see the salt flats and other nearby highlights is on a tour. We joined a 3 day tour to do just that. According to google the wet season starts in November, but I guess local guides know better and know the water doesn’t stick around until December. In the wet season the salt flats are flooded and look like a giant mirror reflecting the nearby mountains. I was really hoping we’d be able to experience that, but the weather was extremely dry when we arrived. We’ll just have to come back and experience it like that another time. Our tour was supposed to start at 10:00am, but there were long lines for gas which meant our vehicle didn’t pull up until 11:20am.

We were 6 people in our vehicle, but the company we were traveling with had another vehicle with 5 more people too. Everyone on our group was nice and interesting. That’s not always the case so it was great getting to socialize for the 3 days. The first stop was the train graveyard, an area where the steam trains that used to transport minerals to Chile were left once the cost of coal became too high. We spent 40 minutes there exploring and watching everyone climb all over the trains.

The following stop was an area filled with souvenir stands, Colchani. Each one sold nearly identical items made from salt. There were little salt flamingos, salt in bags, and occasionally other items such as hats. Shortly after that leg-stretch stop we made it to the salt flats, the highlight activity of the tour. From pre-lunch until after sunset that is where we spent the rest of the day. The Uyuni salt flat is the largest in the world and it certainly felt that way after all the driving we did on it.

First stop on the salt flats was the salt hotel. We were told people can no longer stay there, but we could explore around. That is where they served us our first lunch, prepared with 0 seasoning. It felt pretty ironic that the salt flat tour had 0 salt for the meals. I was so excited for the quinoa, a product they grow in Bolivia, that I took a huge scoop. It turned out to be overcooked, if they served quinoa in prison that’s what it would be like I imagine. Nick thought I was a bit too harsh on the food. It was edible, but never exciting. Quinoa, llama, and vegetables. Outside of the hotel there was an area with many country’s flags. I found USA, Canada, and Sweden.

Second stop was driving deeper into the salt flat to get some illusion photographs. Our guide made us all pose for 43 group photos and a video. I can’t express how happy we were when that was done, holy man. The down side was that it drained Nick of his photo energy so I only got a few with just me and him. We did at least get some good ones, though. I impressed myself with how long I could hold him up for, maybe he’s loosing more weight on this trip than we thought.

Third stop was a drive to the cactus island (Incawasi Island) in the middle of the salt flats. The salt flats apparently have many islands, but only a few of them have any flora or fauna on them. The cactus island was gorgeous, with huge cacti all over with white flowers on them. It was a good spot to watch the trucks drive on the salt flat.

Fourth and final stop was an area to watch the sunset from. There was actually some water so we got to experience an isolated mirror effect like we would’ve seen everywhere had it been the real wet season. The stop was on the edge of the salt flats close to where we’d drive to our salt hotel for the night. Our guide took more group photos and videos, but then rewarded us with local red wine and snacks. Everything was delicious and I enjoyed Nick’s glass, too. Sunset was amazing with the clouds all glowing pink and orange. We left that spot around 7:00pm to get to our hotel for check in and dinner. Dinner was equally as exciting as lunch had been. Our rooms were cool, though, with salt bricks and salt chunks on the floor. I should’ve taken a small pile of the floor to dinner.

After an okay breakfast it was time to drive to our first stop of the day, San Juan. There we learned about the different varieties of quinoa that they grow and how it’s harvested. Some of the group tried some different types of beer such as quinoa beer and cactus beer. The reviews were that they were fun to try, but not something anyone would order again. I was in the bathroom during the brief explanation of the quinoa, but it seemed like they grew a lot of types.

Our van drove onwards through the dusty desert to get to some train tracks. We saw tracks that went to Chile that trains still use today. In the distance we could see a volcano. After a longer drive we made it to our next stop, which was that same volcano, Ollague Volcano, but closer up. There were strange clumps of moss in the otherwise barren looking desert area. The highlight, though, was the llama sausages served at the nearby shack, which were insanely delicious. They were served on buns with an array of toppings we could choose from.

