Our jeep was the first and only to make it up to Isla Incahuasi for the sunrise. The short hike up left me winded due to a combination of the early morning cold and altitude, but the view was worth it. From the time we left our beds in the salt hotel to when the sun rose, the ocean of salt went from black, to a periwinkle of purple, to blinding white.

Golden strings of clouds threaded the sky and seemed to reflect their glow on our faces, the mountains, and the army of cacti around us. The patterns in the salt seemed to pop out of the ground as the low angle of the sun cast a shadow from the ridges of the cracks in the salt. It was beautiful, and like yesterday we were lucky that we didn’t have to share it with the noise and crowds that other jeeps would have brought. The island (really just a big rock) was unusual and many parts of it looked like dead coral, continuing my wonderment from the day before of what used to be here before it was a dessert. As we made our way back down the rock, we saw several jeeps pulling in.

 

we climbed up this “island” to watch the sunrise

 

Matt heading out to take more photos…

Joining in the goofiness, we posed for pictures that only look good through the camera lens, laughed at the sight of other people doing the same, had a good breakfast, and jumped back in the jeep to finish the homestretch of our journey. It came at a good time as all of us were starting to or already had gotten sick during the tour, and were tired of being in a car for most of the day.

Also of note, after three days of traveling together in the same jeep, the Australian couple, for some unknown reason, began addressing Matt as “Max.” This is a common mistake for people meeting Matt for the first time, particularly in places where Matt is not a common name, but he has never had anyone call him this after already calling him Matt for several days beforehand.

Once again, Joylani summed it all up pretty good. She told me to write about the nitty-gritty stuff. Even though that sounds boring, I feel like the stats and facts regarding the Salar de Uyuni are nearly as impressive as the qualitative descriptions. It has an area of over 12,000 square kilometers, making it the largest salt flat in the world. It is composed of 11 layers and has a total depth that ranges from 2 to 20 meters! Lastly, it’s the earth’s largest reserve of energetic minerals, including: lithium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, and borax. Salt is of course mined from the salar as well.

 On our way to Uyuni, we stopped in an area of the flats that had many ojos del sal (salt eyes), also called ojos de agua. They were just small holes in the surface filled with water and had air bubbles coming up. Later, we stopped at larger ones of all different colors, which contained various other minerals besides salt. I’m not sure what the importance is, but it seems that minerals and gases are continually rising from below ground.

Side note, a sad reality of travel. We’ve heard sad stories of accidents on the tourist trail throughout our travels, and today we heard some more. On the way over the flats we passed a couple of memorials. Any accident is tragic, but these seemed especially sad in the probable carelessness of how they happened. One cross was to remember a jeep that had been driven by a tourist who broke too hard and must have flipped the car. The tourist and driver both died. The other was a memorial for two jeeps that had somehow crashed and exploded, killing all passengers. It had only happened 6 months earlier, and the salt was still blackened where the accident happened. There were no surviving witnesses and it is a mystery how it happened in such a wide open space. Seemingly avoidable accidents happen while travelling, just like they do when you are at home.