The Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia's central plateau. Driving over Tour of Uyuni salt flat by Toyota 4x4

08.15.2003 Uyuni Salt Flats
Crossing the world's largest salt flats by 4WD


The excursion on the salt flat begins with a one hour driving to Fish Island, a small hill in the middle of the salt flat, populated with giant cacti. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's most extended salt flat and is located at an altitude of approximately 3800 meters.


Giant cacti, probably Trichocereus, populate this small hill made of "fertile" soil.

Cacti at 3800mt on Bolivia's central altiplano

The hill is like a garden, densly populated by wonderful cacti, up to 10 meters tall (more than one hundred of years are required to reach that size).


	Following a marked trail, I start to walk up to the hill's top. Beautiful, giant cacti are everywhere.


On the left picture: the sun illuminates a cactus from behind. On the right picture: me under a nice cactus.


Giant cacti make a nice contrast with the bright salt all around.


	Buildings, made of stone and cactus wood.


	A door made of cactus wood.

A 360 degrees WidevieW over the salt flat. In any direction, this is exactly what I saw.


Left picture: me over the salt flat. On the right, the beautiful pattern over the salt.

Upper picture: the salt flat extends to the horizon, up to the mountains in the background.

Lower picture: me rolling on the salt.

We take the highway again to our today destination of Uyuni. Occasionally we see some jeep going in the opposite direction.


A WidevieW from inside the jeep.

After about 70 kilometres, we arrive at the salt hotel, a building made entirely of salt.


	Also the table and the chairs are made of salt. A child is having a small bath in the cold waters of a swimming pool.


We are approaching the opposite shore of the salt flat. Here the salt is collected and processed in the nearby village of Uyuni.

Back on the ground... we see a small group of vigugnas.


The afternoon continues with a visit to the train cemetery of Uyuni where a lot of old machines are resting here.


It's almost evening when we reach Uyuni's main street.

The day finishes with a visit in the Uyuni's public market where fruits, vegetables and spices of many colors and many fragrances, are sold by the locals.

*PICTURES OF PERU - BOLIVIA - CILE: IMAGES FROM THE TRIP DAY BY DAY*
	09.08.2003 - Santiago day tour Guided day tour of Santiago, visiting Plaza de Armas, the downtown with its tall skyscrapers, and the outskirts.
	10.08.2003 - Winery tour from Santiago Chile is getting every year more competitive in the wine market, thanks to the quality and to the increasing quantity. A winery tour in a farm near Santiago lets to discover the wine production process and to taste excellent wines.
	11.08.2003 - San Pedro De Atacama The Atacama desert in Chile is considered one of the world's driest place where, in several areas, there are no registered rainfalls for many consecutive years. But this doesn't mean that there is no life or nothing to see...
	12.08.2003 - San Pedro de Atacama and Salar De Atacama Day tour from San Pedro de Atacama to Salar de Atacama, a huge salt flat surrounded by majestic volcanoes, where flamingoes have made their home.
	13.08.2003 - from Laguna Verde to Laguna Colorada Today the groups gets into Bolivia where an adventure by 4x4 begins. The today itinerary goes from Laguna Verde (green lake) to Laguna Colorada (red lake) driving off road or onto dirty roads, between spectacular lunar landscape of extreme high mountain.
	14.08.2003 - Crossing Bolivian plateau by 4x4 The Bolivian desert expedition by 4x4 continues at altitudes between 3.500 and 5000 meters above sea level, in an incredible landscape of rocks sculptured by winds and other extreme elements.
	15.08.2003 - Salar De Uyuni tour <YOU ARE HERE> With an average altitude higher than 4000 meters, the Bolivian plateau offers spectacular scenery, like the immense Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. We make a stop at Isla Pescado (fish island) a small hill in the middle of the salt, where there are giant cactus.
	16.08.2003 - Travel from Uyuni to Potosi Travel by public bus service from Uyuni to Potosi, over partly paved roads at extreme altitudes, in the middle of the Andes.
	17.08.2003 - Potosi city tour and silver miner excursion Excursion to the interesting "museum of the coins" in Potosi, then tour into a silver miner where people work in terrible conditions, inside a mountain above 4.000 meters of altitude.
	18.08.2003 - Sucre city tour Travel by public bus service from Potosi to Uyuni, Bolivia, then short Sucre city tour and excursion to the "dinosaurs footprints" park, a vertical wall of rock where dinosaurs tracks were left impressed after a sudden catastrophic event.
	19.08.2003 - La Paz city tour Flight from Sucre to El Alto, one of the world's most elevated airports, near the city of La Paz, Bolivia. A short city tour of La Paz follows.
	20.08.2003 - Tiahuanaco tour Excursion to Tiahuanaco ruins by bus, departing from La Paz. This archeological site is very interesting and belongs to pre-Inca time.
	21.08.2003 - Travel La Paz - Puno via Copacabana Travel by public bus from La Paz to Puno (Peru) via Copacabana. Today, we cross the border line between Bolivia and Peru, traveling along the Titicaca lake shores.
	22.08.2003 - Titicaca lake cruise Like the ancient Uros people, about 2000 Peruvians still populate the floating islands built of Totora reeds, over lake Titicaca in Peru. Everything, from homes to the floating islands itself, is built using Totora reeds, a plant growing along the shores of lake Titicaca.
	23.08.2003 - Travel Puno - Cusco by train Travel from Puno to Cusco by train, over one of the world highest railway. The entire journey takes almost 12 hours, but worth because of the beautiful scenery.
	24.08.2003 - Excursions from Cusco Cusco, in the middle of the Andes in Peru, is a city full of history and fascinating museum. The first day spent in Cusco is dedicated to an excursion to Sacsayhuaman fortress and to the temple of the sun.
	25.08.2003 - Pisaq and Ollantaytambo tour Drive from Cusco thru the Sacred Valley to Pisaq with its ancient ruins and the local handicraft market. Continue to Ollantaytambo where we spend the night.
	26.08.2003 - Travel to Machu Picchu by train Travel to Machu Picchu by train from Ollantaytambo. The narrow gauge railway finishes in Aguas Calientes where we have some rest and overnight.
	27.08.2003 - Machu Picchu tour Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca town, has been discovered only in 1911, although was always known by several local farmers. A tour of Machu Picchu gives the possibility to better understand the everyday life of who has lived here.
	28.08.2003 - Cusco city tour and museums Only one day in Cusco is never enough, so, in this second day, I visit several interesting museums and do more hikes in the city, where many modern buildings are built over ancient Inca walls.
	29.08.2003 - Flight Cusco - Lima Short flight from Cusco to Lima by a Lan Peru Airbus A320. This journey thru the Andes of South America is now about to finish.
	30.08.2003 - Lima day tour Excursion to a pre-Inca cemetery, before visiting Plaza de Armas and the interesting San Francisco monastery.
	Collection of the best pictures The most beautiful pictures from Peru, Bolivia and Chile are collected in this page. Click the highlighted links for additional travel information, for useful links and for a description of the photography equipment.

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