Uyuni: Salt Flats and Silohi desert

We have just come back from Uyuni; a small town south of La Paz and close to the Chile and Argentina borders. Great trip, but it was absolutely freezing and there was no hot water capabilities anywhere in the area (and don ask about the toilets). Consequently we haven't showered in three days. That will be first on the agenda when we arrive back in La Paz tonight! On our first day we joined a tour group and visited the salt flats (thanks Tom & Lorren, Jade, Chris, Joe and Maeve). The salt flats used to be a huge lake, which joined lake Titicaca to the ocean. After volcanic activity thousands of years ago, the salt flats were pushed upwards and as they dried out, they became a desert covered in salt. It truly looks out of this world, and is so strange to walk on! As far as you can see there is just shimmering white against a turquoise sky. We stopped for lunch in a large building made completely of salt; the walls, tables and chairs were all constructed from thick blocks. The roads across the flats are barely perceptible, and whilst driving one has to invoke sailing skills, heading for one point on the horizon rather than following a track. Our hotel was also totally made of salt, including the bricks and mortar. It's the first time I've been in a hotel room with crunchy salt gravel on the floor rather than carpet!

Salt flats

Island in middle of salt flats

Sunset on the salt flats

  From the salt flats, we chugged past herds of llamas and learned that they are perhaps the easiest livestock to own. There is a head llama honcho of each pack, who takes the herd out to graze each morning and then brings them back each night. Llamas dislike other animals, including foxes, and so are quite safe to roam freely as they scare away any predators. They are so protective of their own that Bolivian families often leave their babies in the care of the llamas, who will keep them safe. The llamas are adorned with colourful threads intwined in their ear flaps, and different colours denote who the llama belongs to. A rather prettier solution compared to spray painting sheep! We also motored past fields and fields of quinoa, which is a major export for Bolivia and has shot up in price since becoming cool with hipsters in the US and Australia. Red quinoa has the most health benefits, and is used to build muscle in astronauts. Our guide claimed that quinoa is also the  reason that everyone in Bolivia lives to 90 without ever getting dementia, but I am less convinced of these assertions!

 

On our second day we visited the Silohi desert (thanks Freda and Andy), including the rock tree made famous by Salvador Dahli. Whilst Mr Dahli painted a lot of Bolivian landscapes, it transpires he never actually visited the country himself, taking inspiration instead from photos. The clouds here were beautiful - I don't know if it was the altitude or another reason but they looked like whorls of ice cream. I spent as much time looking at the clouds as at the scenery. The mountains were stunning, hewn from a reddish rock with snow lightly dusting the tops. The soil in Bolivia is very rich in minerals including lithium, borax, copper and arsenic. This turns the lakes various colours, depending on the quantity of each. 

Dali rocks

Rock tree

On this trip we reached a maximum height of 5010 metres, which is higher than the skydive we did in 2009! I suffered from altitude sickness here, having to nap in the evening rather than eat dinner. I did wake up in time to experience the hot spring fed swimming pool under the stars. I have never seen such a clear sky in my life; you could clearly see the Milky Way and when the moon rose it was light enough to not need torches. Full disclosure: the photo of the stars below was not taken by us, but by another chap in our tour group.

View of the stars whilst swimming in the hot strings

  We are now waiting at the airport ready to fly back to La Paz. Tomorrow we leave Bolivia and travel to Peru!