Colourful altiplano lakes, weird rock playgrounds, flamingos, volcanoes and, most famously of all, the blindingly white salt flat of Uyuni: these are some of the rewards for taking an excursion into Bolivia via the Salar de Uyuni Tour (Lonely Planet).

A little background:  Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat at 10,882 km2.  It is located in the Potosi and Oruro departments in the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters above sea level.  Some 40,000 years ago the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake.  When the lake dried, it left behind two major salt deserts, now estimated to contain over 10 billion tones of salt.  Every November, the area is the breeding grounds for three species of South American flamingos. As it is so flat it serves as a major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano.  You can read more here.

We have no idea where to start when trying to describe the amazing time we had on this tour.  Three days in a teeth-shattering bone-shaking 40 year old jeep, altitudes of 4,000m and above, 25 to -10 degrees celcuis, concrete blocks for beds and cold showers.  Yes, amazing stuff and if, like us, you can get past these you will have an amazing experience. 

It is the landscape what makes this tour such a wonderful experience! We have tried to capture the best parts in our pictures below i.e. mountains, desert terrain, flora and fauna.  It was amazing from the minute we crossed the Bolivian border (pic 1) until we arrived in Uyuni 3–days later.  The company, guides, lodgings and food were just outstanding – and all for $120US per person.

Sure we broke down a few times, had a flat tire, nearly keeled over when off-roading, caught fire (electrical fault), radiator burst and ran out of fuel, but what an experience…

It was near on impossible to narrow down 1,000 photographs to 10 for this post so we’ve included nearly 50, so apologies to those with a slow connection.