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Cross the Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia

Jeep in the Salt Lake Aalar De Uyuni, Bolivia

Discover a surreal landscape of endless salt, blindingly white in the dry season or mirroring the sky in the wet season.

Occupying over 10,000 square kilometres, the vast Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is a naturally occurring salt desert, resembling in the dry season an endless sheet of searing white and in the wet, a vast mirror for the heavens as land and sky fuse and the horizon blurs into nothingness.

With a shallow reflective layer of rain water covering the salt, driving across the Salar gives the illusion of flying. The terrain is completely featureless, bar the occasional “floating” island that comes into view before drifting off again into the distance.

When it’s dry however, the blinding white desert of salt is a playground inviting all manner of perspective-bending trick photography. Viewed at close range, the ground is etched with striking hexagonal patterns.

No matter when you visit, you can expect an utterly surreal and mesmerising experience, made all the more unearthly when the Isla Incahuasi, an incongruous outcrop of bristling cacti, appears out of the emptiness. You’ll also visit Colchani, where the salt is still mined by hand using age-old traditional methods and piled into white mounds that dot the salt fields.

 

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    Chris Rendell-Dunn - Travel Expert

    Anglo-Peruvian Chris grew up in Lima and spent much of his adult life in between London and Cusco as a tour leader, before settling permanently in our London-based Tailor-made and Group Tours sales team.

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    Kathryn backpacked across Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru before joining us. She has a degree in Philosophy and French and is a keen netball player.

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    During a career break, Rosie embarked on an unforgettable year-long backpacking trip across Latin America. Now back in the UK, she is excited to share her knowledge and experiences with others, helping them discover her favourite place in the world.

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    Maggie Wilson - Travel Expert

    Maggie visited Latin America on her first backpacking trip when she was 19. Since then, she has taken every opportunity to travel, and has managed to explore a lot of the region in subsequent trips.

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    Hannah had an early introduction to Latin America when her family moved to Ecuador and she returned to study in Buenos Aires for a year before backpacking across the continent.

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