Uyuni

 Uyuni, a town in the Western side of Bolivia, has been one of our favorite places to visit this far. Not be the town itself is anything noteworthy, but because of its proximity to the Salar de Uyuni salt flat, one of the largest in the world. We were fortunate to get to see this natural wonder in 2 distinct phases: the dry season and the wet season, both in close proximity. In the dry season you can drive across the whole Salar, taking in the surroundings and admire the endless whiteness of the place. During the wet season, the Salar becomes the biggest mirror in the world. This experience was literally indescribable so I’ll just put in a bunch of pictures for you to see for yourself.

In addition to the Salar, we embarked on a 3-day trip into the altiplanos. There, we saw stunning lagoons full of flamingos and some thermal geysers. Sunny was even able to swim in a thermal pool at 5,000 meters altitude! We had beautiful views of the mountains after an overnight snow, and enjoyed some interesting rock formations formed by volcanic eruptions. Sunny also enjoyed the llamas!

The most exciting by far though, was our short-term guest ‘Gustava’, a vacuna(cousin of the alpaca) less than 1 month old and abandoned by its mother (likely killed) that we caught and brought to the nature reserve to be nursed to health before release into the reserve to live freely. She was ultra soft and cuddly, if frightened at first, and was a great companion until we could get her to her final destination. What an amazing experience!