Salar de Uyuni

From Sucre I connected to a small dusty town called Uyuni. A town that was once utilized for the mining perspectives on the surrounding deserts, the town is now only a tourist jumping off point to explore the Salar de Uyuni. Tourists come to spend a night before leaving on 1-4 day trips of the salt desert just outside of this town. The Salar is the worlds largest salt flat, over 10,000 square kilometers of flat white hard packed salt. It contains an estimated 10 billion tonnes of salt, and local Bolivian salt farmers annually extract less than 25,000 tonnes. All of the salt in Bolivia is mined from this area, but the majority of salt mining is for lithium of which 70% of the worlds lithium resides in this desert. All the miners in the Salar are from a very small town just outside of the desert. Although I refer to the area as a desert it is really a lake, it is a complicated ecosystem. Underneath the surface of the Salar is a lake of brine 2 to 20 meters (7 to 66 ft) deep. It is covered with a solid salt crust with a thickness varying between tens of centimeters to a few meters. The center of the Salar contains a few "islands", which are the remains of the tops of ancient volcanoes which were submerged.  It was this very unique place that I had placed my expectations along with the sun moon and stars. I had been eagerly looking forward to this adventure my whole trip, and from people I know who had been here, and the things I had read I was basically quivering with delight at my arrival. Because I had read many bad reviews, and heard horror stories of the events that had happened on these trips (none of which I shared with my paranoid parents!) I had thoroughly researched and spent hours pouring over travel blogs and travel review sites to try and be sure I picked the right company. Finally assured I had picked the best of the best I booked my reservation. Sadly the combination of my expectations, weather conditions which had flooded the Salar making it impassible to get to some of the areas, and a guide/driver/mechanic/cook, who couldn't be bothered to do anything but the basic requirements of his job, the trip was a big let down. I could moan and complain about all the things that I was disappointed in, but there is no point. Instead I will tell you about the few highlights that my group and I managed to extract, almost to the chagrin of our guide.  Fortunately I shared the trip with a few really great people which always helps to make things more enjoyable. Our first big stop was the salt desert itself. Where we were supposed to stay 2 days on the Salar, with the exciting experience of staying in a hotel with salt furniture, sadly due to flooding we were only able to make it out on the Salar for about 1 hour. Here the open bright blue skies, at an altitude of 3,656 or almost 12,000 feet, and the bright reflective salt desert is almost blinding. The investing thing is because there is nothing to see beyond the flat white salt crust, which stretches to the horizon, pictures can be very creative. I happily joined the touristy photographers who do the perspective pictures. Nothing to compare size to, one can look like they are holding a friend in their and, or balancing on an oversized water bottle.  The group took pictures of one another while our guide sat in the drivers seat of the truck after a blatant no when we asked if he would take pictures of our group.  The miners dig the salt into small pyramids to dry for one week under the baking sun, as there is about 6 inches of water that covers most of the desert in many areas. Also the salt holds water so they must dry it out before transporting it to the towns for further drying and processing. Still standing water allows for perfect reflection s of the little salt pyramids.  It is a strange and beautiful place. From the Salar these trips utilize off road 4x4 vehicles to transport the adventure seekers through the desert to lagoons, volcanoes, strange rock formations, to explore the flora and fauna of the empty southern corner of Bolivia. The highlight of the trip (sadly because it was the only thing on the 3 day excursion that was done as originally planned) was Laguna Colorada, the red lagoon.  A salt lake fed from underground streams the lake is filled with a perfect combination of natural elements, red algae and plankton thrive in the mineral rich water and cause the lake to have a deep ruddy red-orange color. Perfectly contrasted large borax deposits cause white islands to dot through the lake. Rolling mountains and craggy rocky shores, the Laguna Colorada is home and breeding grounds of  the nearly extinct James Flamingo. Thought to be extinct in the 1950's a small colony was found living in the secluded hills of South America. They are still severely endangered, but you wouldn't know it from visiting this lake. As the Laguna is visited daily by heaps of tourists wielding cameras and wandering jaw agape and the surrounding sights, the flamingos allow you to get quite close, before casually strolling deeper into the water, aware that no one will follow. The lake is huge, covering 60 square kilometers (or 37sq miles), with a depth just short of 2 feet. Over 50 other species of birds that make their home here too. Not one to be a big bird watcher I have over 200 pictures of the awkward flamingos... Somewhere amongst those I am sure there is at least one "amazing"picture. We visited strange rock formations blasted into the middle of a sandy desert, from a volcano that could not been seen on the horizon. Strange formations caused by wind erosions left rocks that look like trees, or mushrooms. I thought one looked like ovaries, my English friend thought it looked like a dragon.... Just shows you what a medical mind does to you.. Plans to drive/hike to the top of a volcano, to look into the crater, visit geysers that are most active during the early morning, an island filled with strange cactus and a few other items were either skipped, missed, or rushed that pictures and opportunities were missed to experience the Salar.  I have every intention of returning and trying again. This time I will hire a private guide.. I'm looking for travel buddies. It is a strange and phenomenal landscape. I can't cross it off the list yet, but I will be back!!