Salar de Uyuni

from wikipedia :

Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles).
It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high.
Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake.
When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.
Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually.
All miners working in the Salar belong to Colchani's cooperative. They work from dawn to dusk and most of them do not take a lunch break in order to take advantage of time, getting energy by chewing coca leaves.
Every November, Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding grounds for three species of South American flamingos: the Chilean, James's and Andean flamingos.

to get to the Salar de Uyuni, i had to go south.
i took an overnight bus from la paz to potosi and spent a day there and then the next morning got on another bus to uyuni.
theres not a lot to do in uyuni - and my tour left the next day. so i played a little poker online (and there began my addiction).

the day of the tour - i woke up in my big queen bed ($3NZD) and it was sunny !
i used a tour company called Andean Salt Expeditions - who i would not recommend. but as i was the only one doing a one day tour, i was put in with another group.

the salt mountains. the salt is left to dry for 3 months before being processed.



fish island. its FULL of cactus.

my tour group - 3 crazy funny as shit irish chicks and 3 american girls who did all the translating from our non-english speaking guide.


salt blocks drying at the salt hotel.

the flamingoes.

the train cemetery - eerie and i am unsure why this is such a tourist attraction. but it is strangely beautiful.

uyuni town. full of markets and not a lot else.