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Hola familia!

The highlight of my 2 weeks in Bolivia has to be our 3 day trip to the Salar de Uyuni. It was simply amazing. We went with San Juan Turismo, and the price was fabulous. Our service was excellent, the brothers took really good care of us the entire time. We were 9, so we had 2 cars that we travelled with. They fed us, put us up in a salt hotel the first night, and another hotel the second night. This trip was the chance to see incredible vistas and nature and wildlife. The majority of this blog post will be pictures, because they say it much better than me and (THANK GOODNESS) nothing wild and crazy that needs describing happened. Let’s begin.

I convinced my family to join me on the overnight bus instead of flying to Uyuni. (I am still balling on a budget my guys), and while it wasn’t nearly as fast, it did the job and got us there! Overnight buses are pretty nice, with seats that go almost flat, and they even serve you dinner and breakfast. All for like $36 each way. The bus made a stop right before we got to Uyuni so we could jump off and watch the sunset. It was balls cold outside, but the sunset was nice.

We met up with our tour company, and the first stop on our tour was a visit to the train graveyard. I guess when companies switched over to steam they just abandoned their trains, and the atmosphere mixed with salt turned it into a tourist attraction. My favorite part was the giant metal sculptures by a local artist.

Next, we arrived in the salar- or the salt flat. We stopped and watching a bubbling pond that was cold water, and then made it to the above flag place where we ate lunch. There were a lot of Brazilian flags, represent!

My favorite part of the day was the perspective photos. Our guides did an awesome job of posing us, and we had a big group so it was really fun! My favorite was the dinosaur, because, duh. Dinosaurs. We laughed a lot, and while the pictures make it look like we were in the snow (and our outfits), this is the salt flat! It was crunchy and if you fell on it your hand would be cut. We also made a neat video of us all dancing out of the pringles can.

Up next was Cactus Island! I’m sure there is another name for this place, but that’s what it was. An island of cacti in the middle of the salt flat. Our guides say that it started from bird droppings. Neat-o.

Selfie with our guides on the first day right after they brought out wine and snacks for us to enjoy before the sunset. And there’s Elizabeth being a viskatchya (I know I’m spelling it wrong…) inside a wine glass. The perspective pictures are really fun.

Note on sleeping in a salt hotel*

It is FREEZING COLD. My family went to Bolivia in the winter, but it was absolutely freezing. There is no heat, and in the middle of the desert it gets to be about 20 degrees F. There is no hot water so showering was out. Teresa and I did a “fit check” before we went to sleep, and I was sleeping in 2 pairs of pants, wool socks, a long sleeve tee, a thermal shirt, a sweatshirt, and my puffy coat. Plus my hat, scarf, and gloves. We had 2 blankets, I had my scarf/blanket addition, and we added our dry towels as a layer. It was still cold when we were falling asleep. Eventually you sleep and it’s fine, but I’m just putting it out there that it is COLD.

Day 2 of our tour brought us to some beautiful rock formations and mountains. Nathan was very excited about seeing the Arbol de Piedra, which is a rock tree. It’s really just a rock in the shape of a tree, but it’s cool. I loved the mountains. All of these pictures make them look washed out, but the desert colors are beautiful.

Before (and after) lunch, we saw WILD FLAMINGOS! There are 3 different types of flamingos in this area of Bolivia, but I’m not a ornithologist, so I won’t try to describe the differences here. I will humble brag and say that we did see all 3 types at the Laguna Colorida. Nathan warned us that we might not see any flamingos because it’s not the right season, but WE DID! God is (still) good! Seeing animals in the wild is better. These types of flamingos have black feathers at the end of their wings that you can see when they fly, but not when they tuck their wings in.

Our third morning brought another sunrise, this time at a natural geyser! I’m not sure if I’ve seen a geyser up close, so this was pretty cool… or hot I guess.

Top highlight of the trip for me- going into the hot springs with Teresa and Elizabeth. Our guides had prepared us the night before that there would be a natural hot spring. Teresa and I made a pact as we were shivering to go to sleep that if it was cool we would go in, if they didn’t have towels, we wouldn’t. It was cool, and they had towels, and while the air was maybe 30-40 degrees F, we went in! I was immediately happy with our decision, and it was the warmest I felt the entire trip. It was a magical hot springs. 10/10 recommend. Afterwards, I thought I would get out and feel cold, but I didn’t! Bonus! It was the first time I kind of bathed myself in 3 days.

Next up was the Dali Desert- so named because it looks like the melting clocks.

We were fortunate enough to see a lot of wildlife on this trip! OR domesticated life in the case of the llamas. The vicuna are on the left and they are a relative to the llama, but smaller and have more “fur” than wool.

The last stop was the Black Lagoon. They really pulled out the stops here, because this was incredible. The rock formations were really cool, and with the crystal clear sky it reflected perfectly off the water.

All in all, Uyuni was a fantastic trip with my cousins and aunt and uncle! You might want to click on some of the nature pictures to see them full screen, it’s worth it!

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