Speaking about costs and tour operators: I decided to go with a company called “Expediciones Alkaya” and can highly recommend going with them – with food, lodging & rent for a sleeping bag I paid only 105€ for 3 days! [17], Lithium is concentrated in the brine under the salt crust at a relatively high concentration of about 0.3%. You can use both tours to cross the border and get to Chile/Bolivia to keep on traveling afterwards which I recommend because you would use otherwise half of the last day just to travel back to your origin. The salt-processing factory in Colchani, a small village 20 kilometres from Uyuni, refines over 25000 tons of salt annually and exports it all over Bolivia and to Brazil. [16], Every November, Salar de Uyuni is the breeding ground for three South American species of flamingo: the Chilean, Andean, and rare James's flamingos. There is an estimated 11 billion tons of it and, as the bright sunlight ensures a continuous production, the region is not likely to run out of it any time soon. (Justin Vidamo / Flickr). Beside the world's largest salt flat you are able to discover rock formations, lagoons, volcanos and flamingos in this diverse region in the south west of Bolivia. However, upon showing our ticket to one of the staff, we were pleasantly surprised (and relieved) to be led to a premium coach. Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa)[1] is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) in area. Grieving Tunupa started to cry while breastfeeding her son. If you are short on time you can do the Salt Flat only in just one day, but the most popular & from my point of view also the best option is the 3 or 4 day tour. In any case, the salt flats are so extensive that they are apparently visible from space and NASA uses them for satellite position. Salar de Uyuni spreads over 10,582 km2, which is roughly 100 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States. [18] However, lithium extraction in the 1980s and 1990s by foreign companies met strong opposition from the local community. It is 3 km outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Many people prefer the rainy season though for the mirror effect brought on by the rain-flooded flats. March 1, 2017. You can do the whole tour either from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile or from Uyuni in Bolivia – there are overnight buses to/from La Paz. In Bolivia, and more exactly in the south west. Modeling the topography of the salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, as an equipotential surface of Earth's gravity field. There are four lakes in the area – Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorada, and Laguna Hedionda. [2] It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above sea level. The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. Locals believed that the money infused by mining would not reach them. Nature at its best!! It is covered with a solid salt crust varying in thickness between tens of centimeters and a few meters. The difference: the tour from San Pedro is likely to be around 50-60% more expensive. [6][7][32] Using Salar de Uyuni as the target, ICESat has already achieved the short-term elevation measurement accuracy of below 2 centimeters (0.79 in). When it dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó and Uru Uru, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Salar de Uyuni. Surrounded by the snow-covered Andes mountains, it is a remote region with a remarkably scenic landscape. There was no proper way to dispose-off the waste and the entire enterprise began to turn into an environmental disaster. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals en route to Pacific Ocean ports. The Salar de Uyuni (largest salt flats in the world), lakes with bright red or green waters, where bright pink ... in its mines. But if like us, you love the great outdoors, we discovered that Bolivia also has something just as special, the magnificent Altiplano, a remote highland plateau that is one of the world’s harshest wilderness regions, and is simply a photographer’s paradise. The first Palacio de Sal was built entirely of salt blocks in 1993-1995 and, although it attracted widespread attention for its unusual building materials, it soon ran into sanitation problems. It is recommended to bring a sleeping bag as the temperatures drop in the night due to the high altitude (up to 4.800m!). The hotel has a saltwater pool, whirlpools, and a sauna, and offers buffet-style meals. It is the largest salt flats in the world, extending across an area of 10,582 square kilometres and situated at an altitude of 3,656 meters, in southwestern Bolivia’s Potosi and Oruro departments. The Salar de Uyuni is one of the peculiar marvels of the natural world. They grow at a rate of about 1 cm/a to a height of about 12 m. Other shrubs include Pilaya, which is used by locals to cure catarrh, and Thola (Baccharis dracunculifolia), which is burned as a fuel. As I’m writing this article I’m seeing all sorts of pictures flowing by on my social media feed with happy new years’ wishes, champagne, selfies and the like.. all the, Yesss the time has come.. these are the days for the end-of-the-year lists. [16], A part of Incahuasi Island inside the Salar, featuring giant cacti, Andean flamingos in the Laguna Colorada, south of the Salar, The Salar is virtually devoid of any wildlife or vegetation. Some 30,000 to 42,000 years ago, the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, Lake Minchin. The atmosphere here, according to NASA, is like what Mars might have had many billions of years ago. After our 3-day tour my shoes and bag were covered in bleaching salty crusts – but it was all so worth it. A man named Cuzco cheated on his wife, Thunupa, and left her for a younger woman, Cosuna. The solitude one find in these vast kind of desert spaces just has a humbling effect. I contacted this tour company on facebook.

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