Tupiza and Uyuni - Elie Afif

I arrived in Tupiza early afternoon and checked in to my hostel. I booked a tour for Uyuni leaving on the Friday and then went to run some errands (take out cash, get a SIM card, etc...). I went back to the hostel to do some work.

The next day was mostly spent doing work. In the afternoon, I took a short hike up a small hill for a panoramic view of the town. Tupiza is fairly small and has a bit of a western feel to it.

Tour to Uyuni - Day 1

The main reason to visit Tupiza was to do the Salar de Uyuni tour. Friday morning, we had an early breakfast and our 4x4 came to pick us up at 7:30am. From our hostel, 3 groups of 4 each were starting the tour on that day. In my group, there was Kristof (from Belgium), Floris and Simon (from the Netherlands), and our guide Christian.

The first day we drove mostly spent driving on dirt roads with short stops along the way in Palala, Sillar, Awanapampa, Cerillos, San Pablo, and San Antonio.

Tour to Uyuni - Day 2

On day 2, we visited the Laguna Kollpa, Laguna Hedionda, Desierto de Dali, bathed in the hot springs during a rain storm, the Geysers situated at almost 5,000m above sea level and the Laguna Colorada where we were hit with a hail storm while walking around.

On the way to Laguna Colorada - clear-ish weather

Laguna Colorada with Flamingos in the background

On the way back to Laguna Colorada - after a hail storm

Tour to Uyuni - Day 3

Day 3 involved a bit more hiking which was a bit of a welcome change from all day sitting. Among other things, we checked out Italia Perdida, Laguna Negra and the train cemetery just outside Uyuni.

Afterwards, we checked in to a salt hotel; the walls, chairs, tables are made of salt bricks. At around 6pm, we headed to the beginning of the Salar to watch the sunset.

Tour to Uyuni - Day 4

On the fourth day, we left our hostel at 5:30am to watch the sunrise. Afterwards, we drove to Dakar to have breakfast and then had some fun taking pictures and other shenanigans on the Salar.

We had lunch and then got dropped off in the town of Uyuni. The town is very run down and we decided to not stay the night. Kristof, Floris and Marco (Italian from one of the other groups) took a bus to Sucre (passing by Potosi) at 2pm to meet up with Morgan.

The tour was really fun, even though it involved a lot of driving and not enough physical activities. Our group (the 12 of us) got along really well, and each night when we got to our hostel, we would all sit together drinking coffee and tea before our dinner to chat and play card games.