Isla de Pescadores on the Uyuni salt flats

The Salar de Uyuni salt flat lies on Bolivia’s southwest border with Chile. It’s a surreal white landscape complete with rock islands of cacti, a hotel built entirely of salt and flocks of pink flamingos.

From Chile you can catch an old chugging train for three days over the barren altiplano to Uyuni – a border town built beneath a massive dome of sky in the middle of nowhere. From within Bolivia you can also catch a train from Oruro to Uyuni, although tickets cannot be pre-booked. You must buy your ticket on the day you wish to travel. 

Tourism defines Uyuni’s existence. Numerous 4WD tour companies based in the small town take eager tourists across the world’s largest salt flat. Locals also survive by mining the salt from dawn till dusk, seven days a week.

Once a prehistoric inland sea, the salt flat reaches to the horizon and bends the light so the sky merges into the ground. Occasionally a red and orange mountain slashed with turquoise mineral bands breaks the horizon, or a purple rocky island crowned with haphazard cacti emerges from the white plain. And then if it rains, a thin layer of water perfectly mirrors the sky. It’s a photographer’s dream.

Another site worth seeing while in Uyuni is the train graveyard on the outskirts of town towards Chile. Just follow the tracks past the communal garbage dump to the rusting hulks of countless trains which once worked the line. One old steam train is decorated with some unlikely graffiti - Einstein’s theory of relativity is painted in large white letters down its side.