(Photo kindly provided by Marcel Hurni)
In Uyuni I found a good place to stay Hostal Tati-Laura, it was very cheap and the only negative was that there is no heating. But unless you are willing to spend a lot more then you probably have to live with that. I signed up for a one day trip to visit the salar, took a walk around town and then went to sleep. It’s certainly a tougher life on the altiplano, even for travelers. In the morning I checked the thermometer on my alarm clock and it showed a mere 5 degrees Celsius. That was pretty cold since I didn’t have a lot to cover me during the night and I was surprised that I didn’t get sick. Taking a shower with these room temperatures is not much more pleasant, the electrical heating has little chance to heat up the freezing cold water enough and you have to run it with very little water, almost dripping which again makes you feel the freezing cold air around you. Since I would have had to ask in the reception for them to put the switch for the electricity in the shower and I already had the same torture the day before in Potosi, I decided I could live one day without a shower.
I really wasn’t too exited to visit the salt lake. I thought what could be so special about a big field of salt. My opinion changed quickly. Of course it’s just salt but there is a special and unique feeling to it, hard to describe. First we visited a place where the locals were taking the salt for processing. Like in the mines it was all manpower, the trucks for transport were the only machines to be seen. Then we went on to a hotel that is pretty much entirely made of salt. Heading about an hour deeper into the lake we reached a small Island, Isla Pescado. Climbing up there revealed beautiful views of the salar and the mountains in the background. The island was covered with cactus up to 12 meters high. It felt really like on an island somewhere on the ocean, only that the water here was salt. We ate lunch on the “beach” and then I helped some Israelis and other Swiss who took the tour with me to make some of those photos that you can only take on a salt lake. The pictures are playing with the perspective and the distance so that for example you appear to stand on a giant hat or have some little tiny person on your hand. Then we headed back towards the town. I asked the driver to stop in the middle where there were few tracks to take a picture of the structures formed in the salt. I still didn’t have a camera, to help out I bought a one time camera but I didn’t expect too much of it. Then we drove on. Suddenly one of the others discovered a large group of flamencos in the distance. The driver made a turn and we drove towards the group. The sun was already very low and the salar was cast in reddish light. The flamencos were flying very low, we circled and turned all at high speed and the driver finally managed to approach them very close without them changing course abruptly. Of course it was only possible here on the salar where the car could go any direction. We followed them for a while, almost being part of the swarm. The light of the low sun illuminated them perfectly and accentuated their deep colors even more. I took pictures with my trashy camera knowing it would never capture the moment as it was. It was painful not to have a decent camera. It was the most intimate moment with nature; it really felt like we were part of this group of flamencos, flying into the fading day. I was very exited to have seen this, it was a moment that you have only once in a lifetime and probably even with a good camera I wouldn’t have been able to capture the feel of the moment in a picture.
Just in time to watch the sunset we reached the “ojos del salar” where oxygen is rising from the depths and creates little whirlpools. In the dark we headed back to Uyuni and after a flat tier we got there safe.