Today you will visit Quebrada de Palala, a spectacular jagged rock formation, formed over many years by intense erosion of the mountainside. After this you will head on to El Sillar where you will have a few minutes to get out and enjoy this dramatic landscape before we continue through Nazarenito, a small gold mining community. Then we will go to visit Ciudad del Encanto, where you will see impressive rock formations. After that, you will arrive to San Pablo de Lípez (4250m). Then you will go to San Antonio de Lípez and finally to Quetena, where you will spend your first night in a Basic Accommodation.
After breakfast, you will visit your first lagoon, Laguna Kollpa. Here large amounts of raw material are extracted for making soap. If you want, you can get out and take a few photographs before continuing through Salar de Chaiviri to arrive at the hot springs in time for a short swimming and some lunch. Your next stop after lunch will be the Laguna Verde (4250 m.a.s.l.), which presents an emerald green coloration due to arsenic and magnesium content in its waters. It is located at the feet of Volcano Licancabur (5868m), which represents the border between Chile and Bolivia. Desierto de Dalí (110 km2) is our next stop, a place with mountains of surrealist colors, reminiscent of the photos of Salvador Dalí and rock formations of petrified lava. Then, we will cross the hots springs once more to go to “Sol de Mañana” Geysers (5000m above sea level). Then we will spend around 1 hour in Laguna Colorada and finally we will travel to Villamar to spend the 2nd night (Basic Accommodation).
After the breakfast, we will start visiting Valle de Rocas, where you will see many rocks formations like Copa del Mundo and El Camello. Then we will go to Italia Perdida, where you will have some time to walk around the rocks. After that, we will go to Laguna Catal or Laguna Negra. Next is Cañón de la Anaconda which is a canyon where the Anaconda river runs. Some towns like San Agustín and Julaca will be passed in order to arrive to Villa Candelaria to stay there. This night you will stay in a basic salt accommodation.
Today we will cross the immense Salar de Uyuni (3650 m.a.s.l.) early in the morning to see the Sunrise in the Uyuni Salt Flat. With 12,000 km2, the Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt plain in the world, stretching away in all directions as far as the eye can see. From here you can see volcano Tunupa impressively overhanging. The salt flats are made up of 11 separate layers with a thickness that ranges from 2 to 10m. The depth of salt is 120 meters and with that it is the biggest reserve of minerals such as lithium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus and borax in the world. It has 14 small islands, the most important is the Incahuasi Island. Around the island, you can see Ojos de Agua, these are springs which act as pores for the salt flats. Leaving the salt bed, we will visit Colchani, the village where the salt is processed. Here there are various salt souvenirs and alpaca or llama wool clothes. Finally, we will go to see Cementerio de Trenes, where you will see a lof of ancient trains. Then we will go the central part of the city to finish the tour around 1-2pm.
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Vegetarian or Vegan food can be offered at no extra cost, but need to be requiered at booking time.
You need to bring warm clothes, comfortable shoes, sun cream, sun glasses, toilet paper, towel, personal care products
Entrance fees include many entrances to the attractions along the whole tour, like entrance to Ciudad del Encanto, Eduardo Abaroa Reserve, hot springs, Incahuasi island and other small fees. The amount of USD 32, is the total amount that you will need during this trip for entrances.
To book this trip we need a deposit of USD 100 in advance per group (for basic accommodations) or USD 700 per couple (for a tour with 3 nights in hotels). We have the following options to make the deposit:
Departure time is at 7:30am from our office located at Chichas Avenue 220, Tupiza-Bolivia (inside our hostel), you can carry with you maximum 20 Kg per person (on roof rack). One small bag can go with you inside the car. The tour will be finished in Uyuni around 1-2pm, we can leave you in the bus station, airport or wherever you need.