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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
Despite enjoying our hotel in Uyuni so much, we did at least drag ourselves out of it to spend the day on the salt flats.
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| Salt hotel, Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
The salt flats are 12km
2 and we were taken out by locals in their jeeps.
Our jeep already had a rather large crack through the windscreen, and while we were loading up a wing mirror broke off! But we made it through the trip OK, so it didn't matter.
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| ColchaniUyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Isla Incahuas, Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
The salt flats used to be a lake, but it dried up leaving salt around 7-10 metres deep. Locals mine the salt and export some of it, but they only work on the edges, so much of the salt flats look pristine except for a few tyre tracks. It is a strange sensation, as we often found ourselves referring to it as snow or ice, presumably because that is what a large expanse of white would normally be in our terms of reference.
We entered the salt flats at Colchani, which is a mining town, and where we we given the opportunity to look at all of the various alpaca wares and other touristy bits that were on sale.
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
Our next stop off was the salt hotel, which is made largely of salt, but is disapproved of by many conservationists on the basis that the waste from the hotel can contaminate the salt flats. We then headed to the middle of the salt flats to an 'island' called Isla Incahuas, which was covered in large cactii and was where they gave us a picnic lunch at salt tables.
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| Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia |
But the main event was in the afternoon, when the jeeps took us out to a very clean area of the flats so that we could take wierd photos. The reason the photos are wierd is that the unchanging background allows you to bend the perspective so that small objects can appear bigger than large ones.
We had brought props from the hotel, so we our photos included Nic fighting with a dinosaur and me lying on top of a wine bottle! But my favourite is the one of mini me standing on Nic's hand.
Hi the greens!
ReplyDeleteI hope you've managed to steer cleer of altitude sickness, and if you don't it's an excuse to try those coca leaves.
I'm still fascinated by your trip. It must be a real experience.
Mike
Hi Mike. We have been lucky with the altitude sickness and only had the minimal effects. It does leave you pretty breathless though when you get to the higher altitudes. I tried the coca leaves anyway just to see, but wasn't keen. The trip is great so far, and plenty more to come; sometimes I still find it hard to believe we're actually doing it!
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