Salar de Uyuni

Posted by Åsa on 1 January 2010

Cycling through the large salt flat Salar de Uyuni in the south of Bolivia was a truely eerie experience. With its 12 000 sq km and 10 billion tonnes of salt it is the worlds largest and out there in a whole world of white salt we faced completely new challenges. The navigation had to be made with only the sun and the compass to guide us, the sun was incredible strong as reflected by the salt at 3600 m height and at times we had an almost psychedelic feeling of loosing sense of time and space. There were just us, our bikes, the blue sky and the waste white emptiness where only a slight crushing of the salt under our tires was to be heard.

 We were entering the Salar in Colchani. Heading west to make the 70 kilometers across the salt to reach the coral island Inca-huasi, we wanted to use the shelter of the island to spend the night there and to see the famous cactuses that are practically the only vegetation. As we were approaching the island it slowly started to grow out of the horizon like a giant mushroom.

 In the afternoon the wind was growing stronger and stronger and as it was not in our favor we were happy when finally reaching the island and we even got a room to sleep in. There was a big window facing the salt flat and a big mattress on the floor. We sat down in the floor boiling our pasta while watching the sun go down impressed by the otherworldly beauty of the place.  he floor boiling our pasta while watching the sun go down impressed by the otherworldly beauty of the place. 

12 comments. Tags: Asa, . Location: Cafayate, Argentina