30th April - On the Salar de Uyuni and Fish Island
Driving from the train cemetery it did not take long to get on to the salt flat. A remarkable place. Uyuni Salt Flat is the largest in the world at 4,086 square miles and the salt crust in places is several metres thick, lying over liquid brine. It is almost perfectly flat with the exception of a few islands such as Isla de Incahuasi, also known as Isla de Pescado or Fish Island which are the remains of ancient volcanos that protruded above the surface of a prehistoric inland sea - Lake Minchin which dried up to produce the salt. The sky was perfectly blue and completely cloudless and we could see views of very distant mountains. We drove on to the flat by the production area where the salt had been cut out and stacked up. At the top of this picture you can see the trucks loading up salt. Pauli drove us over to Fish Island (named for its shape) and set us out a wonderful lunch. There were six of us tourists all together with an Australian, a Canadian and a guy f...