We awoke excited at 5am. Of course, the driver was not even ready for us at the given time. We drove across the entrance to the flats at day break so that our first view of the flats was just before sunrise.
The salt flats are amazing, awesome, otherworldly, and breathtaking. I thought I would have been desensitized given all the pictures I had seen. The pictures do not do the salt flats justice. They are beautiful and massive. They are fun to be on. I took a ton of random pictures but they just make you happy.
Made it to the Salt Flats for the sun rise.
Overlooking the scenery from the lone island in the middle of the salt flats.
It is a vision unlike I’ve seen before. Very unique and wonderful colors. We stopped in a few places across the salt flats. We stopped at an island in the middle of the salt flats that had cacti and a beautiful hill overlooking the flats. This cost 30 bolivianos to walk through but it was worth it. We also were able to enjoy a nice breakfast here (and more pictures of course).
On top of one of the salt pyramids as one of the last stops on the tour.
One other cool thing about the salt flats is that you can actually pierce the hexagonal shapes and pull out crystals. Our tour guide showed us this and it was really neat to see the salt crystals in their natural form. Nature really is a beautiful thing that I do not know nearly enough about.
The hexagonal shapes on the salt flats.
We headed to the center of the salt flats for some more pictures before heading to the museum del sal (which is really just another hostel and then a statue for the Dakar races). This was also our last stop before exiting the salt flats. We enjoyed a few more pictures of the salt flats before we took off. Most of the morning consisted of picture-taking.
Having some fun on the flats.
The last stop on the tour was the train cemetery. It is just outside the city of Uyuni and in my opinion, is sad. The trains are remnants of the last mining boom in the area and all the trains that used to come and go. It reminds me of Detroit and the pictures just remind me a bit of the much debated ruin porn that Detroit has come to be known for. In an ideal world, places like this wouldn’t exist and the trains would be properly recycled, not left to be graffiti{ed} and fits of tourists to trample over.That is just my personal opinion, and more likely than not because it hits a bit closer to home. Some food for thought I suppose.
The train cemetary in Uyuni.
