Salt of the Earth

These are pictures of the Uyuni salt flats, the largest in the world at 4,000 square miles, apparently the size of Switzerland. About 40,000 years ago the whole area was part of a giant lake part of which evaporated, leaving these flats. (Some 60 million years ago the South Atlantic came inland to this point, forming a massive gulf from the coast of present day Argentina. The lake was created when the Andes were formed). A few metres down there is still water but the salty crust is tough enough to support people and vehicles. Men mine the salt, scraping it into small pyramids which are later shovelled into trucks (pic above). They take out about 25,000 tonnes a year. We travelled across the flats to an island where ancient cacti sprout from this rare patch of soil. One is thought to be 1,200 years old.

The surface of the island is covered in fossilised coral (once on the sea bed) which sits on top of volcanic rock. The flats are surrounded by extinct volcanoes and we spent the night in the shadow of one of them, its reddish caldera illuminated by the setting sun. Our accommodation was a salt hotel, so called because it was completely made of salt, apart from the roof. The walls were built with bricks cut from the flats which looked like breeze blocks and the floors were covered in loose salt. In the dining room the tables and chairs were also cut from salt (pic below). It was all quite rudimentary and a bit nippy but quite a strange experience, especially when you´re looking around for some salt to have on your dinner.

The next day we rose at dawn to catch the sun bursting across the flats.
Later we walked up to the volcano. Looking back the wide band of white looked more like a low strip of cloud rather than a permanent feature below the horizon. The landscape was hard to comprehend. On the way up we stopped at a tomb where there were eight mummies. This is all that´s left of a small village dating back to around 600AD. It´s thought that the village died out following a long drought. Some hair and skin were visible on the remains and locals still come up here to give offerings like coca leaves. We didn´t hang about.