Ravi Raahi

  Uyuni Gateway to the world’s largest salt flats   December 2022   by Ravi Gundakaram Uyuni may be a dusty little town in the Bolivian altiplano, but it is the gateway to Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flats! There are many tourist agencies in town, and sufficient accommodation too of varying ranges. It seems that if one has some time on hand, one could come to the town and find a suitable tour package to look around. I heard that it is also possible to arrange a trip into the flats after it is dark, so that one gets to see the fabled night sky of Bolivia. Street view. The dust (or salt?) is seen on the ground. There are sculptures like this one on the main street – steel, nuts and bolts and all! Just out of town is the (‘Cementerio de Trenes’ (train cemetery), a collection of locomotives and railway coaches that haven’t been used in decades. It is a reflection of the past glory of the railways in Bolivia. Sculptures just outside the area. A view of t...

  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 s...