How to visit the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia

As mentioned here, salt flats are "dried-up desert lakes. They form in closed hollows where rainfall can’t drain away. In a wet climate, a lake would form but, in a desert, the water is heated and evaporates into vapour faster than it is replenished by rain. The salt and minerals dissolved in the water are left behind as a solid layer." Even with that explanation, they still blow your mind in person.  

If anyone you know has visited the Salt Flats, you've probably seen the epic pictures that result. The, well, flatness of the areas make them a mecca for those who want to take proportion-bending photographs and those who want to have automobile races. There are salt flats in the United States in Utah and New Mexico, but the biggest one in the world is just outside of Uyuni, in rural Bolivia. 

By rural, I mean RURAL. From the US, you'll need a plane ride (or multiple), a taxi, an overnight bus, and then a multi-hour car ride to get there. But it's worth it! Tour groups offer multiple trip durations from a day trip to over a week. We went with the 3 day, two night option from Trans Andino and were generally quite happy. We elected to share a car instead of doing the private tour, which was of course cheaper, and had other pros and cons that I'll mention.

Bolivia requires a visa for Americans, and it costs $160 and they prefer US cash. It's good for 10 years once you have it, but getting it is a pain. Bolivian consulates are few and far between, so I did visa on arrival, which is not too bad if you brought all the paperwork you're supposed to have. I had everything, but for my 2x2 photograph I had brought a copy, and they wanted an original. That mistake set me back about 3 hours in the airport as I waited in a line with other Americans to get my photo taken and a slapdash visa printed. Make sure you also have copies of everything; I had to give them one of my two itinerary copies and if I hadn't printed another one things could have been ugly. I have looked online for the eVisa option and only come across third parties selling you the service for a higher fee, and I can't speak for any of them. The usual rules apply: leave yourself plenty of time for all flights, with several hours of cushion on both sides, for this kind of thing.

You start by flying into La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. At least in August, I found that all the flight options I had were in the middle of the night for some reason. This trend continued throughout all my South America travels. Sadly the late hour didn't translate to sparsely populated flights - each one was chock full. I often had to book hotels for the night before my arrival so that I could check in at 6am or some other crazy hour.

Don't forget that La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at over 11,000 feet. You may want to acclimate nearby for a few days (Bogotá, Colombia at 8,661 feet isn't too far away). I did not acclimate and boy did I feel it - especially because the salt flats are much higher than La Paz. 

La Paz is a great place to stock up on some altitude sickness remedies, especially if that is all you are able to focus on due to a crushing headache and sucking wind (🙋🏻‍♀️). The thing you want is coca leaves. You can buy them as tea or candy, but the real heavy hitters are the pure leaves sold in a home-tied bag with no label. We got a bag that easily supplied two people for 5 days and two different types of candy for $2. Some candy has a little added sugar, and I would go with just that one. I also bought one that was marked as candy but it was just melted and hardened leaves, and it was quite bitter. 

Slurping coca leaves tea and doing the physical work I could muster upon arrival in La Paz, which was lying in bed.

Walking around La Paz. Up this charming alley we found our coca store.

This was sold in that very official store. Don't let the garage sale packaging deter you.

Never enough. I was chewing, drinking, and sucking coca leaves all day every day. If they had sold it in vapor form I would definitely have bought that too.

To get the benefits from your coca leaves, take 3-5 leaves and fold them in half, then maybe in half again, and tuck them in between your cheek and back teeth on one side. Then just forget about it and live life. You can even drink water with them still there. The coca juice slowly dissolves and you absorb it when you swallow your saliva. In about 20 minutes the headache goes away!

I was sorely tempted to make jokes about being a coke addict, because I was on these leaves like white on rice due to my lack of acclimatization and possibly general frailty. "Haha, need my fix!" or "Is 7am too early to do my coke?" But that is a huge no-no in this region. It's not funny to joke about a drug that is responsible for widespread murder, corruption, and terrorism; every local you speak to knows someone who has died in the drug trade (said my guide in Colombia). Plus, you need 18 other chemical components and processing to turn coca leaves into cocaine, so it's not accurate OR funny. So resist the urge.

From La Paz, you take an overnight bus to Uyuni. We stayed at a hostel that was a couple minute walk from the bus terminal since this is not the time or place we wanted to be at the mercy of traffic or directional mishaps. 

