Uyuni Salt Flats

South America - Day 24

Uyuni Salt Flats

We were able to get a bit of a sleep in & organize our gear so we'd have a small bag of essentials for the next 3 days. Kerri & I managed to find a cheap nylon carry bag to get us out of trouble. We also grabbed a good stock of bottled water.

We were split into these three Land Cruisers. I can't say I was impressed by the condition of them, but I'd seen worse around town. The biggest worry was the lack of seat belts. The scenario going through my head had a roll over involved. The lack of seat belts wasn't going to help us stay on our seats.

Just as we cleared the outskirts of town we stopped at this Train Cemetery. It was strange to see these old steam engines gutted & left to rot.

Off we went into the white abyss. we could see mountains on the horizon, but it was mainly just white & the azure blue of the high altitude sky. First stop wasn't too far out of Uyuni at the place where they mine the salt (see piles of salt in the picture above).

At the mine site there was a small building made of salt blocks. Inside were these strange salt sculptures. As it turns out, it's a hotel.

As soon as we were on the salt flats, everyone had the cameras out trying to take some crazy shots on the salt flats. You can see everyone milling around in this photo. Everyone had ideas of the optical illusion shots they were going to take (more on those later) not knowing that this wasn't the place to do it. That came later. We all still had a go anyway.

As you can see in this shot, everyone had the same plan in mind. I didn't really see the point. I had a better idea.

Now everyone knows that South America is the place to get Cocaine, but this is ridiculous! It burns your nose though. Must be pretty strong.
Below are the new additions/replacements for our tour, Corina & Sandra. They were stuck in our car & we all started to get along pretty well. It was good to have someone closer to our age group to talk to.

Isla del Pescado

We set off again across the vast white abyss. At a couple of points in the middle of nowhere there were memorial crosses like the ones you see on the side of the road where a road fatality has been. It turns out that the salt flats aren't entirely flat & occasionally there are little soft spots that can trip up unwary drivers.
Eventually we arrived at what was once an island in the middle of a giant lake. Now it's an island in a giant salt lake, Isla del Pescado. It was our stop point for lunch & the place where we could take our crazy photos.

Most islands you would expect to be covered in trees. Not this one, it was bristling with cactus.

Even in the middle of the dessert with not a plant in sight other than cactus, there was still life. This black hooded sierra finch seemed quite at home despite being 20-30 kms from the nearest land feature. 

Optical Illusions.

I've seen much better versions of these photos. I'm not sure what was going on, but they just weren't coming out right. I think it was a bit hazy which took the edge off the bright white. I'm still not sure.

Tight Rope

Can Dancing.
Sponsored by Red Bull

My favourite.Who's a pretty girl? Who's a pretty girl?

 Pyramid

Toyota Add?

I'm not too sure what the thought process was here, but after a number of attempts, the girls all jumped at the same time & I managed to get this photo.

 After a very quick walk around the island it was time to leave this strange place into more seemingly endless kilometres of white nothing. With few points of reference, it was very difficult to gauge where we were and how far we had to go.

The last stop was at this slightly different mining operation. This time instead of the salt being dried in piles & bagged, it's cut out in blocks.

The Bolivian Desert.

We eventually exited Solar de Uyuni and were back on dry land. And it was dry! And dusty but it didn't stop the vicuñas (above). It wasn't too long until we reached Bela Vista, our accommodation for the night.

The accommodations in Bela Vista were fairly simple but effective. The rooms were 8 bed dorms with a single (very) cold shower and a toilet. There was also a kitchen and fairly drafty dining room. With the high altitude and the lack of cloud cover, the temperature dropped sharply as soon as the sun left us. This humming bird is yet another example of nature surviving in the most hostile conditions. It was in the tree outside where we were staying. Even in the most arrid places on earth, humming birds find enough flowers to thrive.