#56 Three Days and Two Nights on Another Planet - Salar de Uyuni

We wound our way into Uyuni, a dusty empty town on the outskirts of nowhere, but buzzing with tourists. Why? Because around the corner is the Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats of Bolivia. And a little further south, the emptiness and stunningness of South West Bolivia.



We'd heard the roads were gruesome so we decided to take a tour in a 4WD, it would be nice to be a placid spectator rather than battling the roads. The tour started in a train graveyard, long pillars of metal, bent and broken, silouttes on an empty landscape. We walked around and explored  these iron giants.


Next, the salar, a tourist meca in Bolivia and for rightful reason. Over some shallow water (the rainy season having only just ended) and into the white, vast white, stretching white, magical white of the Salar. With such whiteness its difficult to concentrate on the ground but after an effort you see little cell shapes, stretching to infinity. A quick visit to the salt hotel leaves us disappointed, not the specatucalar ice hotels of James Bond movies, just some walls of dirty white put together. But we haven`t come to see that, we`re here for the whiteness around that. Magical places make magical pictures but this especially so. Why? Well with white nothingness to infinity, perspectives change, and the photos are only limitedby the imagination.

After an hour or two is was onwards, from whiteness to the vast empty landscape of Southwest Bolivia. The landscape changed to a different kind of palate, browns, greys, reds, strange colours for a martian landscape. Such vast emptiness that illusions play tricks on you, imaginery lakes in the distance, fake water spread out making floating islands out of mountains in the distance.

We carry on, passing wonderous rock formations. Quirky rocks coughed onto the landscape, pummeled by the elements, until only warped creatures remain. We go for an explore, find no extra terrestials but see other things, like birds of prey in the rock shapes.

That night we find accomodation in a little hacienda, where the 6 of us on the tour play cards and eat chicken. We laugh and share stories from our homelands, New Zealand, Germany, France and even Iran.

The next day we take off once again. More desert, more mountains, echoing out across the landscape. We begin to pass little lagunas, overshadowed by mountains. Its easy to feel insignificant, just a little jeep bumping along against the whole wide world. And yes, we did bump along, giving us comfort that we made the right decision in not taking our motorbike.

 Its a never ending feast of solitude. We see another giant mountain, another rock formation, another desolate landscape.

The area is nicknamed the 'Salvador Dali' desert, all it is missing is a longlegged elephant to complete the picture, though little vacunas and llamas spread across the landscape almost look daliesque.

We stop at one particular rock formation, of all things resembling a tree. The dead imitating the living.

We continue on. We begin to spy flamingos, a magestic bird standing in stark contrast to this wild and unkept landscape. Then there are more, and more. With no predators around they have nothing to fear, allowing us to get within 20m to try capture the moment on camera.

We continue on to a famous landmark, laguna colorado. A large red lake filled with pink flamingos. Both sharing a common characteristic, both coloured by the algae that occupies the lake, and that feeds the flamingos. Hundreds, possibly thousands of flamingos stretched out. But its windy and cold so appreciation is short lived before its back into the car and onto our hacienda for the night.

Accomodation is basic, like the last one, no real shower, wet toilets, beds concrete bases with a mattress on top. At least concrete means you won`t leave anything under your bed. But we don't mind, we're so far away from civilisation electricity feels like a treat.

Its an early night as we're up at 4.30am, trying to get ready in blackness as the generator hasn't been turned on (good thing for the concrete beds). At 4000m up its pretty cold, but we head higher, reaching 5000m to see geysers. Tall pillars of steam rising in the darkness, we could be on the dark side of the moon.

With dawn approaching we head to a natural thermal spa where we get a moment to relax and enjoy breakfast, just us, some other tourists, some flamingos and nature.

Our final stop before we head back is Laguna Verde, however for us its shrouded in midst. However, we head back happy, we've already been spoiled.

Its a long drive back, but when we get out, it feels like we've arrived on earth.

We took another trip to the Salar and it was pretty magical - Reece