The Salt Desert – a “cool” place

(The Salt Desert, Bolivia, 5-7th of November 2017)

We were quite happy when we after a two night  stay could pack our things and prepare to leave Uyuni. We walked down to the travel agency were we met our guide and the other participants. Our backpacks were stoved on the roof of the jeep and we travelled five of us in every vehicle together with a guide and a driver.

We had so much fun during the three days we spent on our way from Bolivia to San Pedro in Chile. We started visiting a train cemetery right outside Uyuni

 

We then went on towards the main attraction, the Salt Desert. This desert is really “made up” of salt. While waiting for the lunch to be served we spent time taking funny pictures.

 

Lunch was served from the back of one of the jeeps and was delicious.

 

It is a special feeling to drive through landscapes like the Salt desert and later also an sand desert. The sight is clear in all directions and the only things you see are the other jeeps and some mountains far away.

The ride in the jeep was not that comfortable, as there are no roads and sometimes the surface isn’t that flat, but it is great fun! On our trip we also visited the Salt deserts first hotel made of salt, today only used as a restaurant. 

 

Flamingos, flamingos, flamingos…..

The first evening we took some great sunset pictures before heading on to our hotel – also made of salt.

In the desert it is hot during the days but in the evening the temperature drops down to only a couple of degrees above zero (celsius). We thought we were going to freeze but the hotel was actually both comfortable and warm.

We had a great breakfast before heading off to some caves having been used as a grave yard.

Another cool place was an island filled with huge cactuses where we did a short trek and had  a stunning view over the desert. 

Our hotel the second night was really far out in the desert and it was very very basic. We got to share room with the people we shared jeep with. It is not easy to share room with people you don’t know that well and we did not sleep well. The hotel was situated at 4000 meters above sea level which means that it was even colder than the night before.

We started the next morning by visiting some natural hot springs where a lot of people from our group took a swim.

The last stops before the border to Chile was to one green and one red lake.

The red lake was nice with a cool red colour but the green one was more brown… But we got to see flamingos again.

As soon as we got across the border to Chile the world turned from being really simple and rough. We were met by paved roads and road signs, even though we still drove in the desert.

However, the border control to enter Chile was definitely not smooth and easy. We had to wait for a really long time to get to show our passports and then we had to scan all our luggage – a bit more complicated than needed.