These rocky outcrops are covered in giant cacti which grow just a centimetre per year look out for shrines and offerings to Pachamama, the Incan Earth Goddess. There are the ‘islands’ of Incahuasi, meaning Home of the Inca, and – less explicably – Isla del Pescado, or Island of the Fish. As you drive deeper into the salt pan, things get even more surreal. Few sights can compete with a Salar sunrise, as the shadows stretch, unbroken, to the horizon, and the sun’s warmth penetrates the thin, icy air.Ĭlose to Uyuni is the eerie ‘train cemetery’ where the rusted hulks of engines have been gnawed away by salt laden winds. You’ll be up each day at dawn or earlier, when the temperatures are well below freezing, but it’s worth it.

You’ll normally spend one night in the middle of the Salar, in a hotel made of salt bricks. By night, you’ll stay in basic hotels (in either shared dorms, or a private room with shared bathroom), and by day you’ll be driving across the salt, with picnic lunches by the side of the vehicle.

How to get aroundCrossing the Salar is a three-day, two-night expedition in a 4x4.

Salt flats bolivia