Casa Gastón: Inside Bolivia's New High-Altitude Sanctuary
Casa Gastón brings together Bolivia's most celebrated contemporary artist and its most decorated chef on the edge of the world's largest salt flat.
There are few landscapes on earth as disorienting, or as beautiful, as the Salar de Uyuni. Southern Bolivia's vast salt flat stretches to the horizon in every direction, a mirror of white that seems to erase the line between earth and sky. It's a place that has always drawn travelers willing to work for the experience — long drives, basic lodging, early mornings chasing the light. This year, for the first time, it's drawing them somewhere else entirely: a ten-suite art hotel called Casa Gastón.
A Canvas at 12,000 Feet
Set at the foot of the Tunupa Volcano near the small Andean village of Jirira, Casa Gastón opened its doors in early 2026 with uninterrupted views across the salt flat. The concept traces back to Gastón Ugalde, widely regarded as the father of Bolivian contemporary art, who considered the salar his greatest natural canvas. His belief that art should be lived with, not simply observed, shapes everything about the property — from the site-specific installations woven through the public spaces to an architectural language that blends ancient Andean building techniques with a distinctly contemporary hand.
The design leans into restraint rather than spectacle: natural materials, muted tones, and carefully framed sightlines that dissolve the boundary between interior and landscape. Inside the ten suites, lithium-infused soaking tubs nod to the mineral wealth beneath the salar itself. Outside, an in-house program of guided experiences leads guests across salt flats, volcanic trails, and quinoa fields, all built around a sustainable-tourism ethos that treats the surrounding ecosystem as something to be protected, not consumed.
It's a hotel, in other words, that asks to be understood as much as it asks to be enjoyed — a fitting tribute to a region that has spent generations quietly enduring the attention of outsiders without ever quite being seen on its own terms.
A Menu Built From the Land
If the architecture is the hotel's canvas, the kitchen is its research lab. Casa Gastón's culinary program is led by Marsia Taha, named Best Female Chef in Latin America by Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024 and one of the most consequential figures in South American gastronomy today.
Taha's path to the salar began in La Paz, where she rose to head chef at Gustu, the restaurant that first put Bolivian fine dining on the international map. In 2018, she co-founded Sabores Silvestres — "wild flavors" — a research and conservation project developed with the Wildlife Conservation Society. The project sends chefs, scientists, and journalists into Bolivia's most remote ecoregions, from the high Altiplano to the Amazon basin, to document ingredients and culinary traditions at risk of disappearing. Her work has since taken her to Harvard, where she lectured on high-altitude cooking techniques, and this year to La Paz again, where she opened her first solo restaurant, Arami, dedicated to Amazonian cuisine.
At Casa Gastón, that research becomes the menu. Rather than importing a fine-dining template onto the altiplano, Taha's seasonal creations are designed to move guests through Bolivia's biomes course by course — celebrating the country's biodiversity with the same rigor and reverence Ugalde brought to the landscape itself. It is a rare thing: a luxury hotel restaurant built not around a chef's signature style, but around a decade of fieldwork.
Who was Gastón Ugalde?
Casa Gastón was inspired by the extraordinary life and legacy of Gastón Ugalde (1944–2023), widely regarded as the father of contemporary Bolivian art. Deeply connected to Bolivia’s traditions, landscapes, and cultural identity, Gastón spent more than five decades transforming Bolivian heritage into powerful works of photography, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, video art, and land art. His profound connection to the Uyuni Salt Desert began in the late 1960s, and his work helped bring the region’s extraordinary beauty and cultural significance to the world. Casa Gastón seeks to honor that legacy by creating a place where art, nature, community, and Bolivian culture come together. More than a destination, Casa Gastón will demonstrate how sustainable tourism, community development, and cultural preservation can coexist—creating meaningful experiences for travelers while helping protect and celebrate the people, traditions, and remarkable landscapes of Bolivia for generations to come.
Why Now
Bolivia has long been a footnote on South America's luxury circuit, overshadowed by Peru's ruins and Chile's wine country. Casa Gastón — backed by a globally recognized artist's legacy and a chef at the absolute forefront of Latin American cuisine — signals something different: a country ready to be visited on the strength of its own culture, not just its scenery.
For travelers who've already done the well-worn Andean circuit, this is the kind of opening worth restructuring an itinerary around.
Plan your visit: VIP Journeys can pair a stay at Casa Gastón with time in La Paz (including a table at Arami), the Atacama Desert, or a broader Bolivian cultural itinerary. Contact our advisors to build a custom journey. We'll assist in selecting the perfect options to suit your style. (770) 736-5909.