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Having fun @ Salar de Uyuni – 

After reading the blog of Cecilie on how not to Salar de Uyuni.

I had to say how Dave and I would have  probably made the same mistake.

I mean, we booked the Spanish Tour after all with our way from perfect Spanish.

But, sometimes I truly feel you just have your own luck. Below are some points on how ours went and how you should do it.

This is not Nord Pole. This is the biggest salt flat in the world, Salar de Uyuni. 

We booked our Spanish Tour from denomades for 38 USD per person. We decided to book a Spanish Tour since it was way cheaper than if we booked our tour in English. Plus, it was written that the guide would basically be a driver rather than a guide.

The Start of The Tour

It started at 10:30 when we arrived at World White Travel (somehow that was our tour provider and not Denomades, maybe they work together, I don’t know). We waited for 15 minutes and were taken to the driver in the car. There sat a Bolivian family, a couple with their 3 kids, which obviously don’t speak English. We just smiled and greeted them in Spanish, trying to be friendly. And thank God they were friendly and greeted us back nicely too. The guide explained the rundown of the program slowly in Spanish after he got an answer from us that we understand basic Spanish. The father of the family asked our names and introduced their families.

At the beginning of the tour 

The Trip to The Train Grave

Train wrecks with mountain view in distance 

Then, just as explained, we went to the abandoned train racks. Before we went exploring, the guide explained to us why the trains were there and how the connection with Uyuni was. It is interesting to learn about these facts and I have to say I was surprised to be able to understand these with my Spanish. So, if you have a Spanish level of A2, I would say it would be okay in order to take a Spanish tour (on the note that your guide is considerate with your Spanish level as well). We had 45 minutes to explore and it was enough for us. It was fun to explore the racks despite how crazy it was. Plus, the view of the mountain was beautiful!

The wrecks are that old, so you have to be careful not to hurt yourself while climbing them for example.

Dave posing 

When my turn came

Proceeding to Salt Museum 

After that, we headed to the Salt Museum and artisanal market. Our guide, Eddy, did his job well, since he didn’t only drive, but also explained to us how the traditional process of making salt in Uyuni works. Well, in the traditional way since now things are mostly done by machines. After some explaining, we had around 30 minutes to check out the shop. Dave found a cute magnet with salt for 8 BOB (1.15 USD). I queued long for the bathroom (classic women’s bathroom problem). Note, do your bathroom here since your next stop would be way expensive (5 BOB instead of the normal 2 BOB).

Lying salt outside

Traditional way of salt making 

You can buy the salt from the museum too. This small package was sold for 5 BOB. 

Going to Salar de Uyuni

This is how big the salt cubes can be!

Then, we rode to Salar de Uyuni, finally! But, since the weather was bad (rainy and super windy) we needed to stay in the car to wait. After the guide explained to us about the salt lake Uyuni itself, we just asked him whether it was okay to go out with ponchos. So, we went and it was hell. But still, we could do some funny pictures. After some time, I genuinely thought that was it, we went but with shi**y weather. The guide told us to come back to the car and we drove away.

The weather was so harsh in the beginning that we had to wear ponchos!

Still! We had fun – Dave with the bears 

I fought the T-Rex

Stopping at Dakar Bolivia

There were a lot of flags from many countries there as well

He took us to another spot on the salt flat and it was full with people. There was a statue of a big hand and Dakar Bolivia was written underneath it. We found a lot of properties to do some funny pictures. And here we could take an expensive toilet break, 5 BOB. At this point, the weather was great. It stopped raining,not windy, and the sun shined. We just wondered when we would have our lunch and when the guide would help us with pictures since he said in the beginning he would do it after lunch.

Many properties lying around from pictures

We tried another photo session, but not all of them were successful. Like this one for example. 

Or this one

Or this one as well…

BUT 

We also had successful ones

Lol

Having Lunch (BUT) with A View

We were being called again and we headed to another spot on the lake. Here, the guide told us that we would have our lunch. I was surprised since we would have our lunch with a view! The lunch was great, we bonded together just like a real family. All of us were a bit shy, but things went smoothly. Too bad our guide didn’t join the lunch. But I guess he just had enough since it is his daily job afterall. The sun was striking hard during the lunch, we were glad we had our sunscreen, hats and sunglasses. So, bringing them is a must! And also some high altitude medicine since Dave and I were affected by it.

Totally didn’t expect that our guide bought all the food in the car 

Mandatory lunch group photo

Here Came The Photo Session 

BTS of the family funny pictures – Our guide has his lying mat & took the photos professionally 

After lunch was over, here came the photo session. We gave the family the first opportunity and it was fun to see the process behind the camera. Our guide was in total and did a good job. After our turn, we got to see the results and were happy with the result!

Hello from the beer can 

Running away from Godzilla 

Kissing my liliput hubby

Flying in the sky 

Heading to Salt Sculpture Park

The photo shooting was over and we went to a salt sculptures park. It was advised that the entrance was 15 BOB per person. Nobody went inside. Dave and I didn’t go since you can see some sculptures from the outside and there was no explanation as well for the sculptures. Instead, Dave was being creative and made a sculpture by himself. I just went to find coffee since I was so sleepy, but there was none.

Dave’s sculpture from above 

From another perspective

Mirroring Effect Hunting 

Then, the 30 minutes time was up and we needed to ride somewhere else. This time we were looking for reflections. Note that the rainy season is the best time to visit the salt lake for the mirroring effect, which is from January until March. And our experienced Eddy found it for us. Here went another photo shooting session!

Crazy how icy it looked like here 

This is how the surface looked like when it cracked – The multiple layers consist of salt, water, salt, water in that order 

Catching Sunset 

Afterwards, we went for another toilet break at the famous toilet and we went to catch the sunset. It was beautiful to see the changes in the sky and on the land. The lake was just breathtaking. We took a fun video as a group and had wine during the sunset before heading back to our picking up point.

Sunset @ Salar der Uyuni on the rainy season 

Enjoying wine just outside the car 

Final Conclusion

All in all, I felt the tour was worth it and would advise anybody to experience it! Salar de Uyuni truly deserves its popularity as a famous international destination around the world for its biggest salt lake title in the world. It felt I truly witnessed the magic of the universe on earth formed as Bolovian arctic. The tour itself felt not rushed and I had time to take the lake in me sinking. Plus, you save all the hassle driving around the lake. The lake is very big and if you are not experienced, it would be easy to get lost along all the white field. Note, stay in Uyuni if you want to experience the salt lake. Do not book from La Paz since you will spend a long time on the ride with a hell of traffic.