South America Photos 10

Home - 1 Buenos Aires - 2 Bariloche - 3 Buenos Aires - 4 Uruguay - 5 Eladio Dieste - 6 Cariló, Mataderos, Bs. As. - 7 Iguazú and San Ignacio - 8 Córdoba and Mendoza - 9 Cafayate - 10 Uyuni - 11 La Paz, Lake Titicaca - 12 Lares Valley, Machu Picchu - 13 Cusco, Pacific Coast - 14 Lima, flights home

South America Photos 10 - Uyuni

Traveling to Uyuni in Bolivia; its famous salt flats. May 2008

the railraod and salt mining town of Uyuni in southern Bolivia

trash spread by the winds

preparing the jeeps for the three-day tour through the salt flats, 3650m above sea level

the train cemetery, where British-made steam engines came to die in the 1980s

the salt workers scrape the salt into heaps (the scale figure is me)

Incahuasi, the island in the middle of the salt flats. The rock is volcanic and bears traces of petrified corals from the times of the ancient sea covering the whole altiplano. Now it is home of cactuses...

a salt truck

every year the flats flood with water, which leaves behind interesting crustification patterns

waiting for sunset; it's getting cold

sunrise the next morning

the green lagoon

the red lagoon

stretching their legs while trying not to be blown away: Dan, Claire, Karin, Lucy, Hennik

the birth of a geological fault

finding a way back to Uyuni