Bolivia’s Mirror of Heaven

Imagine standing in the middle of an enormous white landscape.

There are no trees.

No buildings.

Almost nothing to tell you where the ground ends.

Then rainwater covers the surface beneath your feet, the clouds appear below you as clearly as they appear above, and suddenly the horizon disappears completely.

You seem to be standing in the sky.

Welcome to Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia’s most extraordinary tourist destination.

Located high on the Bolivian Altiplano in the southwest of the country, Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world. It covers roughly 10,582 square kilometres, creating a landscape so enormous that vehicles crossing it can appear like tiny dots against an endless white background.

But its size is only the beginning of what makes this place remarkable.

A Prehistoric Lake Became a Salt Desert

Thousands of years ago, this region looked completely different.

Large prehistoric lakes once covered parts of the Bolivian Altiplano. As the climate changed and the water gradually evaporated, enormous quantities of minerals and salt were left behind.

Eventually, the landscape became the brilliant white salt flat visitors see today.

During the dry season, Salar de Uyuni resembles an endless frozen ocean.

The surface breaks naturally into strange geometric patterns, with large hexagonal shapes appearing across the salt crust.

Under the intense Andean sun, the white ground can become almost blinding.

Put on sunglasses, drive far enough from the edge, and the landscape becomes wonderfully confusing.

Mountains seem to float in the distance.

Vehicles look much closer than they really are.

Without trees or buildings to provide a sense of scale, photographers can create amusing perspective photographs in which one person appears to be standing inside another person’s hand or a toy suddenly seems enormous.

Then the rain arrives.

The World’s Largest Natural Mirror

The rainy season completely transforms Salar de Uyuni.

A thin sheet of water can spread across parts of the salt flat, turning the surface into an enormous natural mirror.

Clouds are reflected beneath your feet.

Sunsets appear above and below you.

People walking across the water seem to be floating between two skies.

This famous mirror effect is one of the main reasons travellers come from around the world to see Uyuni.

The wet season generally falls between December and April, although conditions vary from year to year. The dry season, roughly May to November, offers the classic hard white salt landscape and generally easier access across the flats.

Neither season is necessarily better.

They simply show you two completely different versions of the same place.

An Island in an Ocean of Salt

In the middle of all that white lies another surprise.

Isla Incahuasi rises from the salt flat like an island surrounded by a frozen sea.

Instead of palm trees, however, it is covered with giant cacti.

Some of these towering plants grow against dark volcanic rock, creating a remarkable contrast with the bright salt stretching towards the horizon.

Visitors can climb a trail across the island for panoramic views of Salar de Uyuni. During parts of the wet season, however, flooding can make the island inaccessible.

From the higher ground, the scale of the salt flat becomes easier to understand.

You look in every direction and see white.

Then more white.

Then distant mountains.

It is one of those views that makes people naturally stop talking.

The Strange Train Cemetery

Salar de Uyuni has another attraction that feels completely different.

Outside the town of Uyuni stands a collection of abandoned railway locomotives and carriages known as the train cemetery.

Rusting metal sits beneath the high-altitude sun, surrounded by an empty landscape.

The old trains are reminders of Bolivia’s railway and mining history, but today they have become a strangely photogenic stop for travellers beginning tours of the region.

They also fit Uyuni perfectly.

Few places can make a collection of rusting machinery look atmospheric.

Here, against the enormous open sky, the abandoned locomotives almost resemble the remains of another civilization.

Wait Until the Sun Disappears

Many photographs of Salar de Uyuni focus on daytime reflections.

But nighttime may be even more beautiful.

There is relatively little artificial light across the remote landscape.

On a clear night, thousands of stars become visible.

When shallow water covers the flats, those stars can reflect on the ground as well.

For a moment, there appears to be no Earth beneath you.

Only space.

You stand between stars above and stars below.

It is difficult to imagine a more surreal place for stargazing.

The Altitude Should Not Be Ignored

The beauty of Salar de Uyuni can make visitors forget that this is an extreme environment.

The salt flat lies at roughly 3,650 metres above sea level. At that altitude, some travellers may experience headaches, tiredness, dizziness or other symptoms of altitude sickness.

Travellers are often advised to spend time acclimatizing before undertaking longer tours across the Altiplano.

Temperatures can also fall sharply, particularly at night.

And because the region is enormous and remote, choosing an experienced tour operator and a properly equipped vehicle is important.

This is not a landscape to underestimate simply because it looks peaceful.

Why Salar de Uyuni Is Bolivia’s Best Tourist Place

Bolivia contains incredible destinations—Lake Titicaca, the mountains around La Paz, colonial Sucre, the Amazon rainforest and the famous Yungas road among them.

But Salar de Uyuni offers something none of those places can reproduce.

It removes your sense of scale.

It removes the horizon.

And during the right conditions, it almost removes the boundary between Earth and sky.

Travel is often about seeing beautiful places.

Uyuni goes further.

It makes you question what you are seeing.

One day you are driving across an endless desert of white salt.

Another day you are walking across a giant mirror reflecting the clouds.

At night, stars can appear beneath your feet.

Perhaps that is why Salar de Uyuni remains Bolivia’s most unforgettable destination.

You travel there expecting to see one of the world’s great natural wonders.

For a few extraordinary moments, it feels as though you have travelled to another planet instead.