Uyuni Salt Flats

I had one specific reason for coming to Bolivia: I wanted to see the salares, salt flats. I don't know when or where I first heard of them but they have captivated my imagination for years, so I was thrilled that I would get to share the experience with my kiwi friends.

 

Our tour's first stop was to the train cemetery. Uyuni used to be the train center of Bolivia. Trains were shipped in from England to transport raw materials to shipping ports. Unfortunately, English trains could not handle the extreme Bolivian altitude and broke down with great frequency. They were brought to Uyuni where they were stripped for parts and abandoned. Today tourists happily climb atop the trains, play on the swings and see saw, posing for photos. It reminded me of the ship graveyard in Moynoq, Uzbekistan (I implore you to google it if you don't know what I'm talking about! It's an incredible and absolutely bizarre sight).

 

From there, we visited Colchani, a small community where the residents process and package the salt. The buildings are all made of salt bricks which usually last about 15 years before being worn down by the rains.

 

Mini Bear couldn't resist jumping in a massive pile of unprocessed salt crystals. Hopefully the next step, cooking on a large metal tray, cleans the salt from Mini Bear's accumulated dirt! A man with a flaming gas cylinder sat alone in a room, filling individual bags with processed table salt.

 

We shared a fantastic lunch prepared by our guide's wife before a short drive to the salt flats.

 

Once upon a time, South America was flat and mountainless. As tectonic activity created the continent's mountains, lakes shifted and some were drained away. The salt flats in Uyuni today are composed of the salt left over from a series of former lakes. The salt flats are about ten thousand square kilometers and the salt itself is several meters deep. Due to the hexagonal shape of the salt crystals, together they form larger hexagons which can make the ground look like a giant puzzle in the dry season. Lucky for us, we visited during the wet season, when a slight covering of water transforms the land into a massive mirror. Because the landscape is featureless other than mountains in one direction, it's easy to lose your sense of perspective relative to other objects or landmarks. We had a phenomenal time posing for reflective and perspective shots.

 

While I could go on about the salt flats, I'd rather let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

Locals actively gather salt.

 

The water was surprisingly warm.

 

My legs were covered in salt.

 

Every view was gorgeous.

 

We stayed to see one of the best sunsets of my life.

Here's a super quick, 90 second video from the salt flats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFZRECmCNP8

 

I never expected anywhere would fill me with the same sense of awe as Antarctica. The salt flats are a deserving second.