Bolivia Salt Flat Cycling

Altiplano, Bolivia · Bolivia

Challenging7 daysSouth America~£800 est.

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Overview

Cycling the Salar de Uyuni is as close as the planet gets to riding across a blank page: 100 kilometres of hexagon-tiled salt at 3,656 metres, with nothing to steer by but Incahuasi Island's cactus silhouette on the horizon. Most riders cross the salar in a day or two, camping on the salt for a horizon-to-horizon sunset, then continue south on the Lagunas route through the volcanic southwest: Laguna Colorada's brick-red water crowded with James's flamingos, the Sol de Mañana geyser field steaming at 4,850 metres, and Laguna Verde beneath the cone of Licancabur. Season is the variable that undoes people. The famous mirror photographs come from the December–March wet season — when the salar is flooded, corrosive and effectively unrideable. For cycling you want the dry months, roughly April to October, trading reflections for a bone-dry white plain and Altiplano nights that fall to −15°C. Wash the bike ruthlessly afterwards; salt eats drivetrains. The Lagunas section is deep sand and washboard — 2.4-inch tyres minimum, fat bike ideal, and carry two days of water. Uyuni town has the last real supplies. Seven to ten days Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama, about £800 self-supported including park fees.