JIRIRA AND TAHUA

Many samall villages around the Salar survive mostly from growing quinua and raising herds of llamas. This is the case of the small villages of Jirira and Tahua.

Some of then have interesting sites with mummies.

Around the Salar all this villages provide an out of this world landscape.

CUEVA GALAXIA Y CUEVA DEL DIABLO

In search of buried trasures, locals have been making all sorts of explorations in the surroundings of the Salar de Uyuni.

One of those explorations ended on a very unusual discovery,  a cave that is compared to an egg shell, probably what was an underwater cave with petrified algae. This cave is now known as Cueva Galaxia.

Cueva del Diablo, the Devil´s Cave was apparently a cementery for the locals. Unfortunately, there are no remais of bodies or whatever was buried with them.

SAN PEDRO DE QUEMEZ

It is a small village where the inhabitants are starting to get organized to create tourist atractions. At the moment they are working on the restoration of some ruins they have in the area probably from the times of the Señorios de Lipez.

This town has now an agreement with two other parties and they have built the best hotels in the area. The hotel in San Pedro provides nice accomodattions, good food and some luxuries unavailable for the regular visitors such a hot showers, solar heating in the rooms as well as a bonfire and of course great views from the terraces.

The town has no telephone, as most towns they only have electricity for a couple of hours every day.

SAN CRISTOBAL

This town, unlike most in this area, was already a Spanish settlement, mostly because of the silver mining in the area.

Very suprisingly a few years ago a very rich silver deposit was discovered beneath where the spaniards had the town, so the company that got the concession for the mining activity in this site moved the whole town to a new location providing new homes to all the villagers and moving their church to this new location.

The hotel stablished in the town was mainly made for the mine workers.  It has rooms with private bathrooms, a restaurant and a bar.

MINOR LAGOONS

There are five minor lagoons; the most interesting one is Laguna Hedionda called so because of the strong sulfur smell.

This lagoon is great for observing the flamingoes and other birds such as Andean gulls and ducks from a closer distance.

ARBOL DE PIEDRA

The volcanic activity in the area and the erosion of the wind, formed amzing shapes in the rocks. This is the case of the so famous stone tree

VILLAMAR

This town, unlike others has the benefit of a small river going across. It is one of the main communicattion towns for locals as there is a regular bus journey passing by (once a week), most of the people there do their shopping in the tiny little shops in the village where only the simplest things are found.

The fact that this town has a little more development has to do with the proximity with a very large borax mine where several people work.

EDUARDO AVAROA NATIONAL PARK

Covering an extent of 714,745 hectares, located in the southeast of the department of Potosí, this is a region of extensive plains, mesas and lagoons, flanked to the east by a volcanic chain. The fauna and flora of the area is endemic to these altitudes.

LAGUNA COLORADA (RED LAGOON)

Of 60-km² surface area and at an altitude of 4278m, this lagoon is noted for the reddish color of its waters. It is home to large numbers of red, white and pink flamingos. The views are especially beautiful here at these latitudes.

SOL DE MAÑANA

Geysers, fumaroles and volcanic wells form a spectacular group of thermal phenomena. These features are located one hour south of the Laguna Colorada.

LAGUNA VERDE (GREEN LAGOON)

Laguna Verde covers an area of 17km² and is at an altitude of 4350m.

The mirrored surface of the water sparkles in the brilliant altiplano light, appearing as a giant emerald on the surface of the plain, and the singular shine of the green lagoon in the afternoon sunlight can be blinding. From here one can observe the imposing beauty of the Llicancahur volcano which rises from the beaches of the lagoon to a height of 5865m.