The salt flat tour is three days, but we’d already seen the salt flats on day one. What would we do with the other two days, I wondered? Well, as it turns out, quite a bit!
The day started at the dark and early hour of 6am, when we dragged ourselves out of our toasty-warm sleeping bags into the freezing cold air. I’d slept quite well, and was feeling pretty good despite the early hour. After a basic breakfast at the Jukil salt lodge, we packed up the trucks and hit the road.
Petrified algae and dead coral
Our first two stops were to see some dead sea life, appropriate considering all this desert used to be underwater. There’s an oft-repeated theory that Atlantis may have been in Bolivia. I won’t go into that, but it is cool — if a bit disturbing — to see the remains of what used to be a giant sea.
First, the Gruta de las Galaxias, which are caves full of petrified algae. Discovered in 2003, they contain unique algae formations that look like rocks. We spent about twenty minutes checking out the caves there, as well as the attached tiny pre-Incan cemetery. The explanation was all in Spanish, so I only caught a bit of it, but it was kinda cool.
Next, we hiked back down to the trucks, and headed to an area called the Coral Army. These long-dead pieces of coral are standing semi-vertically, so they look like they’re at attention. They weren’t all that interesting, to tell the truth; I think the main point of stopping at the Coral Army is that there’s a bathroom there. I should mention, most of today consisted of “nature stops” in the open air, where hiding behind a rock was the best we could manage. So the rare bathrooms, where they existed, were much appreciated, especially considering how much water we had to drink just to stay hydrated in the extreme desert climate.
Coloured lagoons, rocks and flamingos
Our next stop was at the first of three lagoons viewed today, Laguna Canapa. Set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, the lagoon offered a great opportunity to flamingo-watch from up close. Flamingos really are funny-looking birds.
We also had a picnic lunch there. The drivers parked the trucks in a formation to shield us from the wind, and unloaded the table, small plastic stools, and food from the roof of the trucks. We actually ate quite well, considering we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
After lunch, we did quite a bit more driving. We visited Laguna Blanca, the white lake, where there were more flamingos. There was a stop at some more rocks, including one that resembles a tree and is known, appropriately enough, as the rock tree. There was a photo op by one of the many volcanoes in this area, shared between Bolivia and Chile on the other side of the border. Yep, we crossed really close to the Chilean border. Some of the Salar de Uyuni tours actually cross the border and end up in San Pedro de Atacama, in Northern Chile. Unfortunately, time wouldn’t allow me to tack that onto this trip this time.
At one point, we stopped at a mountain pass that was over 4,700m, described by Sam as being the highest point of our trip. (One of the other drivers apparently said we actually crossed 5,000m at one point, though I’m not too sure.) We all got out of the cars for a photo stop, and I was a bit concerned that I’d feel the effects of the altitude, but I was really fine. Yay for acclimatization — finally! We did a bit of impromptu dancing by the cars, because, why not, eh?
Red red lake
Our last stop of the very long day was at Laguna Colorada, the famous red lake. And yes, the water really does appear to be red from above, thanks to a combination of sediment and algae in the water.
There were more flamingos in Laguna Colorada, not to mention the red water itself to photograph from every angle. We spent some time there taking creative photos and just enjoying the view, before loading back onto the 4x4s to drive to our overnight stop.
Quetena for the night
When night fell, we arrived at the small community of Quetena, where we were staying the night. Sam was quite sick at that point, so she didn’t give us much information about the place; I only knew what it was called by asking one of the drivers the next day. Much like at Jukil, we were greeted with tea, shown into our dorm rooms (I bunked with Geraldine and Sabine this time), and served dinner. And the local kids did another singing and clapping performance for us, also passing the hat around.
Unlike Jukil, Quetena was absolutely freezing, even under the sleeping bag and blankets. It was also much more basic, and hadn’t really been cleaned very well. Plus, there wasn’t enough food for dinner; it was basic spaghetti and meat (or tomato) sauce, but they ran out before everyone had a chance to eat. Being in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I wasn’t expecting much, but it was a fairly uncomfortable stop. Nonetheless, we were tired, so we tucked in for the night.