The real goal of our tour through the Bolivian highlands was the Salar de Uyuni: an endless white salt flat wherever you look. We were up before sunrise so we could be alone somewhere out on the flat when the light came. The blue hour could happily have lasted longer. Then, as the sun slowly rose, our shadows grew endlessly long and the salt crystals on the ground glowed in the first light. At over 10,500 square kilometres, the Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world, lies at 3,656 metres and is so flat that the elevation varies by less than a metre across the whole surface – satellites calibrate their altimeters here. Afterwards we went on to Isla Incahuasi, a surreal island in the middle of the salt, full of cacti and fossils. Close by lie an abandoned station and old tracks with rusted locomotives that once carried the salt in every direction. What a day.
On the road before sunrise: first light through the car window.Through the darkness in the off-road vehicle, the Salar de Uyuni still ahead.Hexagonal salt crusts – so flat that the height varies by less than a metre.The sun rises over the flat horizon, our shadows growing endlessly long.Salt honeycombs on the Salar de Uyuni, the salt standing in blue light.Pink sky over the wide salt flat, mountains lying on the horizon.The moon hangs small in the blue sky over the Salar de Uyuni.An island at the edge of the salt flat, the sky growing light towards the horizon.Cracks in the salt crust and distant mountains – the height varies here by less than a metre.A bright star stands above the horizon of the Salar de Uyuni.Two off-road vehicles and a few travellers as the sun rises over the Salar.The sun rises over the salt honeycombs, the crystals catching the first light.Two people stand close together on the salt crust of the Salar de Uyuni.Blue sky with a pink band over the salt flat of the Salar de Uyuni.White salt flat and a distant island – some 10,500 square kilometres, the largest in the world.Tyre tracks on the largest salt flat in the world.Fine cracks and pale crystals in the salt crust of the Salar de Uyuni.Endless white salt under a deep blue sky, the Salar lying at 3,656 metres.Isla Incahuasi, a rocky island in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni.Isla Incahuasi: a surreal island full of columnar cacti in the middle of the salt.A few visitors stand among the columnar cacti of Isla Incahuasi.A columnar cactus stands out against the light on Isla Incahuasi.Tall cacti on the rocks of Isla Incahuasi, the moon small in the sky.The cacti of Isla Incahuasi stand above the white salt flat.Blue sky above the flat horizon of the Salar de Uyuni, twice.A volcano rises at the edge of the white salt flat of the Salar de Uyuni.Alone on the salt flat stands a photographer with a tripod.Far out on the Salar de Uyuni stands a single man.Through the windscreen, the track that leads across the salt flat.A single person in the middle of the white salt flat of the Salar de Uyuni.Small in the expanse: a tour group in a circle on the Salar de Uyuni.People form a tight circle on the white salt crust of the Salar de Uyuni.A salt sculpture on the left, colourful flags on the right, on the Salar de Uyuni.Adobe walls along the street in a village at the edge of the Salar de Uyuni.Old trucks in the village by the Salar, twice: pale blue on the left, green and rusty on the right.By bicycle along a dusty street in the settlement near Uyuni.Railway tracks run dead straight across the plain near Uyuni, where the salt used to travel.A rusty train on the plain – they once carried the salt in every direction.Rows of old carriages lie at the Uyuni train cemetery.A rusty steam locomotive stands at the Uyuni train cemetery.A rusty locomotive on the left, the old crane wagon on the right, at the Uyuni train cemetery.A whole row of rusted steam locomotives at the Uyuni train cemetery.Scattered carriages and locomotives on the plain near Uyuni, twice over.A stone church with two towers under a blue sky in the Bolivian highlands.A yellow bus in front of brick houses on the left, an old sign in Uyuni on the right.Dried flowers hang on a blue wooden door in Bolivia.Sunset glow over the mountains – what a day.
