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Sugar and salt tour from La PazUyuni tourRoute: La Paz - Uyuni - salt flats - Uyuni v.v.This Uyuni tour module links four of Bolivia’s highlights in four days, from La Paz via Uyuni and Potosi to Sucre. You’ll visit the immense salt pans in the south but without the four-day jeep tour to the lagoons and hot springs like in our Bolivian salt flats tour. Because of the altitude and basic facilities, the days on this Uyuni tour are quite tiring but it does mean you'll get to see the best of Bolivia in a short space of time. The Uyuni tour kicks of in La Paz, high in the Andes but you can do as the locals do and drink some coca tea to help ease any altitude sickness. From La Paz, you’ll cross the Altiplano to the dazzling salt lake at Uyuni, probably the most breathtaking nature reserve we've ever seen. After visiting a cactus island in the middle of the lake you'll return to Uyuni for the night. If you would like to see where you could go after this Uyuni tour check out our Bolivia tours, or alternatively our Peru holidays which include tours in both Peru and Bolivia. |
| Duration |
4 days / 3 nights La Paz to Uyuni (or vice versa). |
Accommodation |
1st night overnight bus or hotel Uyuni. Hotels including breakfast (see our photos here). |
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Price |
£159 per person - based on 2 people sharing. |
Includes |
All transport, jeep excursion to Salar de Uyuni incl. lunch and coffee/tea and Spanish-speaking guide. |
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Transport |
Night Bus to Uyuni and Jeep trip to the Salt Flats to and from Uyuni. |
Excludes |
Entrance fee Isla de Pescadores (US $ 1 pp), other meals, excursions, transfers and/or entrance fees |
Day 1 La Paz - UyuniToday you’ll be travelling straight across Bolivia on a 12-hour bus trip. Make your own way from your hotel in La Paz to the bus station. Driving across the wide Altiplano, with the Andes mountains in the background, you’ll head towards Uyuni, the base for tours to the world famous Salar de Uyuni salt plains. Make sure you’re well rested and adjusted to the altitude before you set off on your Uyuni tour, it’s going to be a tiring but thrilling couple of days.You’ll be taking the overnight bus around 9pm from La Paz. It can get pretty cold at night, the seats can be a little uncomfortable and the road is poorly maintained so prepare for a bumpy ride. As you leave La Paz and set for your Uyuni tour into the beautiful valley, you can see little houses clinging to the steep mountain sides. |
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Day 2 UyuniThe total travel time from La Paz to Uyuni is about 13 hours. Make sure you bring a warm sweater and plenty of snacks and drinks for the long bus ride. When you arrive in Uyuni the next morning, the first stop on your Uyuni tour module, you can check in to your hotel, have some breakfast and spend the rest of the day as you please.Uyuni is a small, dusty town at 3700m altitude. It’s like one of those sleepy desert towns straight out of a western Clint Eastwood movie. There’s a bank, an exchange office for dollars and travellers cheques and a cash machine which doesn’t always work, so make sure you have enough cash on you before you leave. |
Day 3 Uyuni - Salar - UyuniOn day three of your Bolivia trip, you’ll be met early in the morning by the local agent in Uyuni for a jeep tour with a Spanish-speaking guide/driver to the world’s largest salt lake: the Salar de Uyuni.As you drive out of Uyuni, you’ll pay a short visit to the train cemetery just outside the village. A long line of old disused steam engines and demolished carriages slowly rusting away in the middle of the desert against a bright blue sky is a very surreal sight. From here you’ll drive on to the salt mine village, Colchani, where you can see how the salt thats extracted from the plains is utilised. It’s hard to imagine that hundreds of men work out on the plains day in day out. From Colchani it’s another 15 minutes drive to the actual plains and one of the highlights of this Uyuni tour. |
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The flats were formed when the lake that was originally here dried up and they now cover an area of 10.582 km², half the size of Wales. The salts and minerals from the water couldn’t flow away and dried up in the lake, leaving an immense and completely flat white expanse. The Salar is a photographer's paradise, with beautiful electric blue sky due to the dry thin air. The lake is literally dazzling, even with sunglasses and a sun cap the brightness of the sun reflecting on the white plain makes your eyes water. There's no road here and the Uyuni tour jeep just goes wherever, driving on for miles and miles across the glittering surface. Because of the vast expanse and the Andes volcanoes on the horizon, it seems like you're hardly moving at all, a weird and wonderful sensation on your Bolivia trip. |
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Slap bang in the middle of the white expanse lies the Isla de Pescadores, an odd little rocky outcrop no more than 500m in length. You'll spend an hour or so walking among the giant cacti that cover the island, the only plants strong enough to survive in the bizarre environment of the Salar. The jeeps all meet here for an outdoor lunch on the island. In the afternoon of your Uyuni tour, you'll continue north across the Salar and you might even spot the animals that live on and around the salt plains. They include flamingos, vicuñas (a rare type of llama), vizcachas, pumas and Andean foxes. Your guide will be able to tell you all about the geographical background of the lake and about the local history and culture of the region. |
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If there’s time, you’ll stop off at the Tunupa volcano where you can stretch your legs with a walk halfway up the mountain for a spectacular view across the Salar. You’ll be back in Uyuni at the end of the day where you can wash off all the salt under a nice hot shower. Please appreciate that due to unpredictable weather circumstances the itinerary to the salt plains can be changed without prior notice. A certain amount of flexibility in your Uyuni tour travel plans may be needed. |
Day 4 Salar de Uyuni - PotosiYou'll begin day four of your Uyuni tour with a leisurely breakfast. You can then continue travelling onto Potosi for our Potosi silver mine tour, 'Searching in the silver mines' and then onto the beautiful city of Sucre, for our Bolivia trip, 'Springtime in the white city'.For your Uyuni tour excursion to the salt plains bring the following: Windproof jacket, fleece, thermal underwear, sturdy shoes, thick socks, gloves, lip balm, water bottle, sunglasses with good UV-filter, sun cap, sunscreen. |
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Uyuni tour accommodation (Click to enlarge)
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