Uyuni. The salt flats.

Incredible. I don't have the words to describe how beautiful, how unique, how spellbindingly spectacular, the world's largest salt flats are.

Salar de Uyuni, amid the Andes in southwest Bolivia, is the legacy of a prehistoric lake that went dry, leaving behind a desertlike, nearly 11,000 sq.km. lunar like landscape.

White doesn't describe it.  it's like every shade on a "white's"  paint chart in one palate, a shimmering, sparkling, glittering vista so bright it's hard to see even with sunglasses.

I've taken two day tours, which in typical Bolivian fashion were very different despite officially being the same. Resisted the overnight treks in favour of heated room, as  it's minus 5 minimum after dark on the flats and I know my limitations.

Tour 1

All tours start with the train cemetery, just outside the town. The clue is in the name. The saddest sight is the deserted tracks which once connected Bolivia and Chile vanishing away into the horizon.

Train Cemetery

Tour 1 missed an official market stop by mutual consent and headed straight to the flats. OMG I have never seen anything like it. Completely surreal.  Salt as far as the eye can see, literally flat, the eyeline broken only occasionally by small domes where locals pile up  salt to dry out  before selling, a cottage industry running for generations.

On the edge of the salt flats

Salt piles drying out so local industry can harvest it

Impossible to describe the beauty of flat landscape

Tiny pocket holes dotted everywhere but salt is incredibly strong and metres thick

Lunch is provided. Our  jeep pulls up in the middle of nowhere, the  driver sets up a picnic table, unloading quinoa, cheese, salad, vegetables, plus meat for everyone else. Even tomato ketchup and mayonnaise were provided. Plus coke. Perfect.

Lunch awaits on salt flats

This first day our driver was a keen photographer, set us up with many  bizarre , fun shots , possible as phenomenon of the salt flats distorts perspective.

Amazing reflections

I'm in the soup😁. Light makes for weird shots

I only asked for a glass 😁

Then, minor disaster. The company had forgotten wellies. Boots are always (in theory) provided as the sunset view is best from mirror lake, a slight incline where, esp as now in the rainy season, low lying  water gathers, before drying out in the summer and adding yet another annual layer to the ever growing flats.

Walking on water...in my flipflops!

Mirror Lake

Being English, hyper organized and having read this happens, I had my  flip flops in my rucksack.  Ok, so it was a tad chilly.  Worth frozen toes though to walk on water, watching vivid brilliant sunset set the world around me on fire.

Breathtaking Sunset

Where is my taxi?

(And also being English I asked for compensation on return to uyuni, and got twenty dollars back. These tours are by the priciest I've found, at seventy dollars, so I felt the lack of boots needed recompense..)

Tour 2

After a massive , by my standards,breakfast buffet-it never ceases to amaze me how much food people can eat, esp when it's free - I packed sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, gloves, coat, i.e. everything but the kitchen sink, for day 2.

Temperature range is extreme and rapid, the UV rays are extreme too as the salt is a natural magnifying glass. People die out here every year, from heatstroke, cold, losing their way.... Bolivian outback territory.

Mucking about on salt flats...

Today I'm genuinely lucky. After months of rainy season it's fnally been dry enough for locals to decide Incahuasi Island, a two hour drive out over the salt plains , is safe enough to vist. Our driver said it was his first visit for three months so a real stroke of luck.

So, a quicker train cemetery stop (good) , then out a different way, via Colchini to see the locals cottage industry, and for us to buy salt, or, as we all did, pay and leave the salt behind (at one bolivanos, who cares), apparently it's to keep the locals on side as they have been known to block the tracks out from Uyuni in protest about tourist income not reaching the town.

Boots! this time I have boots.

Then lunch before setting off for the most bizarre drive of my life, as our jeep sped out over miles and miles  of bright-white salt.  No landmarks to break the horizon,  just shimmering silver desert.

Mirror lake...slight incline where water gathers

Nothing grows in this barren landscape bar, on tiny Incahuasi Island, a mound rising out of the salt sea, is a cacti forest, ancient plants rising high, stretching upwards to the sun.

Stunning scenery on 'fish island'

On fish isle

Cacti on fish island....nothing much lives here but these grow

We trekked up and over the hill, staring entranced at strange rock formations and prickly cacti and gazing out over the 'sea' below. Plus a bonus, in the middle of nowhere, yay, clean bathrooms, with soap and water! Built for visitors, obviously. At present numbers are low as it's between seasons but I gather it can be manic....

On top of the mount...4,000m up, salt as far as the eye can see

Is this damaging the flats? Apparently not by jeeps, the salt is metres thick and very, very strong. I was told the main threat is lithium mining, with a new Chinese sponsored plant in progress in the south of Salar di Uyuni.

Bolivians I've spoken to  are cynical about these monies from China reaching down to them yet seem  philosophical about the business, saying the world needs energy. The mining horrifies me but then I'm as guilty as everyone in using energy , so really I have no right to comment.

My second sunset over this incredible place was no less stunning than the first.  This time I had boots 😀.  I felt as if I was standing in a pool of liquid gold. Breathtaking.

Travelling way out here to Uyuni may have been a hassle but it's been so, so worth it.  I shall never forget the sheer beauty of this unique ecosystem. Wonderful.

Sunset

Back to la Paz

Dawn flight back to la Paz.  Back in hostel with one day to regroup, reorganize and rest before a 24 hour bus ride back to Peru and up to Cusco.  Fingers crossed...