Overland from San Pedro de Atacama to the magnificent Bolivian Uyuni Salt Flat with children

The Bolivian salt flat (the Salar de Uyuni) is the largest salt flat in the world. It covers more than 11,000 square kilometres, and is so flat that its altitude varies less than a metre across its entire surface; these facts go a long way to explaining why it is so spectacular. It is so vast and featureless that the curvature of the earth becomes obvious. That same lack of features and flatness also makes for unique photography opportunities which have seen the area become more famous through Instagram in recent years.

As the crow flies the salt flat is 310km north east from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile (where we approached from), and higher up in the Andes. Driving the overland route it is closer to 450km. The one-way journey is generally done as part of a tour, there are limited roads here, no buses and nowhere to fill up with petrol if you drive yourself, so you need to be pretty well prepared. The trip usually takes three days with two over night stops. Each day has different scenery and can broadly be described as day one: lakes, flamingos and geysers in the Eduardo Avaroa national park, day two: rocks, canyons and llamas between Villamar and Julaca and finally, day three visiting the Salar de Uyuni. (top tip: we have written this in roughly the order we did this in – skip the next few sections to get to the epic photos of the salt flat itself).

Up and over the border into Bolivia

Around 7am we emerged from our hostel to board a minibus to the border. The border crossing itself is both desolate and spectacular. The initial climb east out of San Pedro de Atacama was accomplished on a decent paved road, but a left turn soon saw us onto dirt tracks that we would continue upon for the next three days. It was not very long until we arrived at the Chilean border post at Hito Cajon, alone on a plateau high in the hills at an elevation of 4480m amsl. The additional altitude certainly hit us as we debussed for the formalities – both in terms of headaches, but also as it was freezing. With the Chilean paperwork efficiently done we stopped in no-mans land between the countries for a very tasty al fresco breakfast and then on to the entry point in the Bolivian official hut. The immigration process was equally efficient if a little more ramshackle. It was here that we were handed off from our communal minibus to our driver (Carlos), co-pilot (Marcello) and 4×4 which would be our carriage and safety net for the next few days. With our bags lashed to the roof we were on our way on the dusty desert tracks. A number of times, when the dirt trails offered a number of paths to choose, Carlos decided not to take any track, instead forging a new path of his own through the mountains. Exciting times.

High mountain lakes

On crossing the border, we entered the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, created in 1973 and named after a 19th century Bolivian war hero, it is Bolivia’s most visited protected area and suitably impressive. Quickly, we were into the sights of the trip, and first up were several mountain lakes, the main ones being Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde. Aside from the reappearance of flamingos and tremendous mountain views, the interesting thing about these lakes is that each one has a different chemical composition to its waters. The white colour of Laguna Blanca comes from the suspended borax in the water. Laguna Verde, heavy with arsenic is easily distinguishable from the others because it is the one the flamingos avoid. Both lakes have no outflow to other water bodies so the water level is controlled primarily by evaporation.

The largest of the lakes on our route this first day was Laguna Colorada. This is where the largest population of flamingos in the world makes its home, with three of the world’s flamingo species, the Chilean, Andean and the James’ Flamingo. The James’ Flamingos are particularly interesting. Only found in the high Andean plateaus, the bird was ‘rediscovered’ in 1956, after being declared extinct in 1924. From high on the vantage point the scene was vast and spectacular, with the red algae setting the whole thing off – it is the consumption of the shrimp who feed off this algae that give the flamingos their pink colouring.

Hot geysers (Sol de Mañana)

The highest point on the route, at 4900m amsl was accompanied by one of the more unusual sights of the trip. The sulphurous air got to us before we actually saw the boiling hot geysers. In a reminder of how geologically active the whole area is, here the earth does its best to try to escape from itself, unleashing periodic explosions of hot water and steam in some places, and a steady stream of bubbles in others. In his quest for decent photos Jim got rather too close on a couple of occasions, always keen for an adventure! A geothermal powerplant has also been built near here, harnessing the power of the earth for renewable energy supplies.

Hot spring bathes (Termas de Polques)

Just before lunch on the first day we stopped at the Termas de Polques, where hot water emerges from springs and has been captured in a couple of bathing pools. The very welcome dip was accompanied by views were fantastic of flamingos feeding in the accompanying lake. Hard to beat lying in a hot pool watching flamingos poking about doing flamingo stuff.

Rocky canyons and lush plains

At the end of day one, we left the national park and headed on to our hostel for the night in Villamar. a very comfy establishment with warm showers and excellent food, we tipped ourselves into bed early, weary from the excitement and the high altitude adventures. On the second day we descended a little down from the rocky barren upper plateaus to greener animal-filled plains via several canyons and curiously shaped rocky outcrops. Stops at these provided the kids with climbing and general running about opportunities to stretch the legs out of the 4×4.

The lush valley and accompanying lake, Laguna Negra, was wonderful after the dust filled recent days. A herd of llamas stood out with the their multi-coloured markings grazing on the valley floor. As we walked along Odessa spotted a pair of Andean viscacha in the shade.

Jalaca would be our final stop of the day before we finally made it across to our hotel on the edge of the salt flat. This desolate town at the edge of the salt and at end of an apparently disused railway had more than a hint of the Mad Max about it, and not in a good way. Aside from the abandoned railway wagons the two things that stood out were the apocalyptic playpark (with accompanying soundtrack of squealing metal swings) and the appallingly bad local quinoa and coca beers served at a bar playing European pop music a little too loudly.

