Salar de Uyuni

Following Potosí, I decided to head off straight away for the south again, skipping cities such as Sucre or Santa Cruz (once again, this will be for another journey...) and ended up in Uyuni, which only purpose or so it seems is to serve as a springboard for tourists who want to explore the legendary salt flat Salar de Uyuni and the amazing landscapes the desert nearby has to offer.

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat with 10,582 square kilometres and at an elevation of 3,656 meters. The Salar was apparently formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes and is covered by a few meters of salt crust. The best way to visit it is to book a 4WD tour for 3 days and to end up in Chile, in San Pedro de Atacama, after having crossed another national park full of coloured lakes, flamingos, alcapas, volcanoes, geysers, etc... I am not going to talk about it for ages but instead will let you admire the different pictures I took during these 3 days. A truly amazing tour...

As we were leaving Uyuni, a small sand tornado appeared...

A graveyard of trains near Uyuni

Actually the next edition of the Dakar is planned to come here too

Our vehicle for the next 3 days

The salt crust can be seen clearly

The Salar allows for funny pictures...

Picture taken from the Incahuasi island in the middle of the desert

So flat...

Sunset on the Salar

Funny thing, the hostel were we would sleep was entirely made in salt, from the floor to the walls, beds, tables, etc...

Leaving the desert, we would arrive in the National Park Eduardo Avaroa

Flamingos

El increible árbol de piedra (the stone tree), a volcanic rock formation shaped by the strong winds

Coloured lake, with flamingos, the colours are amazing

Mummy and baby alpacas

Who's tickling me???

The desert by night

Geysers at almost 5000 meters high

And we would arrive around 7am at a lake with thermal waters...

Where there was a small swimming pool! Temperature outside: 0 °C; Temperature inside: 35 °C!!

On the left, the road to Argentina, on the right, to Chile

Our fantastic Brazilian/French group!