The Bolivian Salt Flats

Although my temporary is nearly ready, the thought of waiting in La Paz for it is not nearly as tempting as heading to the beautiful places Southern Bolivia has to offer, so we´re going to visit the salt flats,the mines in Potosi, and then Oruro for the Carnival before heading back to La Paz to collect passport and new cards (thanks dad!) at the same time! First stop - the Salt Flats.

We took a beautiful 8 hour train journey down the the town of Uyuni, the launch pad for salt-flat tours and set about organising ourselves a three day tour of the salt and surrounding lagoons.

The salt flats themselves are beautifully eerie. They were formed when a salt lake, Lago Tauca evaporated around 13 thousand years ago. Where the surface of the salt is dry, it´s a blinding white expanse of great nothingness - just the blue sky and the white ground. Where there´s a little water on the salt, the surface perfectly reflects the clouds and the horizon completely disappears. When we were driving in the 4x4 across the surface, the effect was mesmerising, it was hard to believe we were not in the clouds.

After taking photos we visited the Isla Incahuasi, which is a rocky island covered in cactus and surrounded by a flat white sea of hexagonal salt tiles. The island was beautiful, and the walk up the hill very tiring as its at an altitude of nearly 4000m above sea level.

We stayed the first night of our tour in a hotel made entirely of salt, which was surprisingly comfortable and warm against the bitter altitude winds.

The following day we spent driving across the stunning otherworldly landscape visiting flamingo-filled lagoons and natural stone structures including the Arbol de Piedra (stone tree) and driving past three volcanoes. (incidentally, the volcano we lived at the bottom of in Baños, and Salasaca in the school, has recently spat out a lot of smoke and boulders, and the evacuation of Baños is being prepared lest there is an eruption!!)

The lagoons are so rich in minerals it drastically alters their natural colours, including black, fiery red, and the amazing Laguna Verde, which is a brilliant aquamarine colour and completely breathtaking.

We visited the border with Chile briefly to drop off one girl who was heading south, and Phil and I couldn´t resist running over the border, having our photo taken with the "Welcome to Chile" sign, and then sprinting back again unseen by border patrol!

On the last day of our tour, we were up at 4am to visit geysers, which were incredible. The photo´s havent come out very well as it was pitch black, but we could see the rock under our feet bubble with the heat of the active geysers, and scalding steam forcing its way out of the earth´s surface. A really wonderful experience, and topped off by watching the sunrise from volcano-heated springs!

All in all, the Salt Flats were breathtaking, a real highlight of our trip!