Uyuni, Bolivia - Salt

Taking Off
The guide threw our bags up to the driver who packed them on top of the 4x4 under a thick tarp.  There'd be seven of us in total - we were joined by a Swiss couple and a young lady from Norway.  We were warned to buy everything we needed: water, toilet paper, snacks.  With every mile into the desert, the prices would skyrocket.

Dodo and I sat in the back row.  Snug but not uncomfortable.

The first stop was a railroad graveyard on the outskirts of Uyuni.  These trains from the early 1900s were once used to ship minerals to port cities in Chile.  When demand plummeted in the 1940s, they were left in the desert to rot.  Now it's boom times again - Bolivia has the largest deposits of Lithium on the planet - the key ingredient for the batteries that power the world's cellphones and computers.

I wasn't taking any chances with the sun.  I had on long pants, long sleeves, a hat, baklava and sunglasses.  The sun here comes from all angles, it bounces off the ground and gets you in the strangest spots.

At the town of Colchani we got a lesson on salt production.  The raw stuff is mixed with iodine and ground down to a fine powder.

It's amazing how hard it is in raw form.  I tried unsuccessfully to crush the sharp white crystals in my hand.

It's as hard as concrete and they put it to good use, they make houses out of it.  They cut it out of the salt flats in bricks then mortar it together with a mix of raw salt and water.  It has a rough, sandpaper feel to it.

When we entered the salt flat, I lost all visual perspective.  My eyes began to play tricks on me.  There was a small black dot ahead of us on the horizon - someone riding a horse.  As we caught up to them, the horse disappeared - it was actually a motorcycle.  Finally, just 50 feet away I realized it was a truck, just like ours.

This is one of the flattest places on Earth, so flat that it only varies by about a foot over 4,000 square miles.  Satellites use it to calibrate their altitude above earth.

40,000 years ago, this was a vast 500 foot deep lake that got trapped by plate tectonics and was left with no outlet.  It slowly dried up, leaving hundreds of feet of salt.

Just below the surface is a brine composed of sodium, potassium and lithium.  The salt miners scrape it into piles to dry out, then transport it to Colchani for processing.

The salt piles are everywhere.

We had a makeshift lunch on the flats.  Our guide joked that if we didn't like the taste, we were welcome to scoop up some salt from the ground to improve it.

The day-trippers were out on their bikes, looking winded from the elevation.

After lunch we took a stroll on the salt.  It cracks and crumbles under your feet, just like ice.  I broke off a piece and tasted it.  I had to prove to myself that it was salt.

The stroll helped with our digestion, something you take for granted until you are almost three miles above sea level.

They hold a motorcycle rally here once a year.  Last year it rained before the race and the water created a giant mirror, throwing off all the GPS equipment.  The competitors were driving all over the place.  The president was there for the race and took to his helicopter to lead them through the course.

At the nearby hotel, which is made of salt, each competitor left a flag.

I giggled as Dodo searched in vain for the Singapore flag.

I wan't surprised to see that the Welsh were in the mix, they love rally racing.

We took a peek inside the salt hotel.  The tables and chairs were also made of salt.

Soon we were back on the road heading towards Isla Incahuasi.  From a distance it looks like a black rock floating on the sand.

We parked next to it and climbed up a couple hundred feet to the top.  It was at this moment that I realized how deep the ancient lake was - all the rocks were covered with ossified coral, meaning this island was completely submerged in water.

It is now covered in cacti.

As the sun began to set, we took a vote.  Shall we park and watch the sunset or head to our hotel.  We all voted to stay for the sunset.

Our hotel was also made of salt.  It was surprisingly comfortable.

The walls were made of salt bricks, there was a coarse salt floor and the roof was made from layers of mud reinforced with fabric.

I slept like a baby.