Salar de Uyuni Don't put anything here Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text The main reason for making the 5 hour bus trip from Potosi to Uyuni was to see the Salar - a huge field of salt. 12,000 square km of salt, salt and more salt. And it really is salt - we licked it to verify. <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_015_2775 "Floating" islands - click on the photo to see the vicuñas 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_020_6633 Poor man's "Palacio de Sal" 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_023_7140 Locals selling salt souvenirs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_041_0222 The Hotel Palacio de Sal 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_042_2339 Salt blocks 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_043_4822 Flags of the Hotel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_038_6158 Rusty salt 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_094_1392 The hexagons 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_062_4418 A flowering cactus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_084_5297 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_087_0091 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_082_4839 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_095_1167 Salt close-up 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_108_5512 Salt stacks 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_113_5179 Dust devils over the desert ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_050_7786 Another flowering cactus 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_061_4810 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_075_2074 A 12 meter cactus 2005-12-10-d-salar/20051210_059_4788 More cacti ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> As we started on our tour (two of us, an Austrian backpacker and the driver, who was also the cook), we went parallel to the salar for a while watching the islands in the salar floating in the air. Since dry salar salt is white (or brownish), the blueness in which the islands reflect isn't the salt but appears to be fake water caused by some kind of a mirage. Later in the salar we saw a the same double horizon, but the effect was less pronounced. Click on the first picture in the set above to see vicuñas that our driver pointed out to us at one point. The vicuña is one of South America's two wild camelids. They are supposed to produce the finest wool in the world, which is hard to get since they produce very little of it and cannot be domesticated. At the moment, sheering the vicuñas is prohibited and there is a 8 year prison term for killing one in Bolivia. Vicuñas are fairly rare, and this was the only time we saw them during our trip. We eventually got to Colchani - a small (and seemingly very poor) village that makes its living by packaging the salt of the salar. The locals also make all sorts of souvenirs from salt and sell them to tourists. We then stopped at one of the two hotels constructed of salt. The salar itself was big and white. Really big and really white. We were glad we brought sunglasses, and despite that the sun was sufficiently bright that we seemed to have gotten half of our photos tilted. We stopped at an island in the middle of the salar which was full of huge cacti, some of them with flowers. Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook Don't put anything here HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Page Content Template Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter Don't put anything here HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Guru Fields Templates Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI Don't put anything here A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here Don't put anything here save preview cancel