There are several bus companies that make the La Paz - Uyuni trek, and all of them are overnight. You should go with one called Todo Turismo. It's the "luxury" one that's reviewed as far safer than the cheaper alternatives. It's more than double the price of companies that a local would choose, but even so, in USD it was around $80 for a round trip ticket (about 20 hours of travel!). The comfort is decent - the seats lay almost flat, but not close enough, and if someone is seated right next to you you'll still feel cramped. You're paying for the direct route. Reviewers for other companies complained that their drivers kept stopping to pick up more passengers, and when they were asleep there was no way to look out for who is taking what bag from the storage hold. Some tourists had their stuff taken in the night. I did a little overkill: even with my fancy company I still brought my pack with me onto the bus instead of putting it in the hold. I very politely asked* if I could switch my assigned spot to one next to an empty seat, and luckily they accommodated me both times. I went way overboard and locked my bag to the arm rest with a little travel lock that I usually use for skiing. I'm glad I did, because even the Todo Turismo bus made some unannounced and unexplained stops (they announce one for a driver switch, but they stopped at least 6 times). It seemed to go fine for everyone even if their luggage was in the hold, but if you really want to sleep peacefully, it's nice to have the extra security.

*You should learn Spanish if you haven't already. English was technically a possibility but I wouldn't count on it in the rural areas.

The company gives you a water bottle, blanket, and travel pillow for the ride.  If you don't get those things in the office make sure to ask for them before the bus leaves. There is a restroom on board, but the sign says in all caps ONLY FOR PEEING, so don't get any ideas about #2. There are TONS of speed bumps on the ~10 hour drive, and they always seemed to catch our driver off guard. After a bump he would floor the accelerator, then slamp on the brake about a minute later for the next bump. Not the best environment for sleeping - in hindsight I would probably advise popping a valerian or melatonin. 

I brought my inflatable travel pillow and used it a lot.

So after a night full of driving and hopefully full of sleep, you'll arrive at a plateau right at sunrise for a break (not a pee break and DEFINITELY NO #2 DON'T FORGET). It's a break for the employees and the driver, but it's a lovely sunrise view of the Bolivian desert for the travelers too. 

A frozen sunrise. Don't forget August is the dead of winter, and the altitude in the highlands means extra cold.

When we got to Uyuni, which is actually a town several hours from the flats themselves (no bus could drive close up to the flats), we had some awkward maneuvers: a random person would come and ask our names, and if we were on their list, we would go somewhere with them. The first stop was a breakfast restaurant (0 Michelin stars and not on the way to one anytime soon), then to the Tours Andino office "downtown" to go over the itinerary, meet our guide and co-travelers, and load up the car.

Our awesome guide Luis loading the SUV

Lucky us! We happened to be there during Bolivian independence day (wait, I mean, we totally knew exactly when that was and planned it intentionally...). As a result we saw some lovely parades and rallies. The visuals were amazing, but the audio was very strange. There were tons of little children and some of them had special roles reciting speeches, blaring through a microphone turned up way too high. These children had clearly been selected for their ability to sob uncontrollably while still annunciating their speeches clearly. The content focused on how they would gladly die for their country and that willingness moved them to tears. It was... uncomfortable. Propaganda and patriotism take some weird forms in this world.

Bolivia won independence from Spain in 1825.

It was a multi-hour drive to the flats, which aren't really in Uyuni but in a vast expanse outside the town. 

The first stop is to the abandoned train yard where you can climb on some rusty old trains. I was mostly here for the flats and my attitude toward the trains was "... ok, sure."

🤷🏻‍♀️

Then our guide led us through a salt manufacturing plant. They export and keep the salt local, and even add iodine to it right there off the flats. 

It was time to go out to the flats. I was ready.

It was incredibly cool. The cold winter weather was exacerbated by the altitude, but the relentless sun reflecting off the salt resulted in me sporting short sleeves for most of the visit.

Something about the underwater pools evaporating through the salt results in these hexagon shapes of salt ridges along the flat plains.

Oh hey didn't see you there!

Pensively considering the flats.

We stayed for about 45 minutes taking pictures. It was harder than it looked because the altitude was even higher than La Paz, so if I jumped for a photo I had to keel over and recover for several minutes. I put all the jumping ones on Instagram.

