TRAVEL AND TOURS

On the Altiplano's high plateaus at 3,660 meters above sea level, south of the La Paz, we will find the Uyuni Salt Pans, the largest in the world - a sea of salt, in a fantasy world of its own. It looks like an endless frozen over lake or a white expanse of desert, and is actually the evidence of a very ancient sea that existed here. Its area is 10,580 km2. its average annual temperature ranges from 20°Celsius in the daytime to -25°C at night; it has a typical high-mountain weather: dry and cold, with low rainfall and intense solar radiation. As a result of the instant evaporation of ground water that occurs in the southern high plateau due to the dryness of the air, enormous flat salt beds have been formed, They consists mainly of sodium chloride, together with the sodium and magnesium carbonates present in the original water. The town of Uyuni is the departure point for tours to a region rich in landscapes, archaeological sites and natural wilderness areas. It has tourist facilities for information, lodgings, local and international cooking, unrestricted communications, medical assistance, foreign currency exchange and stores that sell local arts and crafts. Its weather is rainy from November to March and dry the rest of the year.

In the area of the salt pans of Coipasa, Uyuni and Empexa is concentrated the largest amount of salt on the planet. It is a singular beauty, where nature has a very special way of displaying its marvels, by creating unique shapes. Snow capped peaks of extinct volcanoes surge from immense arid plains with few rivers and below zero Celsius temperatures at night. The surface crust is 10 m thick, and the amount of salt in the Pans is thought to be 64000 millions tons. They also contain huge amounts of boron, chlorine, magnesium, sodium, potassium, strontium and other elements in smaller amounts, including lithium, which is considered a strategic and medical mineral in high demand worldwide. At the edges of the salt pan, potatoes and quinua are successfully farmed.

In winter, you can walk through the salt pans and they can be visited coming from the different towns in the surroundings. Some of the islands on the Uyuni Salt Pan have a special interest for tourists. Incahuasi, is a spectacularly beautiful example. Centrally located, it has calcareous rock formations that include remains of coral and seashells, and is populated with cacti up to 7 meters in height; if climbed, they will give a view of the enormous expansion of the salt pans from different angles.

Very close to its salt pans we find the town of Uyuni. There were plans in the 19th century to develop it into a great railroad terminus and business center; this, however, never happened. This explains the excessively wide streets of the original plan. The little town of Uyuni is situated on the highway that crosses the country in a north-south direction, and is the turning point for Chiguna and the frontier village of Ollagüe, the Chilean border crossing. Tthis road runs parallel to the railway coming from La Paz. Nowadays the Uyuni lives mining the salt and offering tours to its salt pan and those of Coipasa and Colchan, as well as tours to Colorada Lagoon and Verde Lagoon (Red and Green Lagoons), and the other beautiful spots mentioned below. The food and lodging services meet the visitors' basic needs. Actually, this whole area is a major cluster of salt pans and small lakes that form the remnants of a once immense inland sea.