Salar de Uyuni

31.8.2013

After a very early-morning flight from La Paz with Amaszonas Airlines, safe arrival in Uyuni, a small town on the edge of the largest salt flats ("Salar de Uyuni") in the world - over 10,000 sq.km - situated in the south of the Bolivian Altiplano.

Nachdem wir sehr zeitig (4:30) aufgestanden sind, sind wir mit Amaszonas Airlines von La Paz nach Uyuni geflogen.

 

 

Main street in Uyuni - statue is Bolivia personified, reaching out for the sea, access to which she would like to reclaim, but chained back by Chile.

This is the last we were to see of anything vaguely resembling a street for the next two days.

 

Uyuni liegt am Rand der weltgrößten Salzpfanne. Eisenbahnstation und bekannt für seinen.... 

First visit was to the antique train cemetery, located 3 km outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals on their way to the Pacific Ocean ports. The rail tracks were built by British engineers who arrived near the end of the 19th century and formed a sizable community in Uyuni.  The mining industry collapsed in the 1940s, and the trains were abandoned.

Looking forward to the 2014 Paris-Dakar race, the route for which is anticipated to pass through Bolivia.

.....Eisenbahnfriedhof

 

The Salt Flats : visit to a salt factory

Am Rand der Salzwüste befinden sich einige Salzmühlenkooperativen- das Salz wird gereinigt, getrocknet....

 ....und gemahlen- verpackt.

The salt miners scrape the salt out of the lake, and prepare it in mounds ready for transportation to the factory

Zuvor mit Menschenkraft aus dem Salzsee gehackt- dann mit Lkw`s in die Salzmühlen transportiert.

Bacteria causes water under the salt layer to bubble

Bakterien erzeugen unter der Salzschicht Schwefelwasserstoff. 

 

The Salt Hotel, once built as a hotel for tourists, but now in decline. Everything inside and out (excluding the roof) is made of salt. 

Salzhotel mitten im Salzsee.

salt table, salt chairs..... 

 Auch die Inneneinrichtung ist aus Salz.

 It is a tradition that tourists come and plant their national flags.  Among the Israelis, Iranians, Saudis, etc. we spotted a few old favourites...

Vor dem Hotel haben Besucher ihre Landesfahnen gelassen.

Is that a Welsh Dragon peeping out there???

 

Fun and games in the Salt Desert 

Die Wüste kann ziemlich gefährlich sein  Riesenreifen....

... karate kick....

 

Women/Frauen Power à la bolivienne

...vor allem für Männer

 Salt, salt and more salt - as far as the eye can see, On the horizon one of the islands in the lake. The area is at an altitude of over 3,650 m.

Salz, Salz, Salz.....

 

Fishing for salt crystals in a hole in the salt

Visit to the Isla Incahuasi in the middle of the salt lake

Mitten in der Salzwüste: die Isla Incahuasi

 

The Island is home to cactii, many of which are hundreds of years old (slow growth)

Die Kakteen hier wachse ca. 1cm pro Jahr.

 

A cuvier (Bolivian long-tailed rabbit), native to the area

Eine Cuvier Hasenmaus. 

 

Climbed to the top of the island - view with cactii and salt flats in background

Auf über 3600m sind auch relativ kurze Anstiege anstrengend. 

 

On the way down 

bergab auch durch kurze Höhlen.

 

900-year old cactus 

 

Alpacas