Since we were on the multi-day tour instead of going straight to the flats and back, we had quite a few extra sights to see. I'm gonna be brutally honest with you: while I would do the same tour selection again, the other sights are nowhere near the level of the flats. Other stops include the abandoned train yard, a flamingo lake, some hot springs... definitely interesting and worth doing, but not life changing. Still, you're gonna want to break up all the driving time involved, especially if you are in a group. We shared a guide with 3 Danes and an Englishman who, in line with global trends, were quite tall. The passenger seat in our SUV was highly sought after, followed by the middle row. Two unfortunate souls, though, had to sit crunched in the back seat with knees almost up to chests for several hours over sometimes bumpy terrain. We also ended up driving at least 3 extra hours because the others in our group were continuing on to Chile instead of retracing our steps like our itinerary called for, so there were inconveniences going in the non-private group. But it also meant we got to meet new people and get some really cool group pictures:

I had constantly been ridiculing the people who take the goofy perspective pictures with props. I've seen them with people coming out of pringles cans, being chased by a T-rex... corny, cringe stuff. I'm pretty sure I said to my friend Juliana, "Shoot me if I do any pictures like that." But then Luis whipped out a toy Godzilla. I'm glad Juliana wasn't armed.

This is tied for the stupidest travel picture I've ever taken with the mummy picture in Egypt.

No comment.

The whole car marveled at how realistic my foot looked on this guy's hand. 

In the middle of the salt flats is an island which is, obviously, filled with cacti. It's called Incahuasi. 

This place was pretty surreal. Here's a little more information, but not much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Incahuasi

One of the few moments I was not leaning heavily on rocks.

As the afternoon was drawing to a close, Luis pulled out some wine glasses and a lovely local bottle for us to sip while watching the sunset on the flats. 

Luis breaks out the wine.

The Danes, Brazilian, American, and Englishman drink to an awesome day.

We prepare in case we release a music album together.

Evolution of Bolivian tourists.

Me just absolutely stoked to be out of the country and learning new things. 

That night we stayed in a hotel made entirely of salt. The walls were salt. The tables and chairs were salt. The beds were salt. You could lick it - don't ask me how I know. 

A window looking out of our hotel room at dusk; note the salt bricks.

Having a bed made of salt is awesome. But they should be careful because someone might be really sleepy and cold and mildly hypoxic from altitude and in the dark that person might think that the block of solid salt at the head of the bed is a stack of soft pillows, and she might excitedly jump in bed and slam her head against it so hard she could concuss herself. I'm not an expert I'm just pointing out hypothetical risks.

This hotel had hot water, but not a lot of it. Since multiple tour groups stayed there the same night, Juliana and I selfishly rushed to shower first and still both of us got some healthy ice bath therapy. We were somewhat expecting it though. As our tour planner told us for both nights on the flats, "Hot water... maybe yes, maybe no." Electricity was guaranteed only 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night, so you had to plan your charging and light needs in advance. In case you haven't picked up on it yet, this is not the relax-and-read-a-book-on-the-beach type of vacation. But it's so cool!

The payoff for no electricity.

Quinoa still on the plant looks like this.

There was LOTS of quinoa. As the vegetarian in the group I had meals consisting of quinoa fritters, quinoa bread, and quinoa on the side. There was also quinoa dessert. No complaints!



Wild llamas above a semi-frozen stream. That is what we are.


The Bolivian deserts are home to the rare Vizcacha; a long tailed rabbit-type creature with hooded eyes that came in handy when the sand blew relentlessly.

An active volcano, called Ollagüe, being very subtle about it.

Still climbing... 

Flamingo time!

Stopping by the Polques hot springs. From long underwear to bikini is a transition I seldom make, but what am I gonna do, NOT do it?

We also visited some geysers which, I was rather dismayed to note, were located at the highest point in the entire itinerary: about 16,000 feet. I. Was. Dying.

Driving back to Uyuni took about 7 hours. Then we reversed the overnight bus process and headed back to La Paz for me to continue on to Paraguay and for Juliana to come home to Boston. 

Summary of the route we took.

While waiting for the bus back to La Paz, we stopped into this restaurant, which was AWESOME. Not to be confused with the restaurant near Ollagüe, which served llama meat: 

😳

Made it back to La Paz! There is no mass ground transit, but you don't have to ensare yourself in the notoriously bad traffic if you have $3 or so: just take the cable cars. Locals take them for commutes, it's not purely a tourist thing, but we did love it. 

La Paz from a cable car station.

The cable cars in La Paz feel pretty safe. The backyards on this mountaintop... not so much. 

Also, randomly, my phone worked with no day pass or new sim card. So don't bother getting advanced plans if you have AT&T!

From Bolivia, I went to Paraguay, then eventually Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, and Brazil. It was an awesome August :) Hopefully I can write about those destinations soon!