5 day trip from tupiza to Uyuni
climbing Tunupa

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, you will visit your first lagoon, Laguna Kollpa. Here large amounts of raw material are extracted for making soap. If you want, you can get out and take a few photographs before continuing through Salar de Chaiviri to arrive at the hot springs in time for a short swimming and some lunch. Your next stop after lunch will be the 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. Desierto de Dalí (110 km2) is our next stop, a place with mountains of surrealist colors, reminiscent of the photos of Salvador Dalí and rock formations of petrified lava. Then, we will cross the hots springs once more to go to “Sol de Mañana” Geysers (5000m above sea level). Then we will spend around 1 hour in Laguna Colorada and finally we will travel to Villamar to spend the 2nd night (Basic Accommodation).

After the breakfast, we will start visiting Valle de Rocas, where you will see many rocks formations like Copa del Mundo and El Camello. Then we will go to Italia Perdida, where you will have some time to walk around the rocks. After that, we will go to Laguna Catal or Laguna Negra. Next is Cañón de la Anaconda which is a canyon where the Anaconda river runs. Some towns like San Agustín and Julaca will be passed in order to arrive to Villa Candelaria to stay there. This night you will stay in a basic salt accommodation.

Today we will climb the Tunupa Volcano, so we will leave from accommodation early in the morning, around 04:30 and drive for around 1.5 hours to Coquesa, where we will have our breakfast. After that, we will drive for 15 minutes and arrive to the 1st viewpoint of the volcano (4200 m.a.s.l.) and once there we will start the trekking to the Tunupa Volcano, takes approximately 5 hours to the highest point that we can arrive (around 5200 m.a.s.l.), unfortunately, the access to the top of the mountain is not easy and special equipment and experience is required. After that, we will go down to the 1st viewpoint and then to Coquesa. Around 15:00 we will have our lunch and rest for sometime. Optionally, you can walk a little and see a nice sunset at the border of the salt flat.

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.