Salar de Uyuni

Where do I begin? This place is enormous,  over 10,000 Km²

Millions of years ago this area was part of the Pacific, and after a movement of tectonic plates the sea got trapped here. Throughout the millennia it dried up leaving a surface of salt now between 2 and 20m deep. The largest deposits of lithium in the world are down there!

The salt is constantly coming to the surface and you can see it seeping through, always forming pentagonal or hexagonal patterns, with a few exceptional 4 sided figures. I haven't investigated the science, but I'm guessing that it has something to do with the composition of NaCl.

 We tasted the flat surface, salty. We tasted the new salt - whoa, extremely salty!

 

We stopped at the first salt hotel built here, called Playa Blanca! Rooms here cost $20 per night. Electricity goes off at 8pm, you can guess what other creature comforts are lacking! There was a Dakar style race here, but very few finished it. The flag area is still very popular. And it's always under repair! 

Driving along, there are tracks made by all the other jeeps, but no directional posts. Drivers here have to undergo two weeks training, learning to navigate, mostly by the surrounding mountains. 

Our next stop was in the middle of nowhere, and our guide set us up for some great photos!

 

My cup of tea!

While all that fun was going on, our driver was setting up lunch....

 

¡Buen provecho! 

Having been wined and dined, our next stop involved a pay-back! We drove to an island called Incahuasi the home of the Inca. It is a place where descendants of the Inca and other peoples gather on the 1st of August to pay homage to their gods. A very challenging climb (when you are at an altitude of over 3,500m), but we made it to the top. Then, without knowing that it had a sacred significance,  I climbed on the table/altar to take a photo! This island is so revered that it features on the 10 Boliviano note. Of course, our guide stopped at the viewing point:

 

Minus the humming birds.

On our way up we passed hundreds of cacti, some as tall as 4m. They grow 1cm a year. You do the Maths! The females are straight and the males have branches. Luckily some were in flower.

 

By this stage we were beginning to wilt, but there was another short climb. We drove to another part of the Salar, to the foot of Volcan Tunupa, and admired the colours of the soils; sulphur, olivine and copper.  We bumped and rocked our way up to a spot where lovely lupin-like flowers were growing among the potato drills. The reason we were here, though, was not to admire the view. It was to visit a cave where there were seven mummies over 800 years old.  Mummies are not my thing,  so I took no photos. But, remembering our earlier lesson, we noted that these people had been mummified in a foetal position, ready for the next life. I was glad to get out of there.

Our guide pointed out a vizcacha, asleep on a distant rock. The first time we had seen or heard of the creature.

Next it was time to drive about 25 minutes across the salt to get ready for the sunset.

Our guide told us to walk into the sunset for 8 minutes. While we were walking, he took drone footage of us! I can't post it here,  but I can share on WhatsApp. Its cheesy! By the time we got back, the table was set for our evening sundowner! We had a few sips, not forgetting to pour a few drops into the salt for Pachamama.

 

After that, we and a dozen other jeeps headed off the Salar in the direction of our hotel, built entirely from salt bricks! Hotel Luna Salar.

 

The base of the is made of salt.

 

The floors are a mix of coarse salt, carpets and laminate. 

 

Cosy!

What a day! It was a long day, but one I will never forget.