After hours of searching the net, reading blogs and the lonely planet we finally decided on a tour company for the Uyuni Salt flats. With the help of our awesome hotel in La Paz, we even managed to call them to discuss our plans, a luxury we had been without for months. Instead of catching the overnight bus (banned early on in our trip, not worth the night shift hang over), we decided to fly into Uyuni on the morning of the tour. Red Planet confirmed there was no problem with this and agreed to pick us up from the airport in the morning. We were wrapped, finally a seemingly smooth plan was in place.

Problems started when we arrived in Uyuni and there was no sign of anyone to pick us up. We started to hear parts of Spanish conversation around us that didn’t sound great and there were people bypassing taxis and walking on foot towards the town. We had no idea what was going on but we knew something was up. We asked the taxi authority to call our tour company on his phone. They had a conversation in Spanish and then he hung up. He then attempted to explain to us what was happening in Spanish. After some more negotiation we asked him to call back as we knew the guy spoke English. We soon learned that the whole town was on strike over local government corruption around land rights. Every taxi, car and truck in town had parked across every road in, and every road out, and had even created barricades across the roads up to 20 km outside of the town. We were in total lock down.

After much negotiation we were eventually driven around 500 metres to the airport gates and we were instructed in Spanish to wait there. A new face appeared and introduced himself as the head of the taxi union and for some reason he decided to help us. He ran between us and the protestors, was on the phone to our tour agency and in between was attempting to explain in Spanish what was happening. We were in limbo for close to 1.5 hours before we finally got the go ahead that a car was coming to get us. Confused, anxious and annoyed at the tour company, we jumped in the taxi which drove us around 500 metres around the corner, where we waited out of sight of the protestors for a 4WD to secretly collect us.

When the 4WD eventually arrived, we were surprised to find there were already two people inside. Jenny and Bryan, a couple from Ireland, made our morning seem like a breeze. They had been on an overnight bus which had been stopped by a barricade 20 kms out of town. When their bus stopped, they did the right thing and called Red Planet for advice. They were advised to ‘Do what everyone else is doing”, so they began to walk towards town. They were given mixed reports about how long the walk would be but thought a few kilometres at most. 20 kms later, they arrived in Uyuni at the office, with their 18kg packs on their backs and dizzy from their lack of water. Given they were on an overnight bus expecting to arrive in a town, they had not eaten since the night before and had no water supplies. On arrival, the Red Planet office told them they would not be able to do the tour that day. They were understandably furious. At the same moment Jenny could hear another office attendant on the phone, speaking in English to someone else in the same situation, us! With some firm refusal of the situation from both parties, a rescue 4WD was organised and the four of us were clandestinely transported through the desert, on unmade paths, dodging cacti and road blocks, to meet the tour outside of town. It was a tense drive, with our driver only speaking Spanish we were still in the dark about what was happening, and we were unsure if bypassing the road blocks would cause trouble. Jenny and Bryan were devastated as we passed their bus parked on the highway and they realised the 20 km torturous walk could have been avoided after all.

We eventually got to a tourist hub around 45 minutes later and managed to meet with the other Red Planet participants, who had all had a similar start to their day. Our group was made up of four Aussies from Melbourne, a couple from England, a Dutch girl and the four of us. We were divided between two 4WDs, with two drivers and one guide and spent the next 3 days and 2 nights exploring the salt, desert and lakes of the Uyuni together.

First stop was the Palacio de Sal, the original salt hotel which was constructed in 1993 out of salt blocks in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni. The location in the centre of a desert produced sanitary problems, as most waste had to be collected manually. Mismanagement caused serious environmental pollution and the hotel had to be dismantled in 2002, however remained open as a rest stop to tourists passing through. We sat on blocks of salt, at a table made from salt and ate an ordinary, pre-prepared meal, which was saved by a huge, home-made apple pie! What a way to boost morale!

Next up, our tutorial on how to take the famous, mirror image, warped perspective photos. Our guide whose name escapes me, but ‘FUCK YOU’ print on his jeans and drunken swagger does not, had several ideas up his sleeve and lined himself up on the wet, salty ground with eight cameras and soon had us jumping, bobbing, leaping and squatting on demand. The other Aussies had come prepared, so we had dinosaur and llama props and even a pringles jar to play with. By the end of our shoot, our previously black clothes were covered white with salt, but our cameras were full of Insta worthy shots!

Our accommodation for the two nights had been described to us simply, first night 2-star, second night, minus 2-star. So, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived into the village of Atulcha on the first night and our hotel had hot running water, flushing toilets and heaters in our rooms. We needed to hire towels and toilet paper was not included but overall, we were impressed.

The second day began early, and we set off toward the small desert of Chiguana, in the south. On the way we pulled to the side of the road and got out to explore some green meadows filled with grazing llamas and crias (baby llamas!). They were not particularly fussed by our presence and chose to ignore us while we tried to capture them and their adorable earrings and necklaces from every angle. Once back in the car, the views were spectacular, red sand, distant volcanoes and eventually the Andean lagoons where three species of flamingos were hanging out. Travelling further south we reached the highest and driest desert in the world, Siloli at 4550 metres. There we found the Rock tree and some other interesting lava rock formations. Continuing down the desert road, we jumped out for a much-needed stretch and explored the outskirts of the freezing red lagoon, where flamingos and llamas were grazing together on the edge of the lake and the water shone red and reflected the clouds above. The last stop of the day was at the top of Volcan Sol de Mañana. Standing at 5000 metres high, we were driven to the top of the crater and actually got out of the car to walk amongst the fumaroles and boiling mud pots, live volcanic activity bubbling away right next to us, at a measly 100 Cº. Our guide walked us around, in a nonchalant manner, casually dropping into conversation after we had been walking for ten minutes, that a Japanese tourist had died there a few months earlier from falling into a boiling pot. In Australia the area would be cordoned off and no one allowed within 100 metres. In Bolivia, you walk right up and naively stare danger in the face!

Our minus 2-star accommodation pleasantly surprised us that night. Although there were no hot showers, we had flushing toilets and had single beds in a room with Jenny and Bryan. The food was fine and the hot chocolate welcome after the long day and early evening chill. We were given a firm talking to by our guide pre-dinner. He mentioned that there was a naturally fed hot spring pool waiting for us just 100mt down the drive way. Sitting at a delicious 35 Cº with BYO beers encouraged, he urged us to get down there because “tonight you will be the main ingredient in the gringo soup”. We stumbled down the rocky driveway with barely working flashlights and beers in hand and enjoyed being part of the soup. There were three groups there like ours, but the sky was beautifully clear and we could see stars for miles. It was worth the walk in the cold and lack of shower at the other end!

Next morning, we were again up early to get to the Bolivia-Chile border crossing. Our guide had told us that Chile’s border control was extremely strict and they would not allow any food or drink across the border, so if we had any leftovers we were best to leave it with him! Nice try, the others did, and Adam didn’t, and the border control couldn’t have cared less when we declared it! Dodgy buggers. The other exciting part about our border crossing is that we found out because we entered Chile via road and not plane, we didn’t have to pay the AU$150 entrance fee! Winning!

Overall, we had a great trip. Minus the drunken guides and Uyuni disaster at the start, I would recommend it in a heartbeat!