Our goal for Day 2 of our Bolivia trip was to get from Santa Cruz in the lowlands up to the town of Uyuni in the altiplano. From there, we would set out a three-day adventure on the great Salar de Uyuni, a vast salt flat, and nearby deserts. Yoli and I had previously visited the salar on a one-day tour as part of our epic trip across Bolivia’s altiplano cities about 18 years ago.
But this time would be different. We were bringing the whole family, taking a three-day tour, and coming during the dry winter season, rather than the wet summer season.
Santa Cruz is pretty far from Uyuni by road. So to cut down on travel time, we decided to try our first intra-Bolivia flight. BOA doesn’t offer a direct flight from Santa Cruz to Uyuni, or even to Potosí, the nearest large city. But it does offer a flight to Sucre, the nation’s constitutional capital, which sits at an altitude of 8,860 feet. By bus, the trip from Santa Cruz up the mountains to Sucre would take about 13 hours. But a direct flight takes just 45 minutes.
Thus, our plan — fly to Sucre early in the morning, then take two bus trips: a three-hour drive to Potosí, at 13,758 feet; followed by a four-hour drive to the town of Uyuni beside the salt flats. After a three-day tour of the Salar, we’d return home the reverse of the way we came.
Altitude sickness
In an ideal world, we would spend a couple days in each city along the way, resting, acclimatizing, and visiting sites. But various time constraints forced us to squeeze our Uyuni adventure and the required transportation into about six days. That’s a pretty tight window, and I was concerned about altitude sickness.
Yoli and I have previous experience with it. When we flew directly to La Paz on our big trip 18 years ago, I became lightheaded and suffered a pretty bad headache the first day or two we were there. This time, we hoped that flying first to Sucre at a somewhat lower altitude than Potosí and Uyuni, then driving to those higher cities, might make the change a bit more gradual. We also worked with our family’s doctors before the trip to get prescriptions for medicines that would prepare our bodies for the change, and treat any symptoms we might experience.
By air and by land
The BOA flight was mostly smooth. Unlike our Miami experience, we checked in easily at Viru Viru, and got to the gate quickly. The one hiccup is that BOA switched our gate at boarding time, with no announcement. One of the passengers spotted the change on a flight board.
In Sucre, we left the airport to look for a taxi to take us to the city’s bus terminal. We were approached immediately by women selling bus and taxi rides direct to Potosí from the airport for 70-90 Bs. This was intriguing, but we stuck with our plan to take a cheaper bus from the bus terminal in the city.
Normally it takes 30 minutes to drive from Sucre’s airport to the city itself. But a multi-year highway expansion has made the route longer and bumpier. Thankfully, our taxi driver was very friendly and professional.
Once there, we paid 20 Bs per ticket for a “semi-sleeper” bus ride to Potosí. The bus wasn’t overloaded with people, and was generally pleasant. We managed to get some shut-eye on the way.
As the bus pulled in to Potosí, we saw the Cerro Rico, the famous mountain from which the Spanish extracted so much silver using forced labor centuries ago. We arrived at Potosí’s new bus terminal — but it turned out that the buses to Uyuni leave from Potosí’s old terminal. So we had to hail a taxi and drive across the city.
Yoli went inside to scout out ticket prices while I stayed outside with the kids near the busy entrance. A lady approached me selling tickets for a bus to Uyuni that was leaving immediately. When Yoli got back we quickly agreed this ride was the cheapest (25 Bs per person), but the bus had begun driving away. We had to chase it down, huffing and puffing, dragging all our bags.
The driver picked up quite a few passengers on the way. For parts of the trip, there were people sitting or standing in the aisle. This is a standard practice in Bolivia, but at least it wasn’t so crowded that someone laid their head in my lap (which has happened in the past).
Meanwhile, I had begun to feel the effects of altitude sickness. As the bus ride continued, I felt lightheaded and had a headache. Yoli’s oximeter showed my blood’s oxygen percentage was 86. She told me a trick, where you bend over with your head close to your knees and breathe deeply. This, combined with some medicine, seemed to raise my oxygen level and eliminate the lightheadedness, though the headache persisted.
The little house
We made it to Uyuni after 7 p.m. on Monday. The bus rides had been very warm, since temps reached the low 60s outside, and the sunlight is very hot. But after sundown, it gets quite cold in this part of the world, with lows near freezing.
I had booked a suite at “La Casita”, or the “Little House Apart Hotel,” a three-month-old operation that had mostly been working with AirBnB and Booking.com. I found them on Expedia, where there were no reviews yet, but an internet search had turned up very promising reviews on the other sites — so we decided to take a chance.
It turned out to be a great choice. But we did have trouble finding the place.
It is situated a ways down Avenida Colón, across the street from a set of garbage cans and a public bathroom. Despite its unpromising location, it was absolutely wonderful with friendly employees, heated rooms with heaters (so important during the winter here), one of the best electric showers I have ever used, and a nice breakfast (though small).
We left the hotel briefly to eat a late dinner. We found a hole-in-the wall chicken place nearby that served tasty broasted and grilled chicken. Joseph in particular thought it was awesome. On the way home we picked up some coca tea, which I brewed and drank before sleeping.
After nearly two full days of travel, our night in the Little House Apart Hotel was a wonderful respite. If we had had the luxury of stretching this trip out longer, it would have been lovely to stay there a few more nights.