Uyuni Salt Flats

Train Graveyard
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We arrived in Uyuni at roughly 16:00, six and a half hours after leaving Potosi. We immediately checked into our hotel - Hotel Tonito and fortunately had some free time to check out the town before dinner. The hotel joined onto the famous Minuteman Pizza restaurant which according to all the guide books is the only place to eat in Uyuni. They were right too, the pizzas were amazing as was the tomatoe soup which our driver Cam claims to be the best in the world!

The town itself is very small and is based around one main street. It is clear the only reason it exists is to benefit from the salt flats.

Posted by Adam

Uyuni Slat Flats
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The flats, the largest in the world with an area of 12000 sq. km is the remains of a sea that filled the entire high plateau up to Lake Titicaca. It is now estimated that there are 64 billion tonnes of salt covering the area, sitting at an altitude of 3700 metres above sea level.

Before driving to the flats themselves we stopped off at the Train Cemetary. Here we saw the remains of the first trains that ran through Bolivia, including the ones that were robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Uyuni Slat Flats
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We continued to Colchani, a town on the outskirts of the flats. Also known as Puerto Seco, it acts as the main slat extraction plant, exporting salt to local towns and cities. The "Plant" consists of piles of salt which, after being dried out in an oven is packaged and exported. All this happens in a couple of small brick huts with no machinery involved at all.

We then jumped back into our 4x4s and drove am hour into the flats to an island named Cujiri Island but better known as Isla Pescado (fish island). We had lunch and climbed to the top of the island, which because it used to be in the sea is formed from Coral and now features giant species of Cacti averaging over 6 metres tall but with one being over 12 metres. As this certain species grows at only 1cm per year, the tallest is over 12000 years old.

Uyuni Slat Flats
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The Salt flats were amazing. The scale is such that it is hard to grasp distances as the perfectly white ground stretches to the featureless horizon. It was the perfect place for us to get artistic and take the perspective photos everyone seems to do there, including standing on playing cards, human sized beer bottles and the very well prepared "conscious" photo where goeorge an i play the roles of Devil and Angel and Paul´s shoulder. George was sporting a fully red outfit while i was in Natalies white dress. It was a special moment for all.

After a sucessful photo session we headed back, stopping off at the Salt Hotel and for more photos on the hexagonal crystalised flats. At about six o´clock we parked up to view the sunset, creating a perfect end to one of the best dyas of tour so far with its multicoloured sky and mirrored salt water pools.

The day was great fun and the landscape was awe inspiring. No words can really do it justice which is why we took so many photos there. As usual, they´re on our photo site; http://www.flickr.com/photos/3menandalittlelady/sets/72157600573586101/