Uyuni Salt Flats

We were not sure that we could cross the salt flats as it had been raining for the last few days. As we approached the frontiers it seemed inevitable to get stuck.

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,500 square kilometres, and as its name suggests, it is extremely flat. The altitude difference throughout the whole thing is less than a meter. There are, however, some strange 'islands'.

From the top we found some pretty stunning views over the endless whiteness.

Climbing down, we had some time to fool around and make some friends.

The crust over the few metres of salt is much more crude at some places and giant hexagons are formed due to evaporation and convection.

This place, seemingly in the middle of the flats, looked like the perfect place to have lunch. Of course, one did not have to reach far to season the food...

There used to be a hotel in the salt flats but had been closed down because it was contaminating the area. Now the building is a pit stop for tourists, to grab some sandwiches and marvel at the great leftist coca-grower to be president Evo Morales. 

There was a clear sign that we were getting close to the single substantial town near the bounderies of the salt flats. The road had changed to tarmac for some time but the amount of rubbish covering both sides of the road just got bigger and bigger. At the outskirts of Uyuni it was difficult to see the ground from the white plastic rubbish bags and other stuff. I remember, it was the same around La Paz, the capital as well. Real shame.

There was at least some interesing left overs. The rail cemetery is a real gem for trainspotters (I'm not one) and metal geeks (hmm this one, maybe). 

Uyuni itself is nothing but a few streets, where locals celebrated some sort of festival, no one could tell which one, but everyone was throwing water filled balloons at each other and seemed to enjoy the sunny afternoon.

Luckily, we did not have to spend the night there as we headed back to Chile with an overnight stop somewhere in a mountain village. Only a flat tyre made the journey exciting. 

Once in San Pedro, we had one thing left to do, to purchase our bus ticket to Valparaiso, a harbour town in Central Chile, 24 hours of ride away...