Loop from Uyuni
The Altiplano
5 days · 850 km · Bolivia
Route Uyuni → Colchani → Salar de Uyuni → Incahuasi → San Juan → the lagunas → Árbol de Piedra → Laguna Colorada → Sol de Mañana → Desierto de Dalí → Laguna Verde → Villa Mar → Valle de Rocas → San Cristóbal → Uyuni Distance 850 km Duration 5 days, ~25 hours driving
5 nights, every one above 3600 m
Not one metre of tarmac between the towns Best Months April to November for driving the crust
January-March floods the salar into a mirror — spectacular, and the crossing closes The Altitude Salar de Uyuni — 3656 m
San Juan — 3660 m
Laguna Colorada — 4278 m
Sol de Mañana — 4870 m
Laguna Verde — 4350 m Parks & Protected Areas Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna Reserve
Three flamingo species on its lakes, James's the rarest Signature Roads The salt crust itself, 80 km of white
The lagunas track, braided across the puna
The Valle de Rocas, wind-carved on the way home


Route Map


Open in Google Maps The Plan

The southwest corner of Bolivia is the strangest driving country on earth: a salt flat so vast that satellites calibrate on it, lakes coloured red and green and farmed by flamingos at four thousand metres, geysers, stone trees, a desert named after Dalí — and no roads, just braided 4x4 tracks across the puna.

Most people do this in the back of someone else's Land Cruiser. Doing it at the wheel converts the tour into an expedition — the Uyuni agencies hire equipped Land Cruisers — and the loop is closed: out of Uyuni, back to Uyuni, no border anywhere in it.

Three movements: the salar and Incahuasi's cactus island, where perspective fails on the crust; the laguna chain under smoking volcanoes, ending at Colorada's brick-red water and the flamingos thought extinct until 1956; and the high turn — geysers at 4,870 m in the dawn cold, Laguna Verde under Licancabur's cone, and home past the stone trees.


Day Route Distance Highlights Night stay
01 Fly La Paz → Uyuni no driving Arrive at 3,660 m and do very little about it — the day is for acclimatisation, collecting the Land Cruiser, checking both spares and the jerrycans, and loading the GPS tracks. The train cemetery at sunset costs nothing Uyuni
02 Uyuni → Colchani → Salar → Incahuasi → San Juan 220 km
6 h		 Onto the crust at Colchani and out into the white — the salt hexagons, the perspective games, cactus island at the centre of the void. Off the southern edge by afternoon to the quinoa village of San Juan San Juan
03 San Juan → the lagunas chain → Árbol de Piedra → Laguna Colorada 200 km
6.5 h		 Up onto the puna past Ollagüe's smoking cone, then lake after lake — Cañapa, Hedionda, Honda — each with its flamingos. The stone tree in its sand field, and the red lake by late afternoon light Laguna Colorada
04 Sol de Mañana → Termas de Polques → Dalí desert → Laguna Verde → Villa Mar 250 km
7 h		 Geysers at dawn when the cold makes the steam columns solid, a hot spring soak at Polques, the Dalí desert's scattered monoliths, and Laguna Verde turning emerald in the wind under Licancabur. Then the turn for home, north to the rock village of Villa Mar Villa Mar
05 Villa Mar → Valle de Rocas → Villa Alota → San Cristóbal → Uyuni 180 km
5 h		 The morning among the Valle de Rocas' wind-carved towers — a sculpture park with no fence and no visitors — then llama country to Villa Alota, the relocated colonial church at San Cristóbal, and Uyuni by mid-afternoon for the wash, the keys and the evening flight Uyuni
Notes

The vehicle decides everything: an equipped Land Cruiser from Uyuni — two spares, fuel cans, the GPS tracks — confirmed in writing; or, better, a local driver with it. No roads, fuel, signal or help on the lagunas route. Stay on the tracks — the crust off them hides mud.

The route never drops below 3,600 m and sleeps at 4,278 m: acclimatise in La Paz or Potosí on the way, and treat the Colorada night with respect. April to November for the dry crust.

© 2001-26 Zishaan Hayath