Mood: (OMFG is about as close as my brain can put it into words)
Music: Zero 7 - When it falls
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever ago
Well, oh my... where to start?? Today we set off just after 9am. My guide said that it might not be possible to cross the Salar (Salt flats) because of the depth of the water. The driver decided to give it a go however and we made a bee line down to the area mined for salt just outside Uyuni. Here I first saw the mirrored surface of the salt falts, covered with 2 inches of water for as far as the eye can see. In total they cover over 12,000 square kilometers of land. Here I also took the photos of the men digging and filling their truck with the salt. This is the main production area for salt on the lake and their produce is shipped all over South America and beyond. Once there the driver of our Toyota Land Cruiser tied a plasic sack over the front bumper, in order to stop too much salt water getting into the engine bay.
From there we drove on out to the first hotel built on the lake. This was a small, ever so slightly raised patch with a museum inside (closed). It was from here the photo of me stood in the water (about 1cm) was taken. I also suffered my first lost item of the trip. I took my tripod out of the car in order to take a couple of photos of myself on the timer but in the end I gave the camera to Roberto (my guide) and then forgot to pick it up again afterwards. I only realised when it wasn't strapped on to the back of my rucksack when I got to the hotel this evening.
Anyway... Initially we weren't sure if we were going to be able to continue past here, but our driver spoke to another who was heading in the opposite direction and said that it was fine to cross to Fish Island, where we were heading for lunch.
The island is called such as it looks just like a fish from above when it's reflection is visible in the water. I could see it growing slowly from the horizon but as I had no idea how large it was, I couldn't tell how far away it was at all. As we got closer, the things that looked like stick poking up from rocks from miles away, turned out to be huge cacti. These are up to 1200 years old and some are over 12m tall! I walked around the track marked in stone up to the top of the island and took video of the circular view from the top. It is from here that the photos of the flats with cacti in the forground were taken.
After lunch we headed onwards. We had crossed some 70km of flats so far and were now heading 40km back not too far from whence we'd come. Not long before we hit land, we passed some very vibrantly coloured flamingos.
From landfall we made out way along bumpy sandy tracks the remaining 100km to the hotel, stopping off at an old Incan necropolis. The Incans had found naturally hollow coral formations on top of a hill (the whole area was under water a very long time ago) and had buried their dead inside along with pottery and other artifacts. Bones, skulls and pieces of broken pottery can still be seen in each of the natual tombs there today.
My hotel is on the edge of a hill, overlooking the tiny village of San Perdo de Quemez. There is no electricity in the village and I've not seen a single bar of reception on my telephone in over 36 hours. The owner of the hotel said he'd run the generator from 6 until 10pm and as such, as soon as it kicked in I began the arduous task of charging all of the electronic gadgets I have with me.
There is a candle beside my bed and some matches in case I want light after 10pm...
Dinner time now so I'll leave it there.
Hopefully you'll forgive me if these posts have to go up in a few days time, once I get back to the land of communication!
PS. This evening there was an wonderful electrical storm all the way around the horizon.
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