Days 162 to 164: La Paz, BOL to Uyuni, BOL

Day 162: La Paz, BOL to Challapata, BOL

Pretty boring day of asphalt road across a plateau, but we made good time. We stayed overnight in a village called Challapata - nothing there to report, other than the basic double room with a TV cost us 8$ for the two of us, among the cheapest accommodations so far.

Oh yeah, one more thing... The ridiculously small doors in the hotel...lol. I am not that tall, but there, I felt like Shaquille O'Neal.

Day 163: Challapata, BOL - Llica, BOL - Salar de Uyuni

We woke up at 8 am, packed, bought water and 2 pieces of dry bread for breakfast (no  restaurants were open) and headed out of Challapata. 

The first 60 km were paved, and then the road turned to dirt. The landscape became increasingly desertic, a sign that we were getting close to the Salar de Uyuni.

Eventually, we got our first glimpse of the salt flats. 

Our plan that day was to camp on the Salar, but first we wanted to reach the town of Llica, in order to have lunch there and buy some more water. Another reason to go to Llica is that is it exactly at the opposite end of the salt flats from Uyuni (our next destination) and our goal was to ride across the entire Salar.

Well, Llica ended up being a disappointment. It is a small isolated village, and there are no restaurants there. We had some packaged coconut cake for lunch, bought water and headed for the Salar.

Riding on the salt flats is a unique experience. It feels almost like riding a jet ski on a lake, or a ski doo on a huge frozen lake. The salt flats surface is quite smooth, and you can go in any direction you wish. The only way to navigate is by ''cap'' or compass, as there are very few visual reference points. If you don't have a GPS with an electronic compass, or classic compass, it won't take long before you'll get lost.

Once on the Salar, I set the ''cap'' on the GPS to Uyuni, and we rode about 50 km, until we reached an island, where we found a good spot to camp.

Finding wood for a fire was a struggle, as there isn't much vegetation there, other that large cactuses and some bushes. I found a dead cactus, and we managed to tow it with my bike to our camp spot. 

Later we found out that it had been a waste of time and energy, as the cactus wasn't dry enough to burn. Still, we had gathered enough crap to make a fire last for about 1.5 hours. We had some ramen noodles with canned tuna, and called it a night at around 9:30 pm.

The Salar at night is impressive as well. It is a very remote place, and with no wind, it is near perfect silence (other than overhearing the occasional fart by Mihai), and the sky full of stars was beautiful. 

We also realized that this has been our cheapest day on this trip. We spent a total of 10$ between the two of us. 

Day 164: Salar de Uyuni tu Uyuni, BOL

During the night, the temperature plummeted to near zero Celsius, so even though we have decent sleeping bags, we did get a little cold. 

We packed our stuff in the morning, and left the island at around 10:30 am. Ahead of us was around 110 km of cruising across the Salar in a straight line. Even though it was sunny, it was still cold (less than 10 deg. C) and I had to ride with the heated vest and grips at full blast. 

We stopped to snap a few more photos of this amazing place.

At about 25 km from from our destination, we ran into a section of the Salar that was still flooded, so we had to make a detour. Fortunately, we reached the shore and found the road to Uyuni without problems. The last few kilometers to shore did make us a little nervous, though, as the surface got softer and there was some risk of getting stuck in mud.

We reached Uyuni around 2 pm, and we decided to stay there overnight.

The bikes were covered in salt, so we went looking for a place where they could get a good wash.

All in all, an epic day of riding. The Salar de Uyuni is an amazing place. Definitely in my top 3 most scenic places I have seen so far in my lifetime.