Uyuni Things to Do

4 more images

Uyuni Salt Lake, white deserts and colored lagoons
Eduardo Avaroa Reserve

Between heaven and earth there is a great watery salt plain where the heavens are mirrored in the horizon of the earth. The Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia's largest salt lake, was created forty thousand years ago as a flat bed into which the salty mineral residue drained from the mountains.

The Salar de Uyuni, with over twelve thousand square kilometers, is the largest salt flats in the world; during the wet season it appears as a mirror lake that can be traversed not by boats but by four wheel vehicles-- it is only six to twenty inches deep.

Driving across it is one of the weirdest and most fantastic experiences anywhere on the continent, when the bright blue skies contrast with the blinding-white salt crust. Dawn and dusk on the salt flats are wonderful spectacles, and in the rainy season they turn into a gigantic mirror. It is a photographers paradise.

4 more images

Uyuni Salt Lake, white deserts and colored lagoons
Eduardo Avaroa Reserve

Between heaven and earth there is a great watery salt plain where the heavens are mirrored in the horizon of the earth. The Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia's largest salt lake, was created forty thousand years ago as a flat bed into which the salty mineral residue drained from the mountains.

The Salar de Uyuni, with over twelve thousand square kilometers, is the largest salt flats in the world; during the wet season it appears as a mirror lake that can be traversed not by boats but by four wheel vehicles-- it is only six to twenty inches deep.

Driving across it is one of the weirdest and most fantastic experiences anywhere on the continent, when the bright blue skies contrast with the blinding-white salt crust. Dawn and dusk on the salt flats are wonderful spectacles, and in the rainy season they turn into a gigantic mirror. It is a photographers paradise.

Uyuni Salt Lake, white deserts and colored lagoons
Eduardo Avaroa Reserve

Between heaven and earth there is a great watery salt plain where the heavens are mirrored in the horizon of the earth. The Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia's largest salt lake, was created forty thousand years ago as a flat bed into which the salty mineral residue drained from the mountains.

The Salar de Uyuni, with over twelve thousand square kilometers, is the largest salt flats in the world; during the wet season it appears as a mirror lake that can be traversed not by boats but by four wheel vehicles-- it is only six to twenty inches deep.

Driving across it is one of the weirdest and most fantastic experiences anywhere on the continent, when the bright blue skies contrast with the blinding-white salt crust. Dawn and dusk on the salt flats are wonderful spectacles, and in the rainy season they turn into a gigantic mirror. It is a photographers paradise.

3 more images

Uyuni Salt Lake, white deserts and colored lagoons
Eduardo Avaroa Reserve

Between heaven and earth there is a great watery salt plain where the heavens are mirrored in the horizon of the earth. The Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia's largest salt lake, was created forty thousand years ago as a flat bed into which the salty mineral residue drained from the mountains.

The Salar de Uyuni, with over twelve thousand square kilometers, is the largest salt flats in the world; during the wet season it appears as a mirror lake that can be traversed not by boats but by four wheel vehicles-- it is only six to twenty inches deep.

Driving across it is one of the weirdest and most fantastic experiences anywhere on the continent, when the bright blue skies contrast with the blinding-white salt crust. Dawn and dusk on the salt flats are wonderful spectacles, and in the rainy season they turn into a gigantic mirror. It is a photographers paradise.

2 more images

Laguna Blanca is very close to Laguna Verde near the Chile border. There is an outpost there where you can catch a bus to San Pedro, Chile, if you are headed south. So my guide could get back to La Paz to take care of a family matter, we decided to drive all the way back to Uyuni that day. It took 7 hours. The flamingos we saw in Laguna Blanca may be Andean flamingos.

Savvy travellers know that the main source of fun on the Salar are the silly perspective-less pictures. Since everywhere is white, you lose your perscpective completely and it is hard to judge distances between objects. So you can get as creative as you want when taking pictures - guaranteed fun! Have a look at the picture here and those in the travelogue to see what I mean :)

In the desolate, dusty outskirts of Uyuni there is a train cemetary. The setting is perfect for this collection of rusted, age-old locomotives forgotten in the middle of nowhere. Makes for some good photographic opportunities and some fun exploring the train carcasses.

Uyuni is a town in the middle of nowhere somewhere off the edge of the Salar de Uyuni. I guess it's primary function nowadays is for the tourists visiting the Salar. The town itself has one main road, and is not particularly appealing, except for watching people going about their own business, which unfortunately involve most men sitting around and getting drunk. My suggestion would be to spend as little time here as possible - though if you are stopping for lunch it is worthwhile to have a pizza here - they are delicious.