Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Are you ready for Bolivia?

Are you ready to dive deeply into Salvador Dali's paintings and eventually never get out of it again? Are you ready to witness the weirdest scenery ever? Well, then have fun reading this post and enjoy the pictures, the landscape is just out of this world!

Day 1: San Pedro to Laguna Colorada

Jack and me got up early in San Pedro de Atacama and bought some lat water and food supplies before we got on a minibus which brought us up to the Bolivian border at 4300m. Compared to the Atacama dessert it was freezingly cold up there in the morning.

After we passed the Bolivian customs we jumped on a 4WD vehicle that waited for us at the border. We booked this trip in San Pedro and it should bring us in three days to Uyuni in Bolivia crossing one of the most spectacular sceneries on earth. On our 4WD was besides us two also Maria and Helena from Norway, Rene from Germany, Christian from Spain, and our driver Edgar from Bolivia. Immediately we were joking, laughing, and giggling in all languages. So our group fitted together and the journey promised to be lots of fun.

Our first stop shortly after the border were two lagunas, laguna blanca and laguna verde. The scenery was really bizarre: the laguna blanca (white lake) with crystal clear water at 4300m, some 6000m high volcanoes all around, and lots of flamingos in the laguna.

Yes, you heard right, flamingos are up there. You will see lots of them later, so I will skip them now and put your focus on this wonderful atmosphere high up there at the laguna blanca - truly meditative, bizarre, and beautiful:

Just a kilometer away was the languna verde (green lake), which gained its color due to the high mineral concentration. In fact, the concentration of minerals is so high that the laguna's shores are covered by thick salt crusts and there are no birds nesting there. Another spectacularly beautiful place, greenish water, white salt shores, brown and snow capped volcanoes, and blue skies... the day was just three hours old, so what was there still to come?

A lot was still waiting for us! Our way led us through colorful mountains, which could have been taken out of Salvador Dali's paintings

and we even crossed some 5000m high passes! See how our road winds up through the "painting", incredible isn't it?

Take a second look and magnify the following weird picture. the landscape is indeed called "el desserto de Dali" - Dali's dessert. Do you see all the weird rock formations in the colorful background? Incredible, bizarre, and stunningly beautiful! Makes me go upside down :)

The next highlight were some hot springs right at the border of a salt lake, one of the nicest swims I ever had. Additionally, there is a funny story accompanying this picture: When we arrived there was a group of Germans and Austrians in the hot springs and, as usual in Germany, they were all naked and didn't were any swim suits. Of course, I and Rene immediately followed them and jumped in naked. However, all the other non-Germans were to shy and stayed away from the hot springs. As we sooner or later left the springs, the other people dared to get into the water, of course with pants :) Christian (from Mallorca) made fun me because of this German attitude for the entire trip...

Shortly after the hot springs our journey led us to some geysers and hot mud pools. Believe me the smell was terrible, like rotten eggs, but the scenery was taken directly from Mars:

I mean literally from Mars! Crazy isn't it? All these grey mud pools geysers, and one single orange pool... as bizarre as it can get:

Bolivia is a pretty unregulated country and so we could walk and jump around through the geysers and mud pools. Fortunately, no one was hit by the boiling water or fell into the bubbling mud.

What a weird scenery awaited us during the day? And all of this between 4500m and 5000m altitude. And it was still early afternoon, so what was there more to come? We passed some more colorful mountains, lagunas, and volcanoes... and descended down to 4350m for lunch near the laguna colorada.

Unfortunately, it was getting cloudy and so our driver Edgar decided to stop here and give us the afternoon off. I spent the time hiking through some salt flats with Rene and Christian. But sooner or later they were also affected by the altitude just as all the others... all the others except me, somehow I wasn't tired at all. I took the small golden-brown dog from our cabin with me and hiked with him along a gorge of sand and salt rocks.

I think we were a pretty cute couple, don't you think so?

So what is there obviously to do for me in a rocky gorge? Right, bouldering! And what does bouldering at almost 5000m feel like? Actually not too bad if the salt rock wasn't that fragile :)

I was out there until I got late. Together with my small friend I witnessed another spectacularly colorful sunset. Just imagine all these colorful mountains, a pink'n'purple sky, and a thunderstorm far away on the backside of some volcanoes marking the border to Chile. I think there is an American youth culture word to describe this perfectly - AWESOME!

So this was my first day in Salvador Dali's world and it was filled with highlights from early morning until sunset. Later at night I drank a bottle of vino tinto with Rene, Edgar, and Christian. Thanks to this, the altitude, and the memories of this wonderful day I had a perfect sleep.

Day 2: Laguna colorada to San Juan

We got up early at six to have crystal clear skies, which adds the light blue color to the painting we were driving through. We said goodbye to our cute little dog and took off to the nearby laguna colorada (colorful lake).

And what awaited us there was just... I am missing the words to describe the beauty of this place, so see yourself. Clear blue skies, volcanoes defining the horizon, a red laguna (due to algae) with white salt shores, and crazy reflections!

It looked like somebody painted a black'n'white photography with the completely wrong colors. just bizarre and beautiful... but the landscape was just the background to white llamas at the shores

and pink flamingos in the water!

Incredible isn't it?

