Sun Island, La Paz & Uyuni

After Breakfast, passengers are picked up from our Chua port to visit the epic city of La Paz, our tour will include a number of the city’s highlights, such as the famous witches’ Market, where yatiri witch doctors sell their wares and services. We’ll also visit San Francisco Colonial Church and the traditional artisanal crafts sold along Calle Sagarnaga; Plaza Murillo, which is home to the Cathedral of La Paz, the Government Palace and the National Congress; and Calle Jaen, a colorful colonial street with a cluster of interesting museums.  

Our next stop is the Valle de la Luna, which isn’t a valley at all, but rather an otherworldly maze of canyons, strange rock formations and giant spires. This peculiar landscape was created by rain and wind erosion, which slowly cut away at the clay and sandstone of the local mountains. The result was this strange, craggy and multicolored landscape, which wouldn’t look out of place in a science fiction movie.   

After exploring the Valle de la Luna and its two trails, we’ll head back to La Paz and take you to your hotel, where our tour finishes. 

Dinner + Folkloric Show 

The Peña Pan de Oro is half block from Hotel Presidente so we will walk to the peña for dinner and show. 

After you’ve had your breakfast, will pick you up from your hotel in La Paz and take you to the airport for your flight at Uyuni, wi will pick you up from the airport in Uyuni and then depart for the salt flat. Our first stop will be the Train Cemetery, where rusty old trains sit in the desert, a strange and incongruous sight indeed. We’ll also visit the village of Colchani, where you can see the salt extracting process and local handicrafts made of, you guessed it, salt. Then we stop at Playa Blanca and the salt museum, before having a look at the ojos de sal, or “salt eyes,” fascinating features created at points where surface salt water drains away. Heading further out onto the salt flats, we’ll stop to look at the hexagons that form on the surface, and take in the magnificent views across Uyuni.  

Of course, you’ll have time to take plenty of photos. From April to November is particularly interesting, when the surface of the salt flats gives the opportunity to play with perspective. Alternatively, from December to March the salt flats are covered with a layer of water, becoming a huge white mirror where the sky is perfectly reflected on the flat surface.   

Next we will head to Incahuasi, an “island” in the sea of salt. Located at the heart of the salt flat, Incahuasi is the largest of a group of islands that emerge from the salt, forming their own isolated ecosystems. The island is covered with a species of giant cacti that grow up to 12 meters high (26.25 feet), a peculiar site in the middle of the vast flats. We’ll then have a picnic lunch on the salt flats and wait for the stunningly beautiful sunset, before returning to our hotel, from where you can marvel at the night sky over Uyuni. 

After breakfast we’ll head out to the north side of Salar de Uyuni. Here we can have a look at the Coquesa mummies, human archeological remains found in a small cave near the Tunupa Volcano. From here we have a fine vantage point for looking across the immensity of the salt flats. We’ll then explore the circular and dripping-wet Chiquini Cave, which is full of stalactites and stalagmites. We will have a picnic lunch or visit a nearby restaurant, and more time to explore the flats and take photos. 

We’ll have breakfast and then your driver will take you from Uyuni to Ollague 4.5 hours approx.