Sorry about the lag in blogs...typical Murray for those who know us. Kara has put me in charge of blogging the first half of our trip to Uyuni, so I will do my best to do our trip justice. Big shout out to Meg Welsh our faithful travel companion and we are excited that she will be a future CMHP coordinator in the year to come. Tough act to follow though Meg. \
So now that I have the Uyuni Wiki page to reference, I can jog my memory a bit. Uyuni is located in Southwest Bolivia and is the tourist base-camp for expeditions into the Salar de Uyuni--the largest salf flats in the world. So we flew into our favorite Bolivian city, Sucre; then we bused to Potosi (the famous city with Silver Mines) and finally bused to Uyuni.
Plane touched down in Sucre, now off to Uyuni!
Beautiful bus ride from Potosi to Uyuni
Guardian of the Bags: Despite her low FVC, we didn't lose a thing during our voyage
From Kingshighway to Uyuni: World Travelers
The first thing that we noticed upon arriving was how short of breath we were--this town sits at an elevation of 3,700m above sea level (thanks Wiki). As soon as we arrived, Meg (our dear friend who also happens to have moderate-severe asma) shorted out her nebulizer with the increased voltage in the electrical outlets in Bolivia. So here we were feeling a little bit silly that we brought our friend with the most pulmonary problems to one of the most difficult places to breathe in all of Bolivia. Everything would turn out OK, and our expedition would prove to be an incredibly picturesque trip.
Alright Tonito tours, lets see what you got....
First stop: An abandoned train yard, significance? still not sure, but looks like a great place to shoot a Western Movie
All Aboard?
Not gonna happen...
Look what Meg found!
Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world. Over 10,000 Square Kilometers of Salt about 7-9 meters deep. Each rain brings up fresh salt so that the miners never run out of this resource.
Although the Salar is mostly a tourist attraction, there are many who make their living mining the salt here.
Don't be mistaken, no snow here. All salt.
Isla Incahuasi: The largest "island" in the Salar. It was full of cactus and rock formations.
Climbing up the Isla...
Looking back down on the Tourist Center
Tiny Jeeps traversing a sea of salt...
So one thing about endless salt is that there is quite a bit of reflection of the sun. We found this out about 1/2 way into our first day when we all started to turn red.
Protect the back of your neck young lady.
A hoody in 90 degree heat?
Pretty nice view.
?
Watch out for the Cacti!
2012-2013 Glamor Shot of the Year?
Or...?
On our way down to have some fun with the "fotos locos" as our guide would say...
Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment