Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest (4,085 square miles) and highest salt desert (3,656 meters above the mean sea level).
It is believed that about some 30,000 – 42,000 years ago, the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, Lake Minchin. When it dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Salar de Uyuni.
Today, Salar de Uyuni is a popular tourist attraction where you can even find a hotel made of salt. Driving across the perfectly flat white expanse of the Salar, with the unbroken chains of snow-capped mountains lining the far horizon, it’s easy to believe you’re on another planet. When dry, the dazzling salt surface shines with such intense whiteness that you’ll find yourself reaching down to check that it’s not ice or snow, whilst by night the entire landscape is illuminated by the eerie white glow of moonlight reflected in the salt. When it’s covered in water after rain, the Salar is turned into an enormous mirror that reflects the surrounding mountain peaks and the sky so perfectly that at times the horizon disappears and the mountains appear like islands floating in the sky.
No less strange are the tenacious ecosystems that survive around the arid and salty margins of the Salar, including colonies of cacti and other hardy plants, the rabbit-like viscachas that live on the islands in the centre of the lake (in particular Isla de Pescadores), and the flamingos that feed and nest here during the rainy season. Equally hardy are the isolated communities of Aymara and Quechua campesinos who eke out a marginal existence on the shores of the Salar, cultivating quinua in the brackish soils and scraping up salt for sale or exchange.
Blindingly white and dizzyingly high, this vast salt flat near the crest of the Andes is one of Bolivia’s most extraordinary attractions, and one of the most fascinating experiences in South America.
Get yourself there soon as the multinationals have got their eyes on the huge lithium reserves beneath the salt. There are plans to build a large-scale lithium plant at the famed tourist attraction.