Pink Flamingos in the Pool

Day 2 of our Bolivian adventure and we had a lot of land to cover. We woke up in our Salt Hotel, feeling very cold, dry, and congested. At this point of our journey we would be reaching our highest altitudes and despite having been at an average of 11,000 feet for the past 10 days, you could definitely feel the additional 5,000+ we were about to reach. After an extensive breakfast of coffee, tea, juice, eggs, yogurt, and various breads we were starting to feel a bit better and ready to start the day. We drove out even further yet into the desert and marveled at the landscape.

 It wasn't long before we stopped at another "gravesite" of an indigenous population who, like the first friends we visited, were naturally very well preserved. These people believed in reincarnation and that when a human body passes, their flesh was garbage, but their soul was about to embark on an incredible journey. Sometimes this journey went up into the heavens, sometimes down to the underworld, but regardless of the path, this soul would soon join earth again as a new being. For this reason, even the underworld was sacred and they did not believe in physically burying bodies (garbage) in this place of rebirth. For this reason, they cleaned out the bodies of organs, folded them into the fetal position, and placed them in small caves with offerings for the afterlife (quinoa, spices, seeds, etc). Fortunate for these people, they lived in this crazy volcanic-ocean-desert terrain and there are many mounds of petrified magna that were naturally hollow. You can see hundreds of these mounds spread throughout several kilometers of this land, most with a hole that appears to have been a burst bubble. This made the perfect resting place for the dead in this indigenous village. And although majorly of the tombs were looted long ago, many still had remains of pottery, cloth, and human skeletons. 

Apparently we were off to a spooky start on this day because our next path lead us through a legitimate ghost town, a creepy and random cemetery, a run down military base, and a nearly abandoned train track. All of these things located where they were, literally in the middle of nowhere, was very every. It made for quite impressive, yet creepy, photos.

Most of the abandonment of this area was related to the failure of the steam locomotives we saw the day before. Once no more trains came through, people literally could not survive out there. Many died, many packed up and moved on. Unfortunately, there are still some soldiers stationed at the military base. They have no access to fresh food or water and their housing conditions were worse than the ghost town. To add even more sad news to this tale, there are a handful of dogs that still remain today. No one knows if they came from the soldiers or are just a modern generation from those abandoned in the ghost town. Regardless, they are starving and dying of thirst. Our guide, Gerry, happens to be a huge animal, and especially dog, activist. So he makes sure to always bring leftovers and water for these dogs. When they saw our jeep they came running. It was really sad, but was wonderful to help them out even if it was a little. They had a lovely meal of bottled water, pancakes, cookies, and ham. 

Next we stopped at a lava field that looked like a foreign planet. When an ancient super volcano erupted, it spewed magna fields that flowed through the landscape like waves. And they cooled this way too. We stopped to take some pictures and of course I had to "hang ten" on a gnarly wave before we left. The backdrop of the extinct volcanoes and one semi active, smoking one, was the icing on the cake. 

Next, it was finally time to start the lagoon part of our journey. One of the original reasons I wanted to visit Bolivia was for the famous lagoons (in addition to the salt flats). When I learned that there were pink flamingos native to these lagoons, I was double sold. Flamingos in the Bolivian desert? I had to see for myself.

We came up upon a small lagoon first with a couple hundred flamingos and it was cool. But the more impressive one was just a bit further out and was accurately referred to by Gerry as "Stinky Lagoon". This lagoon has a high sulfur concentration which allowed only a specific type of plankton to survive. This plankton happens to be the preferred diet of thousands and thousands of pink flamingos, and is actually the reason why they have pink feathers too. This lagoon was absolutely beautiful and we spent a long time just enjoying the view and listening to the flamingos chirp at each other. Watching them in flight was really beautiful as well. Christina prepared us a delicious lunch here and we ate and admired the view some more over our meal. 

We finished up lunch and headed towards the national reserve, where we would be lodging for the night. But first, we ran into the incredibly cute viscachas which are basically desert rabbits with but bushy long tails. They were so cute and enjoyed the crackers and brownies we fed them in the middle of the road. 

As we neared the reserve there were some really cool "rock trees" we came across and had to photograph. Just another example of how the incredibly harsh history of this volcanic land has left some pretty incredible stories behind. 

Finally we reached the reserve, where Laguna Colorada is located. We will have more time with this amazing natural wonder of the world, but today we got a few chilly but beautiful photos and hurried to our lodge before dark. 

Our hotel was a simple lodge located literally "off the grid". No wifi, no cellphone, no hot water, and barely any electricity (few hours of generator at night). We had plenty of warm clothing from our camping part of the journey but Gerry insisted on bringing us a "heater" as well. We called it our homeless trash fire. It was everything but safe, so we asked him to only make it last about 10 minutes. It did, and we got a good kick out of it too.  We slept nice and cozy that night under about 6 blankets each. 

Literally The Salt of the Earth- Part II

We drive for about an hour and began our famous Salt Flat Photo Shoot, which even puts our Machu Picchu one to shame. It was so much fun messing around and playing with the illusions created by a lack of contrast and visible depth in the landscape. 

We began to drive further and you could see these black spots on the horizon. As we got closer they appeared to be odd ovals. Turns out, they are islands made of normal desert like earth, that have sprouted through the salt. The mirror effect causing them to look round was simply a combination of mirage and reflection. We arrived at "our island" which really was ours because our tour company has exclusive access to this island with a cave, massive cacti, and beautiful views. We hiked up and into the cave and marveled at this bizarre rock island we were sitting inside of.  History says, millions of years ago, all of the salt flats used to be under water. Between volcanic eruptions and floods, the deserts of Bolivia are filled with unique magna and coral rock that has long since petrified and now provides the modern landscape. This cave was most likely a water bubble inside of some coral that ultimately exploded due to pressure. Now, it is this massive hole on this random island, in the middle of a salt desert. 

