This trip was our second LPU-3 ever, but our very first “Premium package” Salar de Uyuni via Sajama 3-Day Tour from La Paz and it was, without a doubt, an unforgettable experience because we couldn’t have asked for better customers for such a new trip.
To provide a bit of context, we recently designed and launched this completely new trip lasting three days, (LPU-3) starting in La Paz to help customers avoid the tiring overnight bus to Uyuni or the expensive flight. The main idea is to see everything that is located between La Paz and Uyuni – namely Sajama National Park and other amazing sights along the way – which naturally most people never see or learn about by taking the bus or plane to Uyuni. Also, this trip also lasts 3 days but it voids the need to travel to the more remote southwest which is further, rougher, and more crowded.
Our very first group was such an interesting mix of nationalities and backgrounds. We had Mrinalika from India, her partner Lutz from Germany, Adni who is a fun Malay and a couple of Chinese Liu and her travel buddy.
On our first day, we picked everyone up from their hotels in La Paz. The interesting thing was that our Chinese friends decided to join last minute right when Adni was hoping for a larger group to lower costs a bit and lucky he was! Mrinalika and Lutz were also happy to suddenly have three additional people in the group (originally it was going to be only both of them). The group hit it off from the beginning, and spent the first day traveling with us to Sajama National Park.
We visited geysers, hot springs, wetlands teeming with wildlife and stunning geological places.
We loved the hot springs at the end of the day.
We enjoyed the vastness of the area and the massive space and snowcapped mountains around.
We stayed in Tomarapi Ecolodge where we met our local hosts and went stargazing at night. Adni managed to capture some amazing stars shots which we share here.
On our second day, we woke up early to help our lady host from the ecolodge to herd her alpacas out of their night enclosures and out into the country so that they could spend the day grazing. We were very happy to see that our guests loved this experience.
We spent the rest of the day traveling south and stopping at beautiful lagoons teeming with pink flamingos.
We also hiked to an ancient burial site with intact mummies.
We traversed Bolivia’s second largest salt flats in the afternoon: Salar de Coipasa.
We arrived in Uyuni Salt Flats when it was getting dark and drove under the stars for a while. We arrived in the hotel Luna Salada located on a higher hill overlooking the salt flats. We had a bit of a late dinner but we arrived safely and our guests were able to have a good night’s sleep.
On our third day, we braved the cold and woke up really early to drive for 15 minutes into the salt flats. We witnessed a surreal sunrise while enjoying a hot tea to stay warm under temperatures of minus 0 degrees Celsius.
We spent the rest of the day exploring Salar de Uyuni, including climbing to the top of Isla Incahuasi, the cactus island. The great thing is that since we approached this island from a totally different place than most people, we had the island at a different time and almost completely to ourselves literally.
We enjoyed our time taking fun deep-perspective photographs.
At the end of the afternoon, we drove out of the salt flats not before enjoying yet another stunning experience: Sunset over the salt flats.
At this point our trip had to come to an end and we left our Chinese friends at the airport while Adni, Mrinalika and Lutz decided to extend their stay in the salt hotel for one more night.
It was an unbelievable trip and we will always remember this amazing group joining us on this amazing experience. We loved every minute of it and thank our customers for having chosen us and trusted us to organize this trip for them.
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