Salar de Uyuni

Decided to bite the bullet and sign up with a tour for a day trip on the Salar de Uyuni, a massive salt flat which is the main attraction down here. We had hoped to rent bikes and do a super cool do-it-yourself kinda thing but it wasn't possible. At this time of year parts of the Salar are innundated with water, so 4WD is the only real way to get around.

We left town around 11am with seven of us packed into a Toyota 4 Runner, plus the driver and another staff. The first stop was the small town of Colchani, which used to be a large salt refining town. Nowadays, due to the low price of salt the factory is closed down, and all that is left is a few manual refineries, and some artesans that sell salty trinkets for the tourists.

About 5 minutes out of Colchani we arrived at the salt flats. Workers have shoveled the salt into piles so the water will drain and evaporate out of them. With the water surrounding them, they reflect perfectly and look like floating diamond things from outer space. It's pretty eerie.

The next stop was the salt hotel, which is out on the salt flats, and constructed mostly of salt, with grass and wooden roofs. You can stay in the hotel during the dry season here for about $30 a night!

Whisked away to the next sight, we drove for about an hour or more accross the open flats. The salt flats are so espansive, white, and never-ending you feel like you aren't moving at all most of the time. Snowcapped mountains float on the horizon, black dots from other cars float by in the distance... it's all very strange.

About 10 minutes before we arrived at our lunch spot, Isla del Pescadores, trouble struck! A tire blew out and we had to stop to change it. It was all very exciting and I'm glad it happened cause it allowed us a chance to get out on the very middle of the flats and check it out. The salt forms in blocky crystals and cracks in octagonal shapes along the ground. It reminded me of being on a glacier, or a frozen lake, but everything was salty instead of cold. The tire was fixed and without further adoo, we took off for the island.

La Isla del Pescadores is not really an island in the traditional sense, since it's surrounded by salt instead of water. The whole area was under water hundreds of thousands of years ago (it dried up and left a salty mess), so the islands rocks are completely covered in old coral. Amongst the rough rocks sprout hundreds of cactii, some older than 1200 years. We hiked up to the top with the rest of the tourists to check out the alien view. Gigantic cactii, corally rock, salt from horizon to horizon, floating mountains... it was hard to believe we were actually on earth and not in some Dr. Suess story.

We climbed down, ate a great lunch then piled back into the truck an headed back to Uyuni. Last night we took an overnight bus to Cochabamba where we're gonna have a nap later today, and head into Parque National Torotoro for even more fun!




At the edge of the Salar, another group forging out into the great white unknown...




Driving no where fast on the Salar...




The panorama of the Salt Flats when our tire blew out...