Salar de Uyuni

World’s largest salt flats, located in Bolivia

 

December 2022

 

by Ravi Gundakaram

 

One of the most amazing places in Bolivia is Salar de Uyuni. The salt flats are truly mesmerizing! It seems that almost anyone who visits the beautiful country visits the flats. Although salt flats exist south of the border in Argentina in the provinces of Salta and Jujuy (you can ready my photo essay on those), Salar de Uyuni takes the crown for its sheer size! How did all that salt get there? Due to the drying up of prehistoric lakes!

It seems Salar de Uyuni can be seen from space! With an area of over 10,000 square kilometres and a variation of surface of about a metre over this vast area, it is as flat as it gets! An amazing use of this, coupled with the reflectivity, is for calibrating the distance measurement equipment of satellites. Surely few other areas exist on the planet that are as large and as flat!

A guide in Colchani explaining how salt for edible purposes is produced. Colchani is the town east of Salar de Uyuni, where the processing takes place.


An estimate puts the total salt available in Salar de Uyuni at 10 billion tons! Annually, about 25,000 tonnes are extracted and most of it is consumed locally. There does not seem to be much of an avenue for export since most other countries have their own sources of salt, especially ones that are along the sea.

A young lady selling different types of salt.

Typically, tours to the flats last one or two days. On a one day tour, you are likely to start in Uyuni, stop for a short while in Colchani and then visit Incahuasi ‘island’, watch the sunset and return to Uyuni. On a two-day trip, there is usually an overnight stay in Colchani, and the second day is spent visiting some high altitude lakes. They say the night time sky is really beautiful in Salar de Uyuni but I did not get the chance to see it. The tours are typically in six-seater vehicles that you will be sharing with others. Of course, if you are travelling as a group, you can then have the vehicle all to yourselves! Lunch is included, and it is a nice experience eating in the middle of nowhere! If you are a vegetarian, let your tour agency know at the time of booking, and they will arrange it for you.

After Colchani, there was a brief stop at the monument to the Dakar rally. The 2018 edition of the rally passed through Bolivia and Salar de Uyuni, for which the above monument was erected – fittingly in salt! 

The Dakar monument – in salt!


Flags of different nations and causes!


The Indian tricolour, a-flutter in the strong wind!


A hotel, built entirely from salt! It is now used more as a restaurant.

The obvious question is: Does it rain in Salar de Uyuni? Yes, it does, especially in the month of January! What happens to the walls of this hotel, then? Well, the salt with which the bricks are made of does melt a bit. Once the rains stop, people take some salt, add water to bring it to the right consistency, and then use it like mortar to refurbish the partly molten areas.

Inside the Salt Hotel. The walls, pillars and even the ‘seats’ are made of salt!


A view of Salar de Uyuni. Salt, salt everywhere!


A portion of the Incahuasi island, seen to the right. It seems the place we see today is the top of an ancient volcano. There is a visitor’s centre on the island, which includes restroom facilities. 


View from Incahuasi island.


There are literally hundreds of cactus plants on the island, of varying shapes and sizes!


A huge cactus, up and close!


A stone arch on the island.


When to visit Salar de Uyuni: during the rainy season, or when it is dry? Depends on what you want to see. When the flats are flooded with rainwater, driving becomes difficult and maybe even unsafe. So one cannot go deeper into the flats. But the reflections are beautiful! It is said that sight of the stars of the night sky reflected on the water is out of this world!

During my visit, it had luckily rained in only a portion of the flats, and so our group could have the best of both worlds: being able to visit Incauasi, while still being able to enjoy the reflections on water.


Yours Truly, and reflection in the rainwater!


More reflections!


Close to sunset!


What you can expect to see, when it has rained! The tour operator even serves champagne (for those who would like it).


That’s all from Salar de Uyuni, friends! Hope you get to visit this wonderful place! Let us take a quick trip to Pulacayo and some lagunas next!

Location: Uyuni Salt Flat, Bolivia

Comments

  1. Subbalakshmi Yeleswarapu6 April 2023 at 21:40

    Excellent pics, quality of them is awesome,took me to the actual place in my imagination

    ReplyDelete

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