At 4AM last Thursday morning we watched the sun rise from the crater of Sol de Manana volcano, surrounded by steaming natural geisers, about 5,000 meters above sea level. This was the beginning of the end of our salty three day tour of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.
Tuesday morning two Americans, two Kiwis, two Brits, and one Bolivian (our guide and driver Ovet) piled into a Toyota Land Cruiser for three days of rugged adventure. Yes, very rugged, at least for us. A type of rugged that turned us into experts at finding the best bush or boulder to use for the bathroom, sleeping in mud buildings, wearing the same salty clothes daily, and limiting ourselves to 1 shower for the three days. Multiply this ruggedness by 7 and throw the lot into one cozy Land Cruiser. Mmmm.
These rugged three days turned out to be the highlight of our trip, and because the scenery changed so quickly it would be impossible to describe every detail. The surreal landscapes are here partly in thanks to the glaciers that covered the region over 30 million years ago and the several surrounding volcanoes that have lent plenty of minerals to the region to create quite dream-like scenes. We hope the copious amounts of photos on here will help.
Featured on the trip: salt, green lagoons, red lagoons, salt, flamingos, pyroclastic lava rock formations, vicunas, desert, salt, llamas, salt, yaretta, volcanoes, train cemeteries, sunrises, salt, geysers, lots of jumping, hotsprings and salt.
Our first stop: the train cemetery. Once a vital railway for Bolivia, the train transported minerals from the mineral-rich volcano landscape through the desert. However once Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came along the operation died out, and the remains of the trains were simply left to rust.
This provided a playground for tourists to climb, crawl and explore the old rusty train graveyard and dodge the sharp metal scraps while in flip-flops. Thank goodness we are up to date on our Tetanus vaccines!
I spy...
12,000 square km of salt makes Salar de Uyuni the largest salt flat in the world. One of the region's largest exports yet not a largest source of income for Bolivia. One can buy 50 kg for only 15 Bolivianos (thats just over $2), or 10 tons for $300. We were fortunate to be there about a week after it rained so we experienced the dry flats as well as the mirror-like slightly flooded flats. Because the salt floor goes on as far as you can see you feel like you are in a dream- or heaven-like state. We were half expecting Morgan Freeman's voice to come booming down upon us.
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Selling a few kilos of salt:
Piles of salt left by the salt miners for pick-up:
We stayed in this house in Culpina for the first night where we had a nice llama steak dinner and one of the best apple pies ever.
Why did the llama cross the road?
These rock formations are a result of pyroclastic lava (cooled slowly at a low temperature) spewed from the surrounding volcanoes around 10,000 years ago. The rocks were shale-like and sounded like glass as we walked over them.
Lake Canapa.
Some of the best food we have had this entire trip came out of the trunk of our Land Cruiser. Thanks Ovet!
Laguna Colorada gets its red color from the iron and tin and is again home to several flamingos. The best viewing conditions for the colors are on windy days.
3:30 wake up call in order to ascend to 5000 meters above sea level to the crater of Volcan Sol de Manana and natural geysers.
Sunrise just below the crater at the natural hotsprings. (Yes, more jumping photos)
Copper, arsenic and magnesium make a wonderful home to these flamingos on Luaguna Verde. The flamingos munch on the crill and plankton that have somehow made a home here too.
Salvador Dali anyone?
Please excuse the lack of Spanish punctuation marks
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