This type of cactus only grows one centimeter a year.  So as you can see, this guy has over 2,000 years under his belt! 

We took some moments to take it all in and sat quietly in the cave. It was a silence like neither of us had ever experienced before. When we climbed down from the cave, Christina had prepared a llama steak lunch for us! Complete with fresh salt for seasoning of course. 

After lunch we hiked and explored the island a little more. We climbed to the top and gained a new perspective of the island and the flats. It was amazing how as the mountain terrain faded back into the salt, it looked exactly like a beach meeting and ocean. It wasn't so difficult to imagine this place being covered in water anymore. 

We did one more photo shoot as we finished up our time on our island and in the salt flats. It was time to finish the four hour drive through them and say "Hasta luego". 

We proceeded to drive out to the edge of the flats and further into the Bolivian desert. Gerry told us he had a surprise, and he sure did! When we arrived at our lodge we had an amazing tea and cookie spread waiting for us. But what was even better... We were staying in a lodge made out of salt! All of the bricks are salt blocks and even our beds were made out of salt. So cool! 

Gerry's final surprise for us was a bottle of wine with dinner. We all cheersed to health, new friends, and an amazing adventure. 

Literally The Salt of the Earth- Part I

We arrived in Uyuni and our tour guide, Gerry as he liked to be called, was waiting for us at the airport. While we were waiting for luggage he told us he was excited to have Americans on his tour. His dad is American and he used to live there for about 6 years. When we asked him where he said "Maryland". No way. Apparently he lived in Bethesda and his parents still live there. And even better- he went to the same high school as me! Magruder class of 1992. What a crazy small world! Anyways, he's been back in bolivia for 20 years and his excellent English and enthusiasm for American culture was welcoming. 

He took us to a breakfast where he let us hang out, eat, clean up, and he went with our "crew" to buy supplies for our trip. Apparently we were to leave in 1 hour for the desert for 3 days. No stores, no supplies. They used this hour to shop, stock up on gasoline, and whatever else and then just like that... To the desert!

We met our crew who included our driver, Fabio, and our cook, Christina, both who spoke no English and very quiet, mumbled Spanish. They were very shy but also very sweet and we were lucky to have them. It was quite the contrast from our extroverted Gerry who knew everyone, spoke 6 languages fluently, had a degree or certification in every subject, and had stories for eons. 

We started out the tour at the train cemetery right outside of town. Bolivia and England agreed on a deal to lay thousands of miles of railroad track and run steam locomotives full of exports for large profit. However the deal and the construction took so long that the trains were only in operation for 7 years before becoming obsolete when the Diesel engine came to the market. Unable to afford the steam locomotives on their own, Bolivia had to abandon the railway and all of the trains they invested so much in. This part of the desert is just full of abandoned and highly looted trains and track. 

Warning: the axels don't move. 

Next we began the salt tour in a small town outside of the salt flats, where most of the people worked in the purifying and packaging salt business. We watched as a man carefully ionized the salt, cooked it, packaged it, and stacked it up for shipment. It looked like an incredibly monotonous profession but this is how most of these people made a living. 

We then stopped real quick to see the largest salt llama created, and heard some stories about how real life hunger games existed amongst Bolivian village children and on that note... Were off to the salt flats! 

First we had to stop and pay homage to some of Gerry's "friends". He lead us to these small huts carved into the mountain side and led us into one of the caves. There lied the remains of four corpses of some ancient indigenous people. Their bones had been placed in a ceremonial fashion and a shrine was created out of rocks and offerings such as coca leaves, alcoholic beverages, and cigarettes. Apparently locals come to this spot, supply offerings and ask for favors of their ancestors. Gerry then warned us not to be afraid and showed us a Titi (an extinct breed of puma) corpse who was nailed to the wall to protect the people. This large cat still had teeth, skin, and pads on his paws. Similarly, the people still had some hair and tissue on their skeletons. Apparently, the climate here is perfect for body preservation due to the altitude (lack of oxygen), cold temperatures, and salt and minerals in the air and soil.  Crazy.

We said goodbye to our friends and ran into some new ones- very alive and cool looking vicuñas. These look like a mix between a deer, antelope, and llama. They are protected by the nation of Bolivia and it is very illegal to hunt or own these animals. They used to be nearly extinct due to hunting for their highly desirable fur - which still goes on the black market for upward of $20k USD for one garment. They are pack animals and we saw a ton of them throughout the plains and deserts on our Bolivian travels.

Finally, the time came. Gerry asked us to close our eyes and not open them until he told us to. We complied and after about 1 whole minute straight of bumpy jeep riding he said "OKAY OPEN!" 

For about 3 seconds, you can't see anything. When your eyes adjust it is just white. White everywhere. We had officially arrived in the salt flats. 

This has got to be one of the strangest places on planet earth. There is 10,582 square kilometers of salt desert, located at an altitude of 3.6km, aka 12,000ft. We drove around and the contrast of bright white ground and bright blue sky was stunning. There were pounds where they were working to excavate the salt and we had a little fun with those. 

The salt was full of cracks that made interesting polygonal shapes. And there was just nothing. Nothing as far as the eyes can see. No roads, no people, just salt. 

It was such a weird, beautiful, and breath taking place. Truly like nowhere else on planet Earth.