Salar de Uyuni: how to save $ 150
Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is not only the hallmark of the country, it can be listed in the list of the coolest attractions of the planet, where he takes his rightful place. If you ride three days in a jeep through the desert and valleys is Not your goal, if you have seen a thousand cacti, geysers and thermal springs, and if you do not surprise you with flocks of pink flamingos, and if 150USD is not superfluous, namely, it is for a person the initial cost in the group tour, and if you only need an iconic photo of a saline a La “ running away from a dinosaur”, and in General just to see this wonder of the World, it can be done without spending a cent, well, or almost cent, or rather boliviano))). And today we share how to get to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia for free. Absolutely free, without tour))).
Content::
- When to visit Salar de Uyuni
- How to get yourself to the saline Uyuni
- How to get to Uyuni from other cities of Bolivia
- Ideas for photos
- Uyuni city: transport, accommodation, attractions
- Experience a trip to the solar de Uyuni
Salar de Uyuni is located in southwest Bolivia in the Department of Oruro (Oruro) Endless snow-white is equal to Altiplano (Altiplano) at an altitude of almost 4000 meters above sea level. In fact, today’s saline (the largest on the planet) is a tremendous dried up salt lake. If you decide to visit the saline yourself, we recommend you to bring a scarf, hat, gloves, sunglasses and sunscreen, the sun burns just mercilessly.
If you book a tour, it is not superfluous to be also a sleeping bag, if there is, because in salt hotels at night is very cold, thermal underwear, windproof clothing, flashlight, battery for phone and camera. The average price of tours to solar de Uyuni from the city is $150-230 per person for a 3-day tour, not including entrance fees to parks and reserves. Private tours are much more expensive, but the whole car is at your disposal, not six, as in the standard group.
__________
When to visit Salar de Uyuni
Every year more than 75 thousand tourists come to admire this unique phenomenon: Lake Uyuni is also called the» largest mirror in the World», so many people tend to come to the rainy season from November to March, in these months the greatest probability of»getting to the mirror». But even in February and March, considered the best months of the year to visit this place, when the most favorable conditions for the formation of a mirror, the water may be even too much, and the effect of the mirror is achieved only when the water is only a few centimeters, and in this case there will be a feeling that people and But in life everything is possible… and this below!)
__________
How to get yourself to the saline Uyuni
You can get to salar without a tour, which we did. It is necessary from the bus station on calle Arce street to take any bus that follows in the direction of the city of Oruro or to it, it is better, in our opinion, at 12:00 — this is the best time, as it seemed to us,to have enough for the road, and for a day photo shoot and sunset in the snow-white desert of the salar of Uyuni, and that would not be exhausted at all, at the same time. Bolivians who go to the nearest villages do not buy bus tickets to Oruro, but pay with the driver at the exit. And enter the bus before the departure, 3 minutes and sit on the remaining free space.
We did the same, after checking with several local, how much is the fare to the Quiver, and it’s only 5BOB (less than $1) per person. When boarding the bus, inform the driver that you are in Colchani, that he would not forget to stop. At the same time better control the route of its movement in the off-line map, for example, by using the maps application.me. You need to go out at the beginning of the village of Colchani (Colchani). By the way, if you do not get on the bus, you can also get on the bus, which also follow on Oruro, but it will be somewhat more expensive — 15 BOB (2.5 USD) per person. From the road to the beginning of Solara de Uyuni, where you can already see the first salt piles, exactly 5.5 km on a flat road.
The weather was wonderful and we easily covered this distance on foot in an hour. If you are lucky, you can vote and take the bus with the workers (they periodically run on the same road) and go to the epicenter of the salt marshes. From the salt pods to the orange lakes, the salty eye of Ojos de Sal is still about 1.5 km away, but they are more like orange puddles. It is possible that this place is still better suited for the legendary photo shoot, because there is visually more infinite space, feels. There is also one of the first long stops of tours (after the souvenir shops of course).
I also met on the Internet information that people agreed for 20dollarov ride on salt marshes, though I do not know whether it was through the Agency or just directly with the locals in the city.I also met on the Internet information that people agreed for 20dollarov ride on salt marshes, though I do not know whether it was through the Agency or just directly with the locals in the city.
_______
How to get to Uyuni from other cities of Bolivia
From La Paz you can go on a direct (directo) night bus a lot of companies. The ticket price starts from 69 centuries ($ 10), travel time — 12-13 hours. Buses start at 19 o’clock. There are recumbent (cama) and recumbent (semi-cama). Or day, with a change (combiar) in Oruro. But in this case, of course, it is better to leave early in the morning. All buses depart from the bus Station «Terminal de buses La Paz», which is located at the intersection of avenida Peru & avenida Montes.
As is from Oruro there are regular buses and taxis from 45Bob ($5) for 4 hours. Ply from morning to evening. Or you can take the train. Expreso Del Sur: departure Tuesday and Friday at 14: 30, 7 hours. Trains of the second company Wara Wara Del Sur run on Thursdays and Sundays at 19:00, also 7 hours on the road, that is, comes from Oruro to Uyuni at night. The trains have 2 classes: economy — $ 8, and business — $17.
From Cochabamba travel will cost from 82 centuries (12USD), and also only by night buses. There are several of them and they all leave after 19 PM. Terminal de buses Cochabamba: corner of avenida Ayacucho & calle Punata from Sucre to Uyuni there are several flights per day of different companies, for example one of them with departure to 7:00, 12:30, 20:00, ticket price from 50 VOV ($6.5) terminal Address: Calle Ostria Gutierrez
From Potosi to the old terminal EX provincial, which is closer to the city center on avenida Universitaria, buses depart several times a day for the price of 30 VOV($ 4.3) per person, but we easily bargained with the driver before departure for 45 VOV for two. July 2018 from potosí schedule of one of the companies: 6:00, 8:00, 10:00, 13:00, 15:30, 20:00.
