San Pedro de Atacama to Uyuni
After a spectacular 10 hour bus journey (which the driver seemed to enjoy taking photos of as we drove along) across high altiplano from Salta we found ourselves back in Chile.
San Pedro is a funny little town- more dedicated to tourists than anything we’ve encountered so far on our trip. The whole centre is full of hotels/hostels, tourist agencies selling a variety of tours and general tat shops and no locals living in the centre at all. We can’t think of anywhere in the UK which is as dedicated to tourists as San Pedro is. Having said that it is a plesant place, with a tree lined square to sit in & while away some time watching the world walk past.
We took two tours around San Pedro – the first a visit to the Geisers del Tatio. This involved a 4am pick-up, ouch. It was quite strange sitting outside the front of our hostel that early in the morning, you could see other people down the road huddling in doorways waiting for their pickups.
After a 2 hour drive to around 4,300m and minus 10.5 degrees, we had arrived. All we could see was steam and we both thought “is that it”. However, we were able to get out of the minibus and wander around the steam outlets, and we gradually became more impressed with the spectacle (and gradually colder and colder!) You are also told about the crust around the geyers being thin (& the 3 tourists that have been killed by falling through it) so are paranoid about dying as you walk around (it doesn’t help that the leaflet you are given on entering the park contains a large section about how to treat burns).
The noise of the steam as it is being pushed out of the ground is amazing and impossible to describe. As is the feeling of knowing you are in minus temperatures and finding yourself taking you clothes off to jump into a hot pool. But it was worth it, and warmed up the frozen toes very well! Getting out was worse than getting in – cold winds, brr.
After a little sleep in the afternoon, we headed out at around 8pm for a spot of star gazing. The trip is run by a mad French man (who kept trying to tell us that Paris is the centre of the universe, but we weren’t having any of it!). He explained about the universe, stars, constallations, the difference between astronomy and astrology etc. and after the chat, we got to look through some big telescopes! It is strange, but true, that we both got quite excited about being able to see the rings around saturn and four of jupiters moons.
From San Pedro we took a 3 day tour (lots of tours going on here – but it is the only way sometimes) in a 4×4 across the largest salt flat in the world to Uyuni in Bolivia. It is 3,650m above sea level (we actually made it close to 5000m on part of the trip – higher than I made it on our attempt of Kili – accliamtised this time though so neither of us had any problems), and estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt.
Over the three days we past strange rock formations, high (multi-coloured) altiplano lakes with flamingoes in, saw lots of nothingness (which is stangely beautiful in a very stark way), stayed in a salt hotel (everything but the loos and showers are made from salt), saw bubbling hot (250 degrees) mud, swam in a beautifully warm thermal pool and drove across a salt flat to finally arrive in Uyuni and a cemetary of trains. It doesn’t sound like much, but the landscape is dramatic and so striking, the pictures don’t do it justice.
The salt flat looks like it goes on forever, the bright white landscape blinds you in the sun. We made it up at 5.30am to watch the sun rise over the flats – the colours were stuning and certainly worth the pain of such an early start!
Tags: Bolivia, Chile, Salar de Uyuni, San Pedro de Atacama, Travel, Uyuni
Jenni
Hi,
We’ve just read your blog on the tour that you did from San Pedro to the salt flats in Uyuni and we are also looking to do a tour of the flats from San Pedro.
Can you offer and advise, what the costs are and how you organised your tour with.
We arriving in Chile early September and only have 2 weeks or so.
Thanks for your help
James
Hi James,
Just picked up your post.
We went with a company called Estrella del Sur (or something like that – it was a while ago now!)
We took a three day tour and it cost US$90 each. There are cheaper options, but you don’t always get to stay in a salt hotel, and they sometimes try and avoid paying the national park fees, which didn’t feel comfortable with. We finished our tour in Uyuni, but for an extra (US$30 or so) you can finish in San Pedro – this option takes 4 days.
There are 4, even more or so, companies in San Pedro offering very similar trips – my advice is to talk to all of them and go with the one you feel most comfortable with. Remember to check what is/isn’t included in the price of the trip.
A word of warning – remember that the flats are at high altitude (you sleep at around 4,500m both nights) and so you need to be acclimatised. A couple of people on our tour and come straight from Santiago and really suffered.
Have a great trip!!
Jenni
Hi,
i am going to be in chile in august and have been looking for this trip. i think i have everything i need to know from this, has anything changed? any other advice? hope you enjoyed ur time there!