If the Starlight tour gave me a heart-melted experience, what I got from a day tour on the salt flat was impressive, enjoyable and totally worth it, too.
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia – An experience of a lifetime (Part 1)
A day tour in Salar de Uyuni
Before going to Salar de Uyuni, we have stop by a train cemetery which I will not mention much in this post. From there, we headed up to the salt flat. As soon as the road was left behind, we entered right into the largest salt flat in the world.
What a surprise to meet Master Roshi in this place. There were my fellow people coming from Japan too. Lol
The night before I just stayed in the edge of the desert to admire the night sky, I didn’t feel its vastness and didn’t really know how extensive it could be, until I spent all day long in the desert.
I had truly incredible time here. I had ever seen anything quite like this before, incredibly flat and seemed to stretch endlessly to the horizon. Feel like walking into a dream in a very best way and this amazing natural site left me with my mouth open and wondered whether or not this kind of place even existed in the world.
My tour in the Salt flat was divided into two parts: one was in a dry place and the other was in the wet one.
As we were just in the edge of the desert, so the salt wasn’t really white.
WE explored the dry part first. The sunlight was extremely bright while the salt was extremely white. The whole scene became a natural backdrop for all kind of funny photo and video, especially the perspective ones.
As I said the recommended option to explore the salt flat was to go with a guide, it was not because that it was dangerous for you to go alone out there in the desert, but also because that with a guide, your experience would be fulfilled with tons of interesting photos you gonna bring home.
We were brought to a place in the center of desert where all tour stopped by to take photos and have lunch. The lunch was included in the tour package, it wasn’t really nice but the place was quite interesting as it all was made from salt.
There was a stage outside, where people could hang their national flags as a remark that they had been here. I was excited to look for Vietnamese flag but too sad that there wasn’t. Then I left my flag T-shirt there. It didn’t look so bad tho.
Have fun with some trick photograph in that place before going to the wet place for reflection.
The further I went to the salt flat, the more splendid and mesmerizing landscape I saw. And as soon as I though that was its best, it again showed me even more impressive thing. That is when I went to the wet area which bring you to the whole new level. With a thin and clear layer of water on the surface, the flat became a giant mirror that reflected the whole thing above and whatever stand on it.
Don’t dip your bare feet into the water. Wearing your boots all the time as I heard that the salt water here may cause some problem if your skin is sensitive.
Our guide was very helpful. He prepared all the things and make sure that we have great fun and amazing photos to bring home.
This timelapse video was his idea and to make this, he had to drive car around us for 10-15 times. What a great effort.
If the star gazing is a must, so is the sunset. Known as one of the best places to admire sunset in the world, and I, of course, didn’t miss the chance to feast my eyes on that jaw-dropping scene.
At some point, the refection made me feel like it was the place that the earth met the sky and integrated to be one and it was hard to find the horizon or whatever distinguishable between the ground and the sky above. The view was out of this world and totally stunning in all direction. I believed that this is one of the best sunsets I had ever seen in my life and sure that I would not forget anytime soon.
As soon as the sun went down, the temperature also dropped very quickly. We got back to our car and spend some more time to admire the sunset through car windows. It was quiet and serene. A great moment to end a day long excursion.
I had come a long way to be in Salar de Uyuni, and it didn’t let me down for a second, it worth all the effort I had made to be there. It had lived up to all my expectation and probably become a life long remembered memory of mine.
If Machu Picchu is a place to be, then Salar de Uyuni is definitely a place to remember and these two should be in anyone’s bucket list.