Erin & Regan's South American Adventure
Salar de Uyuni tour - Day 4
Hola,
We had an early start to day 4 because we wanted to catch the sunrise over the salar. We set off without breakfast. Note how the salt forms geometric patterns, weird!
The salar itself is massive, you really feel quite small standing in the middle of this vast field of white salt.
Sometimes the camera would focus on the strangest things. No matter how many times I tried to take this shot the damn thing was fixated on the cap. Oh well, it´s not a bad photo if you´re into arty ones.
We stopped for breakfast at an island in the middle of the salar. The island is home to many cacti and some birds.
This cactus is 1203 years old and gets 10mm taller each year.
This cactus resembles a teddy bear.
This is an example of the types of birds they have here. This type comes in 2 colours, bright yellow and dark green.
Morgan, doing what he does best. Recording the sound of his boots crunching the salt beneath them.
Morgan took this photo for us, we think it´s kinda cool.
Some more examples of the geometric patterns and another arty shot of some tyre tracks.
I´m in the palm of her hand... literally.
The real salt hotel. Everything except the roof is made of salt. It smells a little like fish.
We stopped for lunch in another small town on the edge of the salar. This town was a mining town, they mine the salt for people in Bolivia and export (we think).
A pet llama, not dead - just resting.
The people working with the mined salt.
Last stop, the end of the tour was the cemetery of trains outside Uyuni.
Our guide and his wife (our cook) a bit before they left us to return home to Tupiza where they have 4 children, 15, 12, 9 and 7. The elder kids look after the rest while their parents are working.
And that, as they say was that. We had hoped to catch the train from Uyuni to Oruro that night, however as it took a while to find a tour we missed it, it left the previous night. So, we took another night bus all the way back to La Paz.
Duncan Bayne: Wow - not only will you guys have some amazing memories, but some fantastic photos too ... you look like you're having a ball! (12/19/06)