Annie Shoberg: Bolivia's Salt Flats

Bolivia is known for a few things, and the 3 day salt flat tour out of Uyuni is one of them. Keeping with the fascination of all things dead, the tour begins with a stop at a Train Cemetary.

There are a couple of salt museums along the way.

And, of course, there are some markets. On nearly every stop in Bolivia, one can find alpaca scarves, hats, mittens, leg warmers, and socks. There are also a variety of purses and handbags, and various llama trinkets and sovineeers.

At each stop, we were surrounded by no less than 20 other Land Rovers filled with other tourists doing exactly the same tour.

Behind the market, near the banos, we found a salt brick assembly area.

After that, we entered the actual salt flats. The salt flat is a 10,500 km salt lake that is covered by a thick layer of salt, like frozen ice, that allows driving across. Near the entrance, we could see that salt was being mined off of the lake.

From there, we drove to a salt hotel for lunch (who's up for llama with a side of quinoa?). We liked the flags, but weren't a big fan of the hotel itself. The hotel was built illegally on the lake, so there's no proper sanitation. They pump their refuse under the salt, into the lake water. Yuck. We skipped the bano on this stop.

Later, we found a nice, open space to take photos. Because of the sprawling white salt, depth perception and proportion gets distorted. This made for some fun pictures. Our driver, France, was full of great ideas and props, and didn't mind taking what felt like hundreds of photos. We made sure to tip him well.

Our next stop was pescado island. It's a national park, so it cost an extra 30 Bolivianos ($4.50 per person). The place was covered in cacti and caves. When we got tired of hiking with the tourists, we blazed our own trail along the backside of the island. It was super tranquil.