We woke up early and got ready for our three day salt flat tour. Everyone in the hostel is either going on this tour or has just returned, so we swapped stories. Actually, it seems that nearly everyone is taking the same route through this part of the continent, just some head north like us, and other south. Uyuni is pretty unspectacular. Its an army base and this morning the soldiers were having a parade. We picked up some supplies and left on the tour mid morning. We’re in a jeep with four others and a driver. There are two Australians, a German and a Mexican, who luckily translated what we couldn’t understand our guide saying.
First stop was the train cemetary, just outside of town. Its the final resting place for a bunch overused trains. I imagine any place that needed to boost their tourism could make one of these – people love old stuff.
Next was the salt flats, called Salar de Uyuni. It’s over 10,000 square kilometres and very flat indeed, only varying 1 meter in height across. They were formed from a series of prehistoric lakes and now have a crust of salt several meters thick over a briney lake. At times we could crack the surface of the salt and see little pockets of green liquid. This is apparently very high in lithium, containing over 50% in the world. During the wet season, there is a thin layer of water over the entire flat, making a huge reflective surface. We were visiting during the dry season, so the salt had dried with hexagonal ridges – pretty amazing.
As we approached the flats, it created a mirage, making the mountains look like they were floating.
Near the edge of the flat there was a processing plant. Out on the flat they create small mounds of salt that can be easily transported for processing.
We ate lunch in a building made entirely of salt – salt bricks for the walls, loose salt on the floor, salt tables and chairs.
After, we drove further into the white abyss. The only way the drivers could tell the way was the slight compression of the ridges. Once in the middle where it was completely white as far as you could see, we stopped and took some goofy perspective photos.
This is one off the blooper reel. Darren didn’t tell me the perspective wasn’t working, he just let me run around like a dweeb.
Next stop was the Incahuasi Island, incredibly located in the middle of the salt flats. There were cactuses over 1000 years old (we were wondering how you tell a cactuses age). There were flocks of little yellow birds, strange to see in the middle of nowhere.
I waited a long time to catch this little guy eating quinoa
We drove a little further and reached our accommodations – a salt hotel. Again the walls and floors were made of salt. So remote – no WiFi, but somehow we survived.
Our accomodation for the night – everything is salty, yet there was no salt at dinner.
We watched the sun set, then checked out the stars. It’s a crazy world in the southern hemisphere – we didn’t recognize the constellations. The milky way was easy to see though.
We huddled and had dinner, then went to bed, to try and stay warm.
Meanwhile... 