Day one of our three day Salt Flat adventure!

The town of Uyuni, which lies in the middle of a bone dry dessert, exists only because of the tourists that visit it in hoards.  Tour operators offer a three day trip around the area and once arriving and seeing the barren state of the town we quickly signed up for one that left the next day. 

Early in the morning we loaded into a 4 x 4 jeep with four other travellers and our English Speaking (rare) guide and headed off to the nearby train grave yard.  The salt air has rusted these relics and we spent some time climbing and exploring their interiors. 

The real highlight of the day though was the salt flats (biggest in the world) themselves where we spent most of our day.  We had read and seen some pictures from other travellers but when we arrived we really could not believe our eyes.  A blinding white ‘lake’ as far as you could see!  The flats used to be a sea which slowly dried up leaving the salt behind.  We visited an island and had lunch at a hotel that was built in the middle of the flats.

Because the salt flats are white and go on seemingly forever, it offers a great opportunity to play with a little depth perception.  Colin and I did our research before going and brought some props to play with…they turned out really good!

We stayed until sunset and our guide even let me drive the jeep for a while (he acted like it was a favor but I think he was really just tired of driving all day).  We stayed at a hostel on the edge of the flats and had a great dinner before hitting the hay, or I should say salt as the entire building was made of it, including our beds!

R