On this final day, it’s a very early morning 5 AM start to leave in time to catch the sunrise. Our sunrise spot is at Isla Incahuasi and it takes about 30 minutes to get there. The entrance fee costs 30 BOB1 and we got there at around 6.10 AM. The sun was already rising by this time so we quickly headed up to a viewpoint to catch the rest of the sunrise. We spent about 40 minutes watching the sunrise and exploring the island. The island is mainly made of rocks and has many cactus plants scattered around. Once we were done walking around the island, we went back down where our guide was waiting for us with breakfast. There are several tables and chairs outside the island entrance where we had breakfast. During breakfast the guide gave us some more info on the salt flats, telling us that it used to be a lake that dried out approximately 10,000 years ago. He also said that the white salt we see on top is just one layer resulting from the last lake that dried out. There are a total of 11 layers which means 11 lakes have gone extinct here. After breakfast, the guide said we could walk around the island whilst he put everything away.
We then left at around 8.40 AM to go deeper into the salt flats for a photo session. We stopped at around 9.30 AM in the middle of the salt flats. Other than the odd mountain in the distant horizon, all you could see was the white salt terrain. The view was truly incredible and great for pictures. The guide took out a toy dinosaur for some pictures, playing around with perspective. We spent about 30 minutes taking pictures before continuing to the first salt hotel. The salt hotel is no longer operational since it was closed down due to being built illegally in a protected site. So now you can just wander around inside to see what it was like. At this site, there is also the Plaza de las Banderas where you’ll find flags from all over the world. There’s also a Dakar Monument nearby a short walk away. Once we were done walking around and taking pictures, we continue across the salt flats to our lunch stop in Colchani.
On the way, we first pass by the Ojos del Salar which is where water from underground rivers below the salt flats surface. The guide stops quickly for us to take pictures but we don’t get out. Continuing a little further down, we come across the Montones de Sal. These are piles of salt which are extracted and taken to the nearby town of Colchani to be processed. Again it’s just a quick pause for pictures and then continuing to Colchani. We arrive in Colchani at around 11.30 AM. It’s a small town and the guide says we can walk around the arts and crafts market while we wait for lunch. He mentioned that the souvenirs here were cheaper than in Uyuni so we bought a couple here. We were done with lunch by around 12.30 PM and continued to the last site – the Train Cemetery. It was a quick 30-minute drive there and we pass Uyuni to get there. We spend about 20 minutes here walking around, taking pictures of the abandoned train skeletons. Some have pretty cool graffiti designs on them. Once we’re done with this, the guide takes us to the Uyuni city center to drop us off near the bus terminal. He shows us where we can get bus tickets to our next destination – Calama, Chile. We just missed the last bus as we saw it pull away, so we had to look for accommodation and booked the first bus out the next day.
