Visiual illusions in the desert

Theres nothing like waking up at 5am to catch the sunrise. I just love it! Whether it be in the mountains or the desert the light does amazing things to the landscape and it is such a special time of day. Yesterday morning was one such occassion where I was up early to catch the sunrise. I sat outside waiting for the others (man, it was freezing!), reflecting on the past few days in the desert and all of the amazing scenery we had seen. Truly outstanding...

The Uyuni salt flats in southern Bolivia was the starting point of the trip. Dan, Julia and I hooked up with a couple of other girls we meet in Machu Picchu and squeezed in the worn out old landcruiser to embark our 3 day tour through some of the most amazing landscapes Ive ever seen. Pictures just do not do this place justice!

The salt flats are an endless see of white, offering photographers the perfect setting to play with the camera and take those famous optical illusion photos. Uyuni is the largest and highest salt flat in the world, hundreds of kilometers in diameter. We had lots of fun out there playing with cameras and being silly.

Then the landscape changed as we made our way south. The desert becomes more apparent, surrounded by massive volcanic mountains. Close to the boarder of Chile we made our way further south and visited lots of gorgeous lagoons, all different colours depending on the minerals that are present. Each lagoon was beeming with wildlife, loads of pink flamingos everywhere.

I cant really say too much more about this, other than I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who manages to make it to this part of the world. The jeeps are worn out, the guides arent much to talk about, the facilities and accommodation is basic, but the journey is out of this world! I hope some of the photos give you an idea :)

PS. For those who are interested, Ill upload high res to flickr when I get home (I know the quality of pics on this blog is dodgy as Ive had to resize massively in order to upload as its so slow)

---

---