Finally, after a few stops on the way, we made it to our first lagoon of many for the day, Canapa Lagoon. The water was dark blue, the sand along the shorelines was white, there was mountains in the background and the flamingos were super cute. Nick and I were just happy there were actually flamingos. We’ve been taken to ‘flamingo’ lakes before and haven’t seen that many. Canapa Lagoon was incredible, though, and we really enjoyed getting to walk along the pathway to see the flamingos.

The second lagoon of the day, Hedionda Lagoon, also had flamingos in it which was a nice surprise. It turns out that all the lagoons we would stop at and drive by today and the next day would have flamingos in them. Hedionda Lagoon had many colors: green, yellow and blue in the water. It was a gorgeous location. It is also where they served us our lunch which was chicken (delicious), vegetables, and pasta with no sauce (a strange side dish).

The third lagoon of the day had more mountain views and flamingos, but I am not sure of it’s name. The flamingos were much farther from shore and therefore more difficult to see. We stopped again shortly after that to see some mountains (that honestly looked the same as many we had driven past) in the Siloli desert. I am not sure if they were notable in some way because it was so cold and windy I just got back in the car to wait for the group to finish. We were not expecting it to be so cold in November.

Another fun stop was at some interesting rock formations. They were small cliffs that had round bubble edges. The best part of the rocks were their inhabitants, some small mice and a member of the chinchilla family. Our guide didn’t know their names, though. They were so adorable. Unfortunately the guides were feeding them, so they were not at all afraid of people. Some people were getting too close and even trying to pet them, which we didn’t like.

Continuing our tour we drove past a mountain with the shape of a lion’s face. The lion is looking to the sky. We made it to our restroom break area where there were rocks of various odd shapes. The highlight was a rock that apparently looked like a tree. The way our guide had described it to us I did think that we were going to see a petrified tree, so I was a bit disappointed. Although that was a designated bathroom stop all of the buildings were closed. I could tell there were many women who had been waiting for the stop (the guys peed whenever they wanted), which led to a funny scene. Behind the main building were some rocks about the size of minivans. Each one had a woman peeing behind it, maybe a dozen women at the same time. Gotta do what you gotta do.

The last stop of the day was a fourth lagoon, Colorado Lagoon. The water had sections of red which, was a pretty contrast to the blue. The lagoon had the largest flamingos we had seen so far, but we could not get too close. The path to the shoreline was blocked off so we had to watch from above. There were also vicuñas, an animal that looks slightly like a llama, at the shoreline. It was very windy, but luckily a small cafe was there to take shelter in and enjoy a hot chocolate. Our group waited to watch the sunset before heading to our hotel for the night. It was cold that evening, but the dinner hall had a fireplace, making it cozy.

On the last day of our tour we were excited to not have to get back into a car the next day. Breakfast of pancakes and yogurt was served at 4:30am. I did not love the lack of sleep we had on the tour, but at least we had time for recovery afterwards. The drive started by going past some geysers which were extra steamy in the cold morning air. The sunrise was gentle, but had nice color. Someone said it was -5°C outside, which I believed. If I had known how cold it was going to be I would’ve brought my hat and mitts with me. The tour only allowed us one backpack so I didn’t have time to think much about what to bring or leave behind when we consolidated our bags in their office.

The van drove past a few more lagoons with flamingos in them, but we did not stop. The next stop we had was for some hot springs (Aguas Termales De Polques). It was so cold that the hot springs were a perfect activity. Our group got to spend about one hour there. There were two hot spring pools. One was deep and slightly colder, the other was shallow, but much warmer. We spent most of our time in the shallow pool. If we sat on the sandy bottom, the water reached our chests anyways so it wasn’t too bad. The views were nice of the lake in front of us with mist from the cold air. More than half of our group opted to not go in the hot springs as they thought it would be too cold, their loss!

