Those photos are pretty amazing! Ok, pretty much sold on the multi-day trip!
And good to know that upon arrival, can just figure it out then.
With respect to starting/stopping the tour in Uyani or another town; we'll be flying in/out of La Paz, so just need to figure out if a second town of Uyani will be worth the logistics of getting back to La Paz from there. Assuming it's easy enough to do from Tupiza, sounds like it may be worth the extra money.
Lastly, in terms of timing, we do have some flexibility of the dates. We can also go in the second week of November, which it seems is closer to the wet season, so maybe a little water enough to create some of the cool reflections, but not too much to hinder the access to various areas.
Thoughts on October vs November for anyone familiar with the differences?
Thanks!
I went to Uyuni March, so I don't know about Oct/Nov time. But I'll tell you, I highly doubt you can have BOTH the reflection caused by water on the plains AND safe accessibility to that island, which I've heard is amazing. In March there was neither the cool reflection from the place we were, nor access to the island because of water in between us and it, but it was awesome regardless (especially the sunrise option).
I recommend you go from La Paz to Tupiza. Do the more expensive tour and you get the benefit of seeing the sites in the Tupiza area on the first day of the tour. Also, it goes one way so you don't have to backtrack. If you were to do Uyuni-Uyuni, the entire last day is driving back all the way- really boring. You can do Uyuni-Tupiza but I'd start with the Tupiza stuff and hopefully you'll get to do the salt flats on the last day at sunrise!!!! You could also take a bus from La Paz to Oruro and the train the rest of the way to Uyuni, but you have to transfer and it can be a little complicated and inconvenient depending on the time of arrival.
Be careful though in La Paz. The first time I was in Bolivia, I got a ticket to Tupiza with a bus company called Panamericana to do the tour as I described above. I bought the ticket through the travel agency at the Loki hostel. There were strikes the first night and blockades on the highway; the bus was gonna leave 2 hours late (on top of a 16h journey) and they wouldn't let me exchange the ticket so I forfeited it and just bought another $13USD ticket to go the next night. The second night when I tried to leave, a woman on the bus holding a clip board with a seating chart pretended to be working for the bus company (she looked similar to the woman at the office in the bus station- I thought it was the same woman) and duped me into putting my bag in the section above the seats, telling me I had to and that i could get it after departure (I was thinking, this isn't an airplane! But well, she's the authority). She distracted me and my travel mate by showing us how the window opened (it was broken and actually wouldn't open) while a cholita bitch stole my bag. This is a common scam and not mentioned in the guide book. Five minutes later I went to check and we realized what had happened and had to jump off the bus and catch a micro back to the bus station on the side of the freeway 5 minutes outside La Paz. The people at the office of the bus company didn't care , were probably in on it, and we had to argue with them for a long time just to get the $13 back. The good news is that my travel buddy was a cute Argy guy that I had met at the hostel a few hours prior. He took care of me for the next two days while I got my new passport and some money wired from my mom (with no Spanish skills and no money nor ID!) ... I fell head over heels for him and moved to Argentina to chase him down, and we're still together!!!!
Sorry for the digression but do be careful on those Bolivian buses ... the thieves of La Paz (and elsewhere) are absolutely ruthless!! Don't let it turn you off, just be extra careful and weary of anyone that is friendly or helpful. (Sad but true).
After the trip, I read a great blog article on all the scams you may encounter on South American buses- mine was on there too. I can't seem to find it now but here's a similar one that you should read: http://www.rooshv.com/10-common-travel-scams
