Feeling Salty

Sadly, about half the time I've spent in Bolivia has been on some form of public transit, and half of that time something has gone wrong. But I managed to find the time to see the one thing I wanted most, the famed Salar de Uyuni, or salt flats. I won't bother repeating the information I've just reviewed on wikipedia (which you'd think I would've learned on the tour, damn language barriers), but I will say that they are spectacular. The tour began at the Train Graveyard, where engines no longer needed for the region's booming mines were sent to rust. It was pretty neat.
And then came the salar!! Because it's the rainy season in Bolivia, the whole thing was covered in a 3-4 inches of clear, briny water. It was unbelievable, a miles-around mirror that reflected bright blue and puffy clouds above and ended in mysterious dark hills in the distance.

We drove right onto it.

Reppin' the SK.

Lunch over an elegant tablesetting.

The standard jumping picture.

Salty legs!

Sunset over the hostel on day one.

Day two began with some alien-looking rock formations created when the strong desert winds buffet small rocks over larger ones.

My cozy new home.

Laguna Colorada. Ideally would have been bright red or pink, but today was more of a muddy orange.

Tree rock.

The desert, framed by snowy mountains on all sides.

Flamingos!!

A flamingo!!

And then this happened. It's rainy season even in the desert.

Second night wine with my German, Swiss, and Japanese tourmates. (Favorite word in German: schnookelputz, which means male hottie)

We were up at 4 the next day to see some geysers.

And an undersea vent OMG. Just kidding. It's another geyser with the flash on my camera.

And the real kicker, bathing in the aguas thermales while looking out on the frozen (as in ice on the ground) world at sunrise. The pain of removing our clothes was well worth the reward of a hot outdoor soak.

And finally, a visit to the Chilean border. One German and one Japanese will get you an Italian for the ride back.