I visited the Salar De Uyuni in November of 1999 with 5 other travellers from the UK. We took a 5-day tour costing 50 dollars a day (it's best to think in US currency when in South America with the exception of French Guyana). The best place to take a tour from is the town Uyuni which can be reached from La Paz direct by plane or by bus. We arrived there from Cochabamba by bus. Our tour was by 4x4 jeep (absolutely necessary because there are often no roads). For this reason it is also highly advisable to take a guide. Our guide was a very cool-looking character who NEVER took his glasses off, hence w named him “Mr.Chips” after the 70’s US TV show with the two motorcyclist cops. The Salar de Uyuni for those of you who don’t know is a vast expanse of salt at very high altitude (about 4000m). What happened was millions of years ago the plates pushed together in such a way that a large amount of water was trapped and raised to it’s current altitude and the water evaporated leaving the salt.
The tour itself really is mind-blowing. You will see salt factories (which you can take photos of then pretend to your friends that is was a salt factory), houses made of salt bricks, you can have salt-ball (snow) fights - really it does look like snow. It’s very bright and at this altitude a UV screen and a pair of sunglasses are essential. Very highly recommended if you’re traveling in Bolivia.
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Nov 24th, 2000
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