Tayka hotels - Uyuni Salt flats and E. Abaroa Reserve
TAYKA HOTELS NETWORK
Though the area has been visited by tourists for about 30 years, hotel infrastructure was, until very recently, quite poor. This situation has changed in part thanks to private investment such as the Tayka Hotel Network that is a mixed-enterprise, that is that the hotels have been built in part with favorable low-interest loans. The communities where the hotels have been built have signed an agreement with the Foundation “Prodem” for it to manage the hotels for 15 years, and after then, management will pass entirely into the hands of the communities.
The three hotels working at present are the Hotel de Sal (Salt Hotel), the Hotel de Piedra (Stone Hotel) and the Hotel del Desierto (Desert Hotel). The first is in the northern side of the Salar in the Tahua locality, the second is further south, in the area of San Pedro de Quemes, and the third is on the edge of the Eduardo Avaroa Reserve, at about 40 km by car from Laguna Colorada, in a point called Ojo de Perdiz (Partridge’s eye) the first two rise to an altitude of 3.700 m.a.s.l., while the third rises to 4.600 m.a.s.l..
All three have comfortable rooms with private bath and hot water. The common areas are spacious and have been architecturally designed in harmony with the local aesthetic. The fist, following the Hotel de Sal model is made of salt blocks. The second has been built with lithic materials using construction techniques used by local colonial-period buildings. The three possibly share a defect – the spaces are too large and difficult to heat, especially in winter.
Staying in all three hotels is feasible, if, departing La Paz at dawn, one arrives early at the Tahua Salt Hotel. For this trip, one should use the route that departs Oruro toward Quillacas and there going toward Garci Mendoza, and then taking the road that borders the Thunupa volcano on its northern flank. The second day can be used to visit the Salar in its full magnificence, including the Inca Huasi Island and some of the attractions on the flanks of the Thunupa, for example the pre-Hispanic cemetery, or the so-called Galaxy Grotto, and stay overnight in the Desert Hotel to see Laguna Colorada, the geysers and Laguna Verde, continuing later to San Pedro of Atacama in Chile.
A trip through that area, either following the above-mentioned route or returning from Laguna Verde toward the north, must be done in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. In Uyuni there is a series of enterprises, small and large, that offer those services. Going through the area in one’s own car, without anyone who knows the place well is risky. Signs are scarce and a GPS does not help, especially as the choices to be made in crossings have no relation to direction but with the condition of one path or another with the condition of one path or another, where one can fall into traps such as water holes. Hiring local services is therefore recommended because of their experience and the mutual-help networks of those who live in the area.
UYUNI SALT FLATS AND EDUARDO AVAROA ANDEAN FAUNA NATIONAL RESERVE
With a surface that comes close to 10.000 km2 and located to in the southwestern part of Bolivia, the Uyuni Salt Flats, usually just called the “Salar”, are the largest in the world. It is estimated the Salar contains a strata of about six meters of common salt in a very pure state. At an altitude of 3.700 m.a.s.l., west of Uyuni, it stretches out like an enormous flat and white sheet of colossal dimensions. The shores of this white salt expanse have large bays, and are generally very swampy.
Enormous amounts of salt are worked, especially in the village of Colchani. First small salt hills are mounded for dehydration; then the salt is taken to town where it is dried and where iodine is added. All of this work is done manually by families.
One of the most visited spots in the Salar is the famous Inca Huasi Island, or Fish Island, thus called because it resembles a fish at a distance. In this promontory one can see a large and thick cactus forest.
RED LAGOON
Laguna Colorada or Red Lagoon, located in the Eduardo Avaroa National Andean Fauna Reserve, in the Potosi highlands near the chilean border. It has a 69 km2 long surface and is about 80 cm deep.
The red color of its water is due to certain algae and bacteria that change color with the temperature, and which become a deeper red with brighter sunlight, at times turning into a violet-red hue. Near the water there are borax hillocks that seem to float on the red waters.
This is possibly the place where the greatest concentration of flamingoes in South America nested.
How these birds can survive extreme nighttime temperatures reaching -20ºC and below is a mystery. At an altitude of 4.200 m.a.s.l., three different types of flamingos can be found in the lagoon. All cohabit near each other peaceably as their bills are shaped differently and thus each different species feeds on different types of algae.
DESERT OF LIPEZ
In Bolivia’s last nook, in the Los Lipez area, in front of the famous Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon) and at the foot of the Licancabur volcano, the members of the Quetena Grande community have built a mountain lodge that is the only accommodation option in this part of the Sud Lipez lagoon and desert circuit.
THE LAGUNA VERDE MOUNTAIN LODGE
Managed by the Communal Association of Tourist Services it has double and triple rooms and can give lodge to up to 18 people per night. The lodge is ideal for those who want to climb the Licancabur. The Quetena community members offer their services as specialized guides and porters.
The lodge is also an option for those who do the Lagoon circuit and want to return to Uyuni. The advantage of this latter option is that one can divide the time that this circuit of approximately 850 km takes into more convenient chunks. That is, a first day from the Salar to San Agustin or San Juan, an overnight stay there, and then the second day going to the Hedionda, Chiarkhota and Colorada lagoons to Laguna Verde, where one can stay overnight. The following day, the return can be done from Laguna Verde, passing through Polques, Quetena Grande, Quetena Chico, Villa Alota, Culpina K, San Cistobal finally coming to Uyuni.
POLQUES THERMAL BATHS
The Polques thermal springs baths, where visitors can enjoy the waters. It has a cafeteria that provides meal services, prior consultation with the administration; there is also a small snack shop. For now, the cafeteria rents tables with or without tablecloths to tour operators who take their own cooks. The place also has a public ecological bathroom facility.
QUETENA CHICO COMMUNITY LODGE
The Quetena Chico community has built a lodge that has been provided with the necessary funishings. This community lodge can handle up to 20 people. It has showers, bathrooms and electric energy by means of a generator that operates until 10 p.m.
When staying at this lodge one can visit the “Ch’aska Interpretation Center” located in front of the community lodge. There, the visitor will be able to find information organized into several rooms dedicated to different issues: research work by NASA, ecology, biology, medicinal plants, Andean agriculture, geology and regional mineralogy.
Another service that can be obtained, with prior reservation in the Interpretation Center, is a cafeteria service (breakfast, lunch and dinner), prepared by the women of the community weho have been trained in gastronomy. This cafeteria can hold up to 25 people.
