Hotel Palacio de Sal Uyuni

The road from Potosi to Uyuni is not sealed. It is a long bumpy ride. I arrive around six in the evening. It is still daylight and I can see perfectly how dusty the place is. It is on the edge of a dessert so it is not really that surprising. Tour and Hostel touts are shoving leaflets in my hand. I take them all because I am not sure how to go about booking my tour of the Salar. It was time to find a hostel. All the lonely planet hostels were at the other end of town near the train Station. S...

I signed up for a 3 day tour from San Pedro in Chile to Uyuni in Bolivia for $80 USD all inclusive. There are quit a few companies that offer a very similar thing, but I would recommend the company I went with (Estrella del Sur) because I think our food was better than many of the other groups. There were 5 of us on the tour, a lovely Spnaish couple, and a German man living in Chile and his cute 5 year old son. The common language was Spanish (the guide only spoke Spanish), so I got lots of p...

So with Retro Clip On Shades at the ready and the sun spliting the stones we were all set for our next outing 3 days and 2 night in the largest salt lake in the world. Our group was made up of a Belgian couple and two girls from London all of whom have nearkly traveld the world twice over and a real good laugh. With all the gear loaded onto the beast of a land crusier and our pass ports post dated for exit of Bolivia we were good to go. Our guide was Eba a really egar and lively fella that wa...

On December 6th, we made a quick stop in Potosi and then endured the stomach churning, bumpy, dusty bus trip to Uyuni the next day. It was worth it though just to eat at Minuteman Pizza that night! The next morning all 12 of us in the GAP group plus our tour leader Juliana, four drivers and two cooks, set off in Land Cruisers to explore the Salar de Uyuni and other amazing stops en route to Chile. Our first stop was the train cemetery where all these old rusted steam engines were still sitti...

First impressions of Bolivia - fascinating! At the border town, Villazon, we had our first glimpse of the country´s 60 percent indigenous population. The women dress very strangely: Skirts that balloon out like parachutes, Norah Batty stockings and bowler hats. On the advice of our good friends Aidy and Ali, we headed to the town of Tupiza where we booked a four day jeep tour to the Salar de Uyuni. Thanks guys, it turned out to be one of the highlights of our big adventure. Tupiza is fringed...

Entry containing 5 photos titled: going through Ourro , Ourro, a long road to Uynui, and into the night!, next morning at Uynui

Setting out on a six day, five night adventure of the Salt Flats we've all got a good feeling that this time we've gotten the tour company right. Our guide Alfredo speaks English, our driver Jorge is an excellent driver and we're in a private Nissan Patrol 4x4; it can only get better from here on in. Our first day was a long drive covering only 220km, but with rough roads it was a seven hour journey, one which was far from monotonous. With the interesting mix of Jorge's driving music and the ...

Well after just the one flat tyre we arrived in Uyuni, Boliva, about 6pm. What a **** hole. Rubbish all over the place and just a small ugly town in the middle of a desert. Awesome. Right first priority was get a tour leaving the next day so we didn´t have to spend a day there! Luckily by about 7.30pm we were all sorted, then got the last cheap room in the gringo hotel, where we met up with the dutch guys from our mine tour again. bugger, it would have been good to get on a tour with them ag...

Picking a company to embark on the three day 4-wheel drive trip with was no easy task. We researched on the internet and asked around, eventually coming to the conclusion that no one company was going to come with a glowing report so we picked the best out of a bad bunch - Estrella Del Sur. We asked them lots and lots of questions in the hope not to end up like others before us - with drunk drivers, broken down cars, food poisoning, and were pretty confident in our choice. That was until the ...