has anyone been here? I want to visit while it is still peak season as I am currently in a bordering country
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salar de yuni
has anyone been here? I want to visit while it is still peak season as I am currently in a bordering country
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You're in luck, I actually own an Airbnb in San Salvador de Jujuy if you want some accomodation. It's only about an hour and a half away from the Salar
Haha no way I was in Jujuy in december
I have been to the Salar de Uyuni, yeah. Wasn’t even peak season (no water on the ground), but rather early winter, and it was still really interesting.
Maybe they’re not a thing anymore, but it’s worth noting that any “salt hotels” you might see advertised online, built of salt bricks directly atop the Salar, are illegal and should probably be avoided. New construction on the salt has been banned for decades, but there were still scofflaws building and renting as recently as ten years ago.
The town of Uyuni isn’t all that impressive, but as the Salar itself is probably at the end of a long boring trip from wherever you are at the moment, you might consider adding a few days in Bolivia to visit somewhere else in addition. Potosí is cool but not that close.
Potosi was cool, checking out a working silver mine and hearing blasting, buying C4 from the miners market and setting it off with a guide.
>buying C4 from the miners market
My American ass is fricking interested.
The guy from C90 adventures just bought some and set it off by himself
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Starts at 30:02
Thats dynamyte, although that video is still pretty cool. Not surprised they just sell it off the street like that.
looks really cool, i wonder how difficult would it be to rent a motorcycle in SA
Now this would be cool to witness.
I was there a few months ago. Pretty incredible scenery. Did you have any specific questions?
I stayed in a salt hotel. I think pretty much all of the tours have a night stop in one of them
I'd recommend it for sure, the landscapes are incredible. The salt flats are the highlight, but the national park also has coloured lakes, deserts, and canyons. I also spent time in La Paz, which I enjoyed and did some interesting day trips from. I think Potosi and Sucre are quite popular with travellers too, but I didn't go there. Overall it's a safe and very cheap country, well worth visiting
>a very safe and cheap country
I guess I'll take your word on it, should help to that I know spanish. Did you get into bolivia by la paz? I heard people can fly into santa cruz and get a small flight to the salt lake. How many days is it worth staying? And was transportation easy to move around with? Sorry for all the questions, never thought i'd be interested in bolivia.
>should help to that I know spanish
Yeah this is useful in most of the continent, English isn't spoken too much outside of the main tourist activities
>Did you get into bolivia by la paz?
Nah I came from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, over the border for Uyuni, and then up into La Paz afterwards. It was quite cool doing things this way, because it means your see the salt flats on the final day, which is a nice climax to build up to (if you start in Uyuni instead, then you get the salt flats as one of your very first stops)
>How many days is it worth staying?
In Uyuni, or Bolivia more generally? For Uyuni, 3 days is good. The longer tours are either 3D/2N or 4D/3N, but from what I heard you don't really do anything new on the final day, so the 3D/2N one is a good option. You can also visit just the salt flats as a day trip, but in my opinion this would mean missing out on lots of other cool sights in the national park
For Bolivia more generally, I can't really comment on other parts of the country because I didn't go anywhere else except La Paz, but I met other people who had spent weeks or even months in the country and they seemed like they were enjoying it. The city of La Paz is pretty interesting and you can easily spend a few days there (I recommend visiting the witches' market and also taking in a cholita wrestling show). You've also got some fun day trips, like the Death Road mountain biking trip
>And was transportation easy to move around with?
For Uyuni, I think it's a requirement that you book onto a guided tour, so that covers all of your transportation there. You're not on proper roads for most of it, so you need a 4x4 with a local driver. I'd recommend getting to one of the departure places for the tour (either Uyuni or San Pedro de Atacama) and then booking in person - there's lots of availability, and it's quite a bit cheaper in person. I think I paid about $180 for my 3D/2N tour
Thanks for the response anon, seems like you had a great time.
>i came from san pedro de atacama chile,
Any reason for starting in chile? How was crossing the border? Im pretty sure it aint as crazy as people say it is.
>seems like you had a great time
Yeah I had six weeks in South America and did lots of great things, but Salar de Uyuni might just have been the highlight
>Any reason for starting in chile?
It just made sense from my itinerary, really. I was in Colombia, and I had a flight booked home from Lima. I knew I wanted to visit Uyuni, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon before heading home, so it made sense to fly into Chile and make my way north rather than flying into Peru and doing more of a circular trip (which would have been twice the distance).
>How was crossing the border?
Incredibly easy, they look after that as part of the tour. You just need to bring along your passport and some ticket they give you when entering Chile, if I remember correctly. Even if you were going without a tour I don't think it would be *too* bad - there's a passport inspection on both sides of the border, but both are fairly straightforward.
>machu picchu
You've been to peru? How was that? I was thinking of heading there, but heard about the "unrest" in the areas.
On another note, how easy was it switching around currencies between countries?
>You've been to peru? How was that?
Yeah, good fun. Cusco and Machu Picchu are pretty touristy, but still great places to visit. You can also do excursions into the Amazon from Cusco, which is good fun. You've got the cities of Lima and Arequipa which are decent to visit too, and other natural areas like Colca Canyon, Sacred Valley, and Huaraz.
>heard about the "unrest" in the areas.
I think there was a bit of unrest a little over a year ago, but that had definitely died down when I was there in November, it wasn't considered unsafe at all. Felt safe everywhere I visited, wasn't sketchy like Colombia was, for example.
>how easy was it switching around currencies between countries?
Pretty easy. I have a card with no foreign usage/withdrawal fees, so I just used that mostly. I visited a fair few cities, so it was never that difficult finding an ATM. If I was ever going away somewhere where it might be difficult to find an ATM, I just made sure beforehand that I was bringing enough cash with me.
>Salar de Uyuni might just have been the highlight
it must be god-tier if it's better than Iguazu, rainforest and Patagonia
I didn't go to Iguazu or Patagonia, I was mostly just in the Andean region
did you see the mirror effect? is it as cool as it appears in photos? did you go with a tour company or just on your own?
>did you see the mirror effect?
Unfortunately not. I went in late October, and it's rare to get the effect then. I think rainy season is between late November and February usually. However, it's still an incredibly cool place to visit even without the mirror effect
>did you go with a tour company or just on your own?
Yeah, with a tour company. I've just Googled it and apparently it is possible to do it without a tour guide, but I think everybody I met there was part of a guided tour. Most of the national park doesn't have proper roads and can have challenging terrain, so you need to have a 4x4, and having a local driver helps too.
If I remember correctly, you can get it for about $180 if you book in person at a travel agency in San Pedro de Atacama or Uyuni. That covers your transportation costs, food, and accommodation for a few days, so it's not a bad deal really. There's normally 4-6 people per tour, so if you don't mind meeting people then it's a nice way to do that. You've also got the option of booking a private tour if you want, but that'll be more pricey
this interested me for a while, but never researched anything about it. Is it worth flying down to SA to see this? looks really cool, although idk what bolivia would be like.
it probably doesn't take a whole lot of money to travel the entire country right? Just a bit of time im guessing.
the whole area is very cheap, yes
What time of year is the cheapest for travel? Best time? What are some dos and donts of bolivia?
Last bump for bolivia. Sounds like a good place to discover, might travel there one of these days.