Bolivia ~ Salar de Uyuni

The beauty that lies beyond this Bolivian border is beyond words. At an altitude ranging from 8000 to 15,800 feet we all had to bundle up for the cold. We even chewed a few coca leaves in hopes of mitigating altitude sickness. Ha!

I wish I could say the coca leaves worked but they tasted terrible and did nothing for us. I think it must be a cumulative process as our driver happily had a chipmunk cheek full of coca leaves going for the entire trip. 

                           

Charley and Irme from Germany joined us to explore this magical journey across the Bolivian Salt Flats. The skies were crystal clear and the sun was so blindingly bright that sunglasses and sunscreen were mandatory along with plenty of water as the Atacama is the driest desert in the world.  

The incredible variation of the terrain that unfolded in front of us was astounding. Mile after mile we were traveling in a living slideshow, the only way we knew it was real was the bone chilling cold! (Of course Irme and Charley only had 2 layers of clothes to our 9..... Germany verses Hawaii) 

And how did those flamingos manage the cold, especially with their heads constantly under water?! Just like the penguins, they huddle together in a tight group overnight and try to find a warm spot on the lake near a thermal spring.

    

The geysers provided a spot to warm up and have a beauty treatment at the same time. The warm mud was heavenly and steaming it off was even better. 

 

Then in the midst of this enormous salt flat we found an island with petrified coral formations and ancient cactus. Here we could only pretend to swim through the arches and tunnels from millions of years ago. It made us homesick for the ocean in Maui and all our swim buddies. 

      

As we reached the edge of the salt flats we saw the cone shaped piles of salt which are manually collected by shoveling off only the top few inches of salt. Long, hard and blinding work.

Finally, it was time to bid farewell to the immense other worldly beauty of the Atacama and Bolivian Salt Flats and the strange land of bizarre perspective.