Between the new (interregional) and the old (regional) bus stations go urban routes F,E, I and they all go to the center. All buses from all cities of Bolivia come to Uyuni on calle Arce street — this is actually the bus station. Here are a bunch of different companies in Oruro, Potos, in La Paz to the border with Chile ,and at the corner of the bus-collective in the same directions.
Attention! In no case do not need to buy bus tickets in advance! And even more so via the Internet! Overpayment can reach 2 or even 3-fold fare «on the spot».
In Bolivia, always(!) you can go in any direction and the cheaper the fare is on the day of departure, and the closer to the time of departure, and the more companies serve the route, the more willing you will give in price. It is better to specify the bus schedule at the bus stations at least a day or the day before the expected departure. Things can change in Bolivia.
Tours to solar from 3 days are organized directly from Chile, and prices are the same as in Bolivia, from 150USD, in addition to the entrance to the Park there is also a surcharge on the spot from $25. But you can also drive without a tour to Uyuni from San Pedro de Atacama or Kalama. Departure is 3 nights, prices from 160 ВОВ ($24).
From Peru to Uyuni can be reached from Puno or Arequipa with a transfer to La Paz; departure from Puno to La Paz: 6:00, 7:00, 14:00, prices from 35 soles ($10), 6 hours on the road. If you have little time to travel and no time to stop In La Paz, you can immediately take the night bus .
________
Ideas for photos
Endless white and perfectly flat desert saline allows you to make a lot of interesting photos in Uyuni with optical deception. Here are a few ideas: on the coin, among coins, dinosaur photos the famous, bottle, bottles, pans, spoon, fist, house of cards, crush machine, finish machine, to hang on the braid to catch the man in a fist, etc.
Uyuni city: transport, accommodation, attractions
There is no public transport in the city, but you can walk around the city or take a city taxi by the type of collective. The fare from 5ВОВ for two (car whole). There is a Central market and small shops with low prices ,as in the whole of Bolivia. Housing is better to look at the place, so it will be cheaper. When we arrived in the city in the most budget accommodation in Uyuni with a separate 2-bed room cost from 110V. But, as it turned out, there are a lot of offers for 80 and even for 60 bolivianos for two. The latter is located on calle Cucre, next to hostel la Predilecta. The city of Uyuni itself is nothing interesting, if not worse.
Therefore, after the tours to Salar (in fact, during) popular cemetery locomotives, a visit which is included in all tours, without exception, which can be easily reached on foot by railway tracks directly from the city center, so many travelers visit it on their own, the benefit to go to it only 2.5 km South of the center. Taxi will cost 5-10 BOB, depending on your desire and ability to bargain with the driver. Come better after 13, because. usually until this time bring tourists and can be a lot of people.
we did not come across a Bicycle rental in Uyuni either in the center or on the periphery. The airport in Uyuni. Located 3 km from the center, on the Eastern outskirts of the city. Taxi fare will also cost no more than 8 boliviano, but you can walk — as you like.
Experience a trip to the solar de Uyuni
As mentioned above, we chose the day bus for 12 hours to Oruro and went to the bus station to the village of Colchani, which lies 20 km North of Uyuni, came first village and went on foot towards the salt desert. It was in August, i.e. in the South American winter, and on the eve of our visit to the salt marshes…. the SNOW fell! It was a complete surprise for us and for the local, who began to urgently sculpt snowmen, and we, frankly, did not know, enjoy our snow or not: on the one hand it was good — a rare opportunity to see the mirror, after the snow melts (in the afternoon at this time of year warms up to +7+11, at night a small minus) and on the other — could be very cold, the snow would not melt at all or, on the contrary, would have melted too much water. In August, apparently, the wet weather in Bolivia does not happen often, because rubber boots on sale we did not come across. So we armed ourselves with the usual grocery bags to wrap their shoes, in case of heavy snowmelt — the old proven method;) we wrapped our faces with scarves, so as not to burn and not to freeze prematurely, and on the horizon more and more clearly loomed mountains, reflected in the lake. About 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when we reached the same salt piles, from which all the miracle begins, we stood and did not know where to go: the snow melted and melted all the way to the salt marshes, and the reflection did not happen, passing cars with tourists, plunging in some places quite deep into the water, and a few dozen meters clearly whitened strip, which
And yet we understood where we were and what we had to do: how to overcome the suddenly formed water barrier. Having put on all the bags that were on top of the sneakers, we started jumping on the areas where there was no water or at least on the ankle. After 300 meters we went out on the road and headed towards the center of the saline, where a lot of jeeps stopped. We were hoping that once the tourists stop there, so the types of there a good. It was probably already 15 days. We fooled around there in the end 2 hours. The sunset was beginning, and then IT happened! When we began to return on the same road back… in General the road just did not, and even where it was a little dry, there was water I… the most legendary MIRROR! Mountains in the sunset reflected on the water surface of Uyuni and we completely forgot about the beginning to get wet feet! A small group of tourists who came to the sunset in jeeps was another luck, creating us the same entourage for a photo shoot-all as ordered! This delight is impossible to describe! And it is, indeed, supremely delightful!
they came to the solid ground at 7 o’clock and soon it was quite dark, after half an hour the car stopped and we were offered a ride to the city. Thus ended our independent journey through the saline. We hope That it was useful for you and you will be able to get to Salar de Uyuni for free and enjoy unforgettable views of this truly magical lake or the white desert in Bolivia. More photos of bus stations and more
2,019 total views, 1 views today
