Salar de Uyuni

After an overnight bus I ended up in the town of Uyuni in southern Bolivia. Uyuni is the access point to Salar de Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flat. In Uyuni I met up with 5 other travellers to tour this region of Bolivia for a couple of days in a 4X4. On the first morning we headed off, we stopped at a train graveyard. In the 19th century Uyuni was an important transport hub because of the mining industry, and many trains were imported from Britain. But the collapse of the mining industry in the 1940's led to the trains being abandoned here, where they still lie slowly crumbling away.

Then we continued on into the salt flat. Every year the salt flat floods, which leads to a stunning mirror like effect. Most of the water had evaporated at the time we were there but it was still an incredible site, seeing the glass like effect as far as you could see. Then we kept driving for miles before stopping at a dry section of the salt flat. This part was even more interesting for me, where you could see the distinctive pattern of the dried up lake that stretched as far as you could see. Because the landscape is so flat with no reference points, the area is great for taking trick photos, so of course we spent ages posing for stupid photos that our driver directed us all for!

Every now and then there is a small island in the salt. We climed one which was particularly beautiful because of the cactuses on the island, which appeared to glow in the setting sun. We continued driving before stopping to watch sunset, which was of course beautiful. Then we kept driving until we had exited the other side of the salt flat, where we stayed in a hotel made from salt!Read more