The Salt Flat (Salar de Uyuni)

You can do the
photos on an ice rink,
no need for the salt

Odessa

The second of our two nights was spent at the Hotel de Sal Tambo Lomo at Colcha K – a hotel on an outcrop built out of blocks of salt! It was very pleasant too, and handy as it sits on the edge of the salt flat. This makes it very well positioned for getting out onto the salt early the following morning.

We rose before dawn so that we could get onto the salt flat from the salt hotel in good time for the sunrise. This central southern section of the salt flat was covered in a thin layer (only a centimetre or two at most) of water at this time of year which added a mirror effect to the already spectacular scene.

As we drove north deeper into the expanse of the salt flat the surface dried to reveal the hard salt surface below Dessa and Rafe enjoyed digging about and generally getting up close with the salt. We would certainly recommend this time of year, (March, towards the end of the rainy season) as a time to visit the salt flat because you get to experience both the mirror effect of the water, and also the dry massive, expansive views.

Before long an ‘island’ appeared on the horizon in the middle of the salt flat. This was Isla Incahuasi, which at one time had actually been an island in this lake. Today it acts as a focal point for tours heading north, or those recently starting out from Uyuni heading south. We arrived pretty early in the morning in time for a picnic breakfast – fortunately we had reserved the table with the decent view!

Isla Incahuasi itself made for an interesting momentary detox from the salt, with its many cacti and endless views in all directions.

After breakfast we continued north then bearing east, deeper (if that were possible) into the heart of the salt flat. From here there was literally nothing be seen on any quarter, which gave the perfect opportunity to have a lot of fun with perspective. Luckily for us, Carlos and Marcello have plenty of experience in taking amusing salt pictures and we’re in hand with suggestions and directions for some fun shots, until the kids felt they had done enough of such stuff. In contrast to the freezing temperatures at sunrise, the day was really starting to heat up by now.

How we did it

We did this overland tour northbound, starting in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, and ending in Uyuni, Bolivia. Based on the other people we met along the way, our sense was that the majority tend to do it the other way round, starting in Uyuni and continuing on south to San Pedro. Plenty of people also do shorter day trips just taking in the salt flats starting from Uyuni. The benefit of doing this journey south to north as we did is that the big draw of the salt flats is on the last day of three. Do it the other way round and the big event is already done at the start, with two more days still to go. With more visitors travelling south to north, the sites are quieter travelling north as well. At the busiest points (starting out at the border, lunch at the thermal springs, Isla incahuasi) we counted around 15 vehicles, with a maximum of six passengers each doing the route the same day as us.

This is a three day journey with some small but manageable risks. The terrain is punishing on the 4x4s that make it (the majority being Toyota Land Cruisers with a smattering of Nissan Patrols) – and we did pass an abandoned 4×4 that appeared to have recently suffered an engine fire. The occupants belongings were mostly still there but had started to disperse in the wind across the nearby desert through an open window. Quite an eerie sight. There are plenty other tour vehicles to pick anyone up who runs into trouble though.

The biggest issue with this journey is the altitude. We had all had headaches on arriving in San Pedro de Atacama a few days before, but had since acclimatised to its relatively low 2400 metres above sea level. However the highest point on the journey to Uyuni and the salt flat is some 4900 metres – equivalent to more than halfway up Everest. Several of the San Pedro-based tour operators wouldn’t take Odessa at all as youngsters can be particularly vulnerable to altitude sickness. Others would take her only after asking how sturdy and generally healthy she was (we confirmed that she is double hard), emphasising all the same that they carry oxygen in case of any problems. All of the operators that would take Odessa recommended that we book a private tour, i.e. only us four in a 4×4 that would normally take six passengers. We saw this as a sensible option- if either child had trouble with the altitude this would give us the option of bugging out to lower ground (although in reality there isn’t much lower ground accessible along the route!) without inconveniencing anyone else we might be travelling with.

We did a decent trawl of the many tour operators in San Pedro offering this trip. Quickly it became clear all tend to follow the same or similar route, and all for the same price. The only variables seemed to be:

• Would they take someone of Odessa’s age
• Would they offer a discount for cash
• Do they offer an English speaking guide. Although in reality it seemed very few guides, even when billed as English speaking, really spoke enough English to get across any of the finer points of the sights. So we decided not to pay the $50/day supplement for this and instead enjoyed practicing our Spanish en route
• The quality of the food and lodgings for the two nights on the way?

This last point is particularly tough to judge, aside from reading online reviews. In the end we went with Estrella del Sur for the following reasons:

• They offered a cash discount
• Would take the kids
• They are partnered with Tambo Loma (of Uyuni, on the Bolivian side) to deliver the main Bolivian leg of the trip. Why was this interesting for us? Well, Tambo Loma seemed to be one of only two operators (the other being Cruz Andino) who actually owned their own salt hotel by the salt flats (Hotel de Sal Tambo Loma). So we would be travelling with the people that own and operate one of the hotels we would be staying at – which we felt might simplify things and help with the quality of the lodgings

As it turned out we were really happy with the choice of Estrella del Sur. The food along the way was good as were the lodgings. They also offered a cash discount to the point were we effectively paid for five seats in a six seat vehicle that we had to ourselves, much more comfortable than some vehicles with six tall adults inside.