Last weekend I decided to do the “tourist thing” and visit the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats) in the south of Bolivia. The salt flats are the world’s largest with an area 25 times larger than the Bonneville Salt Flats in the US and home to more than 10 billions tons of salt. In a comfy Lexus 4x4, we cruised across the salt flats, through deserts and up rocky hills and were treated to constantly changing, but always stunning, landscapes. We saw volcanoes, flamingos, llamas, lizards, vicuñas, cacti, lakes of all different colours, sunsets, sunrises and even a moonrise. Instead of describing all the sites we saw, I have decided to just post a bunch of pictures from the trip. Remember that you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. Enjoy!
***Interesting Fact: Salar de Uyuni is reported to contain 50% of the world’s lithium reserves. Due to its use in batteries for electric cars, the global demand for element number three on the periodic table is expected to surpass supply within 10 years unless new reserves are discovered. However, it is unlikely that Bolivia will open up the floodgates for foreign corporations to extract lithium anytime soon considering the country’s long history of being exploited for its natural resources and particularly now, considering the fact that a socialist government is in power***
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