Salar de Uyuni

Today we flew to the Salar de Uyuni. A salar is a salt flat. The one at Uyuni, the city it is close to, is one of the largest in the world.

The Salar was spectacular! One of the most interesting places I have seen in the world. Because of the recent rains there was about 8 inches of water on top of the salt. This allows the sky to be reflected in the water.

We went with a small group of people in an SUV out onto the salt. Because of the water we drove through it for several miles. We stopped at the Salt Hotel, a small building built with salt blocks, where our guide made lunch.

With all the reflected light is was very bright. You would not want to go there without a hat and sunglasses. We took our shoes off and walked around in the water. Too bad we didn't bring our flip flops.

We flew on a regularly scheduled DC3 flight. It was really neat. The one issue is that it is not a pressurized plane so we were at about 15,500 feet to clear the mountains. I took lots of pictures. We talked a bit to the pilot.

[see pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelwx/]


The Uyuni airport is a dirt strip in the desert with a windsock. When we came back there obviously was no security to go through. We hung out around the plane until they were ready to board and then scrambled on.

The plane is owned by a charter company, www.lineasaereascanedo.com, and the local airline, AeroSur, has them fly out there. Their service was wonderful. It takes about 1:20 to fly there. Each way we had a small sandwich, cookie, and drink.

It has been a long day so we are off to sleep.