March 27 – Bolivian salt flat, Uyuni and Pulacayo

 

The tiny red dot (centre pic) is Uyuni and the white blob beside it is exactly what you think it is - the Uyuni salt field. Absoultely astonishing!

View from our hotel towards the salt flat - a vast horizon.

Yesterday as we drove through Uyuni it was pouring with rain and looked dismal, but this morning the skies were fairly clear as we launched into another exciting day. We were to visit Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. Measuring 12,000sq km, this 140m deep salt-filled prehistoric lake bed suspended at 3,660m above sea level, can be seen from space evidently. Today much of it had a film of water covering it as a result of the rains and also from water draining from the mountains. The reflections were breathtaking. Staggering! I just stood open-mouthed staring at the endless horizon, the reflections that washed into the sky where sky met the land. Much of the salt plain where we were was covered with water so it was like driving on a mirror. I have run out of superlatives so I'll leave you to simply browse a few photos.

We hopped out of the car, pulled on rubber boots and walked - amazing stuff.

At one spot we stopped to see pools where lithium, in some form or other, bubbles up through the 140 m deep salt layer. Evidently Bolivia has the largest reserves of lithium in the world.  

We drove and walked across the lake and then had lunch at a rather rundown place made of salt blocks: it was once a hotel.  Here Eddy prepared a delicious picnic lunch for us.  The Dakar rally came through here 8 or 9 years ago so there’s an international flavour to the place including a cirque of flags - our Aussie one was sadly shredded - and the windows were covered in stickers from all over the world. 

An open air salt art gallery. Very imaginative creations all carved from salt

The sky was starting to look a little dark so we left this strange awesome place. It is perhaps the most astonishing place I have ever experienced. We ended up very sunburnt from the reflected light in spite of having applied sunscreen. One last photo before we leave this wonderful place.

In Uyuni we visited a train cemetery. A bit of an oddity but once trains carried massive loads of silver, tin and zinc out of the area to a port on the coast of Chile. The rail lines were built by the British.  Being a bit of a steamtrain lover Lindsay was fascinated. I wandered around an installation of creative works made from scrap metal and bits from trains. 

More trains were to come! We drove out of Uyuni to visit what was once the second largest silver mine in the world, Huanchaca in the mining town of Pulacayo. This mining operation  which used steam power and rail, employed men from all over the world. It was also the site of labour strikes in the 1940's.   

Remember the film ‘Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid’?  It's a true story and the train that the real Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid travelled in when they were robbing the miners of their wages was sitting in the derelict rail sidings at Pulacayo Bolivia, wow!  So many stories to tell – if I only could remember them all.  Freddy was a brilliant very knowledgable guide (a writer when he wasn't guiding).

THE very train

The town is run-down but they still mine here on a small scale. The whole place is guarded by the army.

The day had been packed with fascinating things to see and chunks of history completely new to us.  Feeling quite overwhelmed Freddy dropped us in town and the bus station where we boarded an overnight bus which would take us to La Paz. Not our favourite way to travel but our only option this time.