5 day trip from tupiza to Uyuni
climbing LICANCABUR

Today you will visit Quebrada de Palala, a spectacular jagged rock formation, formed over many years by intense erosion of the mountainside. After this you will head on to El Sillar where you will have a few minutes to get out and enjoy this dramatic landscape before we continue through Nazarenito, a small gold mining community. Then we will go to visit Ciudad del Encanto, where you will see impressive rock formations. After that, you will arrive to San Pablo de Lípez (4250m). Then you will go to San Antonio de Lípez and finally to Quetena, where you will spend your first night in a Basic Accommodation.

After breakfast, we will continue our trip crossing two small lagoons, Laguna Hedionda and Laguna Kollpa. Then, we will arrive to Polques, the hot springs, where you can swim for some minutes. After lunch, we will drive to Desierto de Dalí, a place with mountains of surrealist colors, reminiscent of the photos of Salvador Dalí and rock formations of petrified lava. Then, will visit Laguna Verde (4250 m.a.s.l.), which presents an emerald green coloration due to arsenic and magnesium content in its waters. It is located at the feet of Volcano Licancabur (5868m), which represents the border between Chile and Bolivia. We will stay in very basic refuge.

We will leave early in the morning, around 03:00 and travel for some minutes in order to arrive to the Licancabur Volcano‘s feet (4450 m.a.s.l.), then, we will start the trekking to the volcano. It takes around 6-7 hours to get to the top of the volcano, where you will see its crater. After that, you will start to go down to the car (takes around 3.5 hours). After lunch, we will return through Laguna Verde and Dali Desert in order to stay in Polques (hot springs).

Note: The trekking to this volcano is the most difficult of the area, it requires good physical condition.
Note: Polques has few accommodations and it is quiet difficult to find space there, in case we can not find accommodation there, we will continue traveling until Huaylljara to stay there.

After the breakfast, you will leave Huayllajara at 07:30 to go to Laguna Colorada and visit the lagoon for around 1 hour, then we will continue to Desierto de Siloli, we will go to visit the famous Arbol de Piedra, one of the most visited tourist attractions in the area. After visiting Árbol de Piedra, we will drive for a while in order to arrive to Laguna Kara and Laguna Kachi, which are two beautiful andean lagoons. After that, we will go to the north and arrive to Laguna Turquiri or Laguna Negra, where tou will be able to see black andean ducks. Finally, we will cross two small towns, Julaca and Alota in order to arrive to Candelaria, where we will sleep. At the end of the afternoon, we will enter to the Uyuni salt flat to see the sunset there, then we will return to the accommodation.

Note 1: During rainy season (normally from January to April), if the salt flat has a lot of water, we can not stay in Villa Candelaria. From Alota, we will go to Uyuni or Colchani to stay there.

Today we will cross the immense Salar de Uyuni (3650 m.a.s.l.) early in the morning to see the Sunrise in the Uyuni Salt Flat. With 12,000 km², the Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt plain in the world, stretching away in all directions as far as the eye can see. From here you can see volcano Tunupa impressively overhanging. The salt flats are made up of 11 separate layers with a thickness that ranges from 2 to 10m. The depth of salt is 120 meters and with that it is the biggest reserve of minerals such as lithium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus and borax in the world. It has 14 small islands, the most important is the Incahuasi Island. Around the island, you can see Ojos de Agua, these are springs which act as pores for the salt flats. Leaving the salt bed, we will visit Colchani, the village where the salt is processed. Here there are various salt souvenirs and alpaca or llama wool clothes. Finally, we will go to see Cementerio de Trenes, where you will see a lot of ancient trains. Then we will go the central part of the city to finish the tour around 1-2pm.

Note: If you want to finish in Tupiza, it is possible, after we finish the tour in Uyuni, we will drive around 3 hours more to get to Tupiza.