Land of Salt

October 27, 2011

We weren’t sure the plane we had chartered was going to make it. The air vents had turned off, the cabin was shaking, and we were way too close to the runway to come in for a landing. The 20 passenger Cessna then pulled up and circled around the town of Uyuni before making a second attempt. All’s well that ends well, but I’m glad I heard about this airline’s safety record after my feet were on the ground. (Eight people died when one of their planes crashed in September.)

Group photo getting on the plane

Are we really flying on this?

Off we go!

View from the plane

That's not snow! TheUyuni Salt Flats from the plane

But why were we flying on this plane in the first place? The short answer is Bolivians like to protest.

Originally, we were to leave Sucre after three nights and take a three-hour bus ride to the mining town of Petosí. (We watched the movie The Devil’s Miner in preparation, which I recommend. It’s a documentary about a 14-year-old boy who works in the mines to support his family.) However, the day before we were to leave, President Evo Marales signed a new law taxing the miners, a law the miners weren’t happy about. So, they decided to block the roads to Petosí in protest. And as they have been known to use dynamite to prevent cars from getting through in the past, our tour guide decided it was best to wait to see what happened with the protests instead of trying to go to Petosí as originally planned. (According to our guide, a few days before another group had protested a different law recently signed by the president, and they day after they began protesting, the president rescinded the law. Now, I believe in listening to the will of the people, but no wonder there are so many protests in this country!)

Well, no progress had been made with the protests by the following morning, and the length of the protest was deemed indefinite. And, at this point, even if we could have gotten to Petosí there would be little point as the mines we were going to see would be closed because the workers were protesting. So we began thinking about going directly to our next destination, the salt flats of Uyuni. Unfortunately, it turns out that the route to Uyuni is through Petosí. This meant our options for getting to Uyuni were either taking a $57 22-hour bus ride or a $158 hour flight to Sucre. (The flying option involved chartering a flight and assumed that we could sell the four extra seats on the plane.  At this point no mention of the quality of the airline we were using was made.) I am on a budget tour and the decision to take the flight wasn’t unanimous, but after putting the travel time in perspective and being reminded that we would have three days of travel in 4x4s and soon there after a 16 hour bus ride, the group opted for the flight.

And we made it. So that’s the important thing. But it did feel a little sketchy at times.

We made it!
Just moving to the back of the plane to get our luggage.

Uyuni looks like a town you’d find in an old western film: dusty roads, unfinished cement buildings, everything a shade of brownish gray. There are 5000 residents (and a Mormon, a Seventh-Day Adventist, and a Jehovah’s Witness church to meet all of their religious needs) and a whole lot of tourists passing through. The town is nice, but our time there was mostly just a stop on the way to the salt flats. After a night in the hotel, our group divided up into three Land Cruisers to explore the flats.

Town of Uyuni

Our first stop on the first day was a train graveyard where trains have been put to rest since the 1860s. Bolivia has a colorful history with trains. Evidently Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were the first Americans to arrive in this place. They were trying to rob a train but got a little confused by the South American use of the word “plata.” The word is used to mean money, but it also refers to silver. They tried robbing the train thinking it was full of money… only to be disappointed by its mineral content…or so sayeth our guide at any rate.

Some of these trains have been here since the 1860s!

Anyway, nowadays, the yard is full of rusty train engines and cars. Bolivia is a complicated country. Thirty-six languages are spoken here and each region has its own history and traditions and goals for Bolivia. This results in difficulty getting things done. Case in point is the train yard. While the metal of these trains should be melted down and reused, the country is unable to organize to get the equipment for doing so to Uyuni. So, now there are rusted trains in the desert that have been there for over 120 years that people from town come to take parts from.

All aboard!

From the train graveyard, we headed to the salt flats. The Uyuni Salt Flats are the largest salt flats in the world with an area of 12,000 square kilometers. At their longest point they are 180 km, and they are 120 km at their widest. There are 11 different layers of various minerals each between 2 and 10 meters deep, and the maximum depth of the flats is 120 meters. (Don’t try to do the math on that one—I’m just passing on what the guides say.) During the rainy season, after there has been 30 cm of rain, these flats are the flattest surface on earth, and they are used to measure how precise GPS systems are. The Uyuni Salt Flats produce 25,000 tons of salt per year. Fifty kilos (110 pounds) of salt sells for about $2.

Salt piles being prepared for collection

When you see the flats, it’s like seeing a snowfield. It’s a plane of white in all directions. Depth perception is thrown off a bit, and the flats provide fun picture taking opportunities.

 

We also visited an “island” in the middle of the flats which had cacti over 900 years old.  Indigenous people sacrifice two llamas there each August for the pachamama (mother earth) in hopes of having a good harvest. I didn’t realize that animal sacrifices were commonplace.

An oasis in the salt flats

Lunch settings--a lace tablecloth and all!

Llama steak

Being silly

Floating hat

The dots on the flats are Land Cruisers taking tourists along the flats

This cactus is about 900 years old.
(They grow about a centimeter a year.)

 Our first day ended in a salt hotel. Yes, the hotel was made of salt. It wasn't the sparkling white palace I had imagined when I had pictured a hotel made of salt, but it was pretty neat. The walls and beds were built using blocks of salt (the beds had mattresses on top and the salt blocks in the walls were joined by mortar). Rock salt covered the floors. There was electricity from 7:00-10:00, and you could pay 10 bolivianos to charge a camera or iPod and/or pay another 10 bolivianos to use the one shower in the place. (Fortunately, the shower walls were not made of salt.) There were probably 25 people in the hotel, and we slept in dorm-style rooms of two to seven people. Each group staying at the hotel traveled with their own cook, and we ate on tables made of salt while sitting on salt chairs. How do you top that? J

Raking the floor

Another beautiful sunset

Salt walls

The dining room

The dining room. Not sure why Lucille is frowning. :)