It’s difficult to know what to write about the Salar de Uyuni… We left Uyuni on the Sunday and went out to the salt flats, which are just lakes so saline that the surface crystallises into a layer of salt so thick you can drive across it. Consequently you can see for miles across these flat, white plains and the effect is hauntingly beautiful. We stopped for lunch at an island in the middle. It had cacti growing on it that were hundreds of years old and fossilised coral formations to remind you that the whole area had once been under a sea.
The trip down to the Chilean border takes 3 days so after the salar we saw a volcano, lakes full of flamingos, geysers erupting before dawn and hotsprings. There are lakes with microscopic organisms in that phosphoresce when disturbed by the birds and seemingly endless views of amazing rock formations. Our mood was dampened when we heard rumours that another jeep that left the same day as us had overturned on the salt flats and some of the passengers had been killed but the whole trip was so surreal it was difficult to absorb our surroundings let alone information about an accident we didn’t see. I think the photos do it better justice than I can.
