Getting to Uyuni was simpler than I first an anticipated. I thought you had to stay in Tupiza and then catch a bus from there. But, it turns out that you can get a direct bus to Uyuni from Villazon (the border town from Argentina).
We decided to grab a collectivo straight there as it was cheap (ish), it is super easy to find one as many people will shout out destinations. The collectivo took around 4 hours, we arrived in Uyuni at around 18:00 after leaving Argentina at 10:00, so including a border crossing that is not too bad at all!
We also luckily were able to book onto a salt flat tour straight away for the following day. We went with ‘Red Planet’ tours as we were recommended this one by people in our hostel. After some negotiation we managed to get the price down to $1000 pesos, however we met some people who had got theirs for $700.
The salt flat tour is a 3 day tour but if you are pushed for time then you can also do a day tour to the salt flats. You only need to bring a day pack, I would suggest packing for all weathers as the climate varies a lot during the day and night.
The tour starts at 10:00 and you get collected from Uyuni by jeep, which will be your mode of transport for the entire tour. The jeeps are very cramped and very bumpy, so don’t picture yourself napping in these! We had 3 jeeps which held 5 people each.
The first day is the best day of the tour as this is the day you visit the Salar de Uyuni (10,582 sq km of salt flats, the size of Northern Ireland!). The first stop of the tour was visiting the abandoned railway, which used to be the main trading route for the salt. After that is a lunch stop, the food on this tour was so good!
You then visit the salt museum where the guide tells you how the salt is manufactured. It was interesting and also sad to hear that Bolivia does not export any of its salt to the Western world as everyone can pretty much manufacture salt. It made me sad to think that if Bolivia had large amounts of any other natural resource it would be in a very different situation economically and politically.
The third stop of the day is the one we were all waiting for and the real highlight of the tour, the salt flats! I have never seen anywhere so flat and white in my life. I had a real wow moment when I stepped out of the jeep. There are various stops along the salt flats, including the salt museum.
The final stop was the perspective photo shoot. Each group had about 20 minutes with the guide who does his best to choreograph you into different positions. By the time we all had finished (including entire group pics) it was about 2 hours. I think we all had had enough of the salt flats by the end as it was blearing hot and we were all rather salty.
For those who have not seen my instagram, I will post the pictures when I get back to England and move these blogs onto my new website. If you decide to go on this tour then bring props such as toys or pringle cans (standard gringo) or whatever you want to have in your pictures!
After the salt flats we then head for cactus island where yep you guessed it, a whole island of cacti! Some of them were absolutely huge too. We then all enjoy a beer together at the bottom of the island.
The final stop before the hotel was watching the sunset all together with a couple of beers. The guide and jeep drivers did a time lapse for us which involved us performing various dance moves together in sync.
The first nights accommodation was a hotel where I shared a room with my dear friend Annabelle. The dinner was so good and the hot chocolate and cookies (a common theme in South America). As we had to be up at 06:00 we decided to have an early night.
Day 2 consisted of various different wildlife stops including llamas, alpacas and flamingos! We also saw a couple of lagoons and a geyser formed as a result of the crust being thin and heat coming through from the core. The second nights accommodation was not as bad as we were expecting. They really sold it to us as basic, with an outside toilet but there were 3 toilets just no showers!
The second highlight of the tour was the hot springs on the second night. There are many different hostels in the area so various groups go into the hot springs together, it was fun enjoying a glass of red wine and staring at the stars.
The third and final day was when the group split up as some were heading for the Atacama desert in Chile. We made a few stops to the lagoons but this was the day where there was a lot of driving. Your bum may hurt afterwards!
After a full day of driving we arrive back in Uyuni about 5pm. A very good hostel to stay in is ‘Bunker’ hostel, they have an excellent breakfast and the wifi is good! Apart from the salt flat tour there is not much else to do in Uyuni so you do not need to spend any extra time there.
You can get lots of night buses to Sucre or La Paz in the night, this is what I did after the tour. I hopped onto a bus that left at 10pm and got to La Paz at 07:00 ish. I would strongly recommend Red Planet tours, the food and guides were so good. Make sure you do not book it online as you always can negotiate face to face. The salt flats are something spectacular, an out of this world experience- I highly recommend!
Romy's Roamings 