Travelling with three Dutch girls and a young lady from the Basque Country in Spain – I truly must have died and gone to heaven!
From the sprawling city of La Paz I took an extremely comfortable night bus to Uyuni and the start of a three day/two night tour of Salar de Uyuni. The journey took 10 hours but with all the mod cons you could shake a stick at – a comfy seat/bed and two great meals – the time flew by.
Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes and is at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above mean sea level.
“The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine (2 to 20 metres in depth), which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted.” Source: Wikipedia.
The large area, clear skies, and the exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an amazing place to take pictures – see below.
My 5-travel companions, and our Bolivian driver (Edwin), were great company. Over the three days we talked, laughed and sang our way across 600 kilometres of an otherwise unearthly landscape in our plush Toyota Land Cruiser. The accommodation was basic but the warmth of my companions more than made up for this.
The landscape of Salar de Uyuni Is truly breathtaking. On one occasion the girls said they felt like they were in heaven. My German (male) friend and I agreed totally but perhaps from a different perspective.
Next stage: Potosi.