Reluctantly, we had to leave the hot springs to continue on our drive. The next stop was a desert area that seemed underwhelming to me, Salvador Dali desert. Not sure why that was a stop, but that’s okay, they can’t all be winners. However, the next stop, Green Lagoon, was a good one. There was white sand, mountains, and the shallow pools of two lagoons next to each other. As our tour took place right before rainy season would start, most of the lagoons were the most shallow they would be all year. It was still nice, though. After one last group photo (thank goodness) it was time to say goodbye to most of the group as they would be taken to Chile. Only 4 of us (myself and Nick included) got back into a van to go to Uyuni.

The drive back to Uyuni started at 8:30am, which was nice since we had many hours to cover. Over the 3 days of the tour we drove on so many dusty roads that I could feel it in my lungs. We drove past many vicuñas and mountain views. Lunch was an interesting experience. Our vehicle stopped in the middle of a road in a small town and had us all get out. The vehicle then left us there and went to a building up the road. For some reason they thought it would be better for us to walk 5 minutes on the dirt road then just wait for lunch? I did not follow the logic, but was a bit annoyed since it was so cold outside. The town had no police as our guide told us it was used for cocaine shipments between Bolivia and Chile. Why was that our lunch stop? Who knows. The strangeness continued when our guide told me I could not wait inside the building for lunch, only the car. Once we eventually were allowed inside, lunch was surprisingly delicious. We found a salt shaker and everything turned around. Lunch was mashed potatoes, fried chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, corn, and olives. What a difference salt makes, I will never take it for granted again.

We made two more stops before reaching back to town. The first one was some rock formations which I used as an opportunity to use the toilet. After the rock formations we stopped in a small town. Our guide did not say it would be a long stop so we didn’t know what we were in for. The stop ended up being almost 40 minutes long with both the driver and guide disappearing for that time. There was a cute flamingo mural, but otherwise nothing else there.

By 3:40pm we made it back to Uyuni. After waiting for them to open the office to grab the rest of our bags, we went back to our same salt hotel. The restaurant our guide recommended was closed, so we had a series of unfortunate meal attempts. Nick liked the Chinese restaurant, but I thought it was too greasy. We tried another place just for a salad, but somehow that was also bad. La Paz had been the only place so far with decent food in Bolivia. We hoped it was just because we were in a touristy area and our luck would change at the next destination.

Later that day we also had our first edible meal in town (besides the market) at Blue Moon. We just got burgers, but they were pretty good. What a relief that was. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing before our journey to southern Bolivia.

The bus was only a few hours long, a nice change of pace for our travel days, and we arrived in the early afternoon to Tupiza. We ate some fantastic salteñas from Restaurant El Escorial and checked into our hotel. Our hotel felt like a little oasis in the busy downtown area. Once inside, everything was quaint, cutely decorated, and there were many flowering trees and a pool. It was the perfect place to just relax for a few days. Every evening we got to enjoy the sounds of an amateur marching band rehearsing very nearby.

Nick and I used our time in Tupiza to catch up on laundry, update our resumes (it’s getting to be time to start thinking about the end of the trip, ugh), and blogs. I was exhausted from not getting full nights of sleep from endless coughing. I did enjoy some time in the pool, but mostly just rested. Tupiza is like the Arizona of Bolivia, with some hikes to viewpoints and red rock formations. We saw none of them, but the rest was much needed.

We alternated between salteñas and pizza for our meals. One day when we did venture out farther than our block we wandered through a small square and got ice cream. Nick got his from the first shop we found. I got mine from the next shop, which looked so good Nick got a second one there too before he was even finished his first one. It was difficult to find a mode of transportation to the Argentinian border so we ended up just getting a private taxi arranged by the tour company in the same building as our hotel. We would have an early morning start at 5:00am to travel to our next destination. Overall, we enjoyed our 10 days in Bolivia but will have to come back during wet season to see the salt flats again, visit the jungle, and visit the surf town.