Salar de Uyuni (the Uyuni Salt Flats) - Bolivia

After our time in Sucre and Potosí, we took another couple of buses to reach Uyuni - a shit hole of a town, purely set up for tourism, on the edges of the Uyuni Salt Flats in southern Bolivia.  When we reached Uyuni, we were immediately bombarded with tourist 'agents' attempting to sell tours out to the flats; the largest salt flats in the world believed to have formed over 30,000 years ago which cover an area of over 10,000 square kilometres and are situated in Bolivia's altiplano at over 3600m above sea level.  After looking online at reviews, we found it was too difficult to find helpful reviews as everyone only seems to leave negative reviews, and therefore went with a word-of-mouth recommendation that we had received in Sucre.  We decided on going with a company called Expediciones Alkaya for our three night, four day tour of the Salt Flats and the Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve.  The tour was great fun, with beautiful scenery and lots of obligatory salt flat photos!

Our first stop on the tour was the cemetery of trains.  These trains were originally used to transport minerals between southern Bolivia and the Pacific Coast but ceased operations in the 1940s when the depleting mineral deposits caused the mining industry to collapse. Now the 'cemetery' is a major attraction of Uyuni as tourists can literally walk all over the classic trains.

This was our first stop on the actual salt flats, hence the excitement on our faces and the beginning of the obligatory salt flat photos. 

These shapes are formed all over the flats and are caused when rain water pools on the flats then evaporates and soaks through the flats.  Much of the area has a crust between 10 and 30cm thick (though sometimes several metres) which covers salty brine that can be several metres deep in places.  The brine is one of the world's richest sources of lithium (some say as much as 50-70%). 

This statue, formed entirely of salt, was built for the first Dakar rally held in Bolivia earlier this year. 

Due to the vast expanse of flat terrain in all directions, these photos are so much fun to take! These were just a few of our favourites. 

The girl's felt that needed some extra salt in their diets. 

These salt crystals form just below the crust due to the high concentration of minerals in the brine. 

Isla Incahuasi is the tip of an ancient volcanic island which is covered in coral and volcanic rock, as well as cacti.  It is situated in the middle of the salt flat and was believed to have been submerged by the ancient lake. 

A great place to practise my fly-kicks. 

Our first night of accommodation was in a salt hotel. 

Sunset over the mountains and the desert. 

The next part of tour took us through a loop of lagoons south of the salt flats where we were lucky enough to see several types of pink flamingo, vicuñas (the rarest type of llama), as well as ordinary llama and alpaca among many other species. 

This area known as Árbol de Piedra (Stone Tree) is a sandstone formation supposedly shaped by the harsh desert winds. 

Mountains of Laguna Colorada in the south of the Eduardo Avoroa Reserve. 

After our second night, sleeping on the shores of the Laguna Colorada, we awoke at 4am to watch the sunrise at the geysers and fumaroles of Sol de Mañana. 

The final lagoon of our trip was Laguna Verde with the great Volcan Licancabur looming behind.