Take a look at this stunningly beautiful nature and fauna in motion picture:

Have you ever seen something similar? No me neither... just incredibly bizarre and beautiful, taken directly out of Salvador Dali's mind. There were also some darker llamas and when you catch the right angle these two llamas amandes look like a yin-yan sign :)

I stayed at the shore between the llamas and the flamingos for quite some time until I hiked once around the laguna where Edgar and the others were waiting for me with the 4WD.

Of course, there were also numerous spectacular views on the way around the laguna, such as an "all colors in one pic" scenery

or close-up pictures with the flamingos and some salt island which looked like an iceberg floating through a red sea.

All of us were completely stunned by this scenery, a highlight for each of our travels, right guys?

We continued our way which led us deeper intoDali's painting and we stopped at a nice and scenic rock formation called arbol de piedra - the stone tree.

Another magnificent sight, weird stone formations directly embedded into a colorful painting.

So now make a good guess what was the first thing I did there after taking the obligatory pictures? Right bouldering, and believe me the rock was solid, pocketed, and fantastic to climb!

No wonder, just on the backside of the mountains is the notorious Valle de las Rocas, one of South America's primary climbing destinations. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince the others do to go their for a climbing day... so i stayed in the arbol de piedra formations as long as possible and enjoyed the rock and the scenery:

Sooner or later the other guys wanted leave and so we left this magnificent spot behind us. Fortunately, I have a friend there waiting for me to come back :)

We passed some other lagunas, colorful mountains and volcanoes, weird rocks, llamas and flamingos, ... and eventually just got exhausted by all the impressions of this day, the second day in Dali's painting!

Towards the end of the day we crossed a huge salt lake

and arrived in San Juan, where we slep in the Hotel de Sal. You can translate this name literally, the entire building was made out of salt bricks and cactus wood. As if nature wasn't crazy enough...

A thunder storm rolled over the salt flats and the llamas were fleeing towards the soccer field.

This day was just too much for us, the weird colors tortured our minds, and all the impressions of the day just overwhelmed us. So what was there else to do than sit at a salt bar and have some drinks, think about the right colors nature should have, and look forward to another day which brings us to the highlight of the trip, the Salar de Uyuni.

Day 3: San Juan to Uyuni

Our third day begun just as the other one ended, with lots of llamas:

Our journey in the morning led us through a fertile valley

to some cactii covered hills at border of the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt flat in the world.

And then we entered the salar. Currently there is rain season and thus parts of the salar, which is a perfectly flat plain, were covered by an inch of water - a perfect mirror creating crazy reflections! Let's drive through the mirror and enter Alice's wonderland:

We were all stunned by driving through this weird scenery,where you could not anymore distinguish between sky and ground, heaven and earth. As we reached a non-flooded part of the salar, we got out and stood on a solid 6m salt crust. A white flat plain up the blue sky which was again defined by snow capped volcanoes:

Incredible!

Have you ever seen something like this, have you ever stood in such a weird scenery? You can't imagine how bizarre it is, and how picturesque at the same time... Dali's weird mind :)

Of course, this place offers amazing opportunities to capture some funny pictures

which later turn out just as the following one:

There is an entire Norwegian Facebook group dedicated to about 30 of these pictures... we simply had fun taking pics!

So, I think you literally got the picture. This place is out of the world and we were happy to be there!

After a long picture stop we continued our journey over the salt flat, which is of the size of a German federal state. So we had lots of time to enjoy it!

We made another parada de photo (a picture stop), where there was an inch of water over the salt. Make a good guess, are the following two pictures of me

and our two Bolivianos upside down or the right way? Crazy reflections...

Our mind was tortured by all of these crazy impressions of this and the last days, so it was time to leave Dali's painting and get back to reality!

We passed by some people extracting the salt from the salar

and reached solid ground again. More or less solid, the houses were still built of salt and the scenery didn't seem entirely real and correct.

Maybe we were still a little gaga from the last days :)

We got out of our 4WD in Uyuni, strolled around town, and had some beer back in reality.

Uyuni is actually a pretty boring place and there is not much to do, except for one thing - the train cemetery, which is just a huge dump site for old trains... or a tourist attraction., whatever you want to call it. So we followed the train line out of town (into a thunderstorm)

and got to train cemetery in best weather. Honestly, the cemetery was not that bad, in fact, it was kind of beautiful in its own way.

Especially, our British guy Jack couldn't stop to tell the stories how the British Empire constructed the South American railway lines :)

Okay, it was a little interesting, but nothing compared to the experiences and impressions of the last days...

We went back to town, had some food and drinks together, and had to say goodbye to each other late at night. We a bunch of wonderful days together in Salvador Dali's painting, but now we split up and pursue our individual travels.

All the best guys, suerte, and keep our fun time in mind we had in this brain-winding three days...

So back to me: I think I just had another highlight of my travels, lots of unforgettable memories and impressions, and a really good start into Bolivia!

Don't you think so, too?

I have roughly 10 more days until I meet my Mum in La Paz, Bolivia's capital. Ten more days to experience this wonderful country which has not appeared yet on the international travellers' map. I hope you have tortured your mind reading this post and looking at the pics equally as I did, and I hope you had just as much fun!

Stay posted for Bolivia!

Florian