South America Day 27

Today we had a full day trip out in four wheel drive jeeps to the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia's largest salt flats, over 12,000 sq kilometres.  The large area was originally ocean which dried up and created the amazing salt flats, white expanses of salt that go on for miles and miles.

On the edge of the salt flats, local workers scrape salt up into piles and/or carve blocks of salt by hand for processing in nearby antiquated factories.   One local guy showed us how they processed the salt for food use.  They spread the salt out on a large concrete surface, open oven, which has wood fires underneath.  The salt is heated for 20-30 minutes to dry it.  It is then transferred to a machine which mixes the salt with iodine and breaks it down into smaller particles.  The resulting product is then bagged up and sold as table salt.

We drove out onto the salt flats stopping at a now closed 'salt hotel' where everything is made out of salt bricks, walls, furniture etc. They even had a selection of salt carvings. There was a huge salt 'Dakar Bolivia' statue and flags, the Paris Dakar Car Race is taking place in Argentina, Chile and on the Bolivian salt flats in January 2015.  We continud driving for another forty minutes to reach 'Fish Island' right in the middle of the salt flats.  This island that would have once been under the ocean had Corel rocks and was covered in cactus's.  There were amazing 360° views of the salt flats from the top of the small island.  We had a picnic lunch at the island then drove a little further to a lovely clear salt flat area to take lots of entertaining perspective photos, some with provided props.

On the way back to Uyuni we stopped by another train graveyard, Cementariode Trenes, where carcasses of old steam engines have been left to rust.