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Published: January 25th 2010
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Dana and I hired a Bolivian man to drive us through the Bolivian salt flats over 3 days. This place is one of the wonders of the world and is the most beautiful place I have ever been to.
Our journey was delayed a day as I was sick with giardia. Not only does having giardia suck, but being sick alone in a foreign country far from home and comforts isn’t fun either. Neither is being sick on a 12 hour bus trip over windy gravel roads. Luckily I was able to buy anti-parasitic medication over the counter, which kicked in quickly. We have not met a single person who has been through Bolivia and not been sick. We were prepared and took precautions, but it really is inevitable.
Our first stop was at a train graveyard. This is where they retired the old rail cars that used to transport the precious metals that made Bolivia the richest country in South America for many years until its exploitation finally led it to becoming the poorest.
Soon after this, we were on the salt flats. Imagine hard white crystals expanding outwards as far as you can see. Heat waves
rising off them, causing the mountains in the distance to seem like a mirage. In some areas the salt was flooded and created a perfect mirror reflection of the clouds, mountains and even yourself. With closer examination you see that the salt isn’t perfectly flat after all but forms hexagons of varying sizes.
The lack of change in the background creates an optical illusion because you have no reference of distance or the size of objects and it allows you to take cool photos.
We stopped for lunch at a little rock island oasis in the middle of the flats which was covered in some of the world’s largest cactuses. The landscape was just so random and bizarre.
At night we slept in a hotel made of salt. The ground was soft salt pebbles, and everything was made of salt, from the chairs and tables to the pillars, walls and even the beds (with a comfy mattress on top!). That evening three little boys came in all dressed up in traditional clothes and played the pan flutes and drums for us. They were so terrible, but we gave them some money anyway as they were so cute.
During our second day we were mainly in the jeep with short stops at incredible views. We saw families of llamas, and flamingos living by a red lake. We drove through bizarre rock formations and otherworldly landscapes. The most memorable was the pink desert which served as the background to so many of Salvador Dali’s famous paintings. As we stood there alone in the immense desert I really did feel like I was standing in one of his surreal paintings.
That night we saw the most spectacular sunset. Imagine bright pinks and oranges reflecting off the salt flats. We also met a couple from France who have been traveling the same route as us for a year and we spent a few days with them. It’s nice to compare stories!
On our last day we woke up long before the sun was up and drove through geysers blasting out steam and went to soak in a naturally heated lake with flamingos for bathing partners while we watched the sun rise and create striking reflections in the water.
We then spent the afternoon at the intersection of a green, a red and a white lake. Stunning.
This area is so diverse, every turn you come into such a different landscape, each as beautiful or more than the previous one. This place is the most beautiful place I have ever imagined. Also there were no roads to break the scenery over this 3 day adventure, only the ever endless sand.
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