Day 66: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Our tour group woke up at 4:30am on the final day of our excursion in order to make it in time for sunrise over the salt flats. The electricity was not turned on yet, so we had to get ready by candlelight. By 5am, the trucks were packed and we were ready to go. It was still very dark outside, so we had an incredible view of the starlit sky.

It took a little over an hour to get to the Uyuni salt flats, a stretch of flat land that is composed of dry salt. At 10,000+ square-kilometers, it is the largest salt flat in the world. We arrived amid the white landscape just as dawn was breaking, and took in the surreal scenery that refused to be properly captured on camera.

After sunrise, we drove a little farther to "Fish Island," a beautiful, though oddly placed island of fossilized coral that was covered in 1,000-year old cacti.

After Fish Island, we continued to drive through the salt flats. We got out after another hour of driving in order to stretch out our legs and take some pictures. Because of the uniform landscape, the salt flats made for a perfect venue to create fun illusions on camera. It was often hard to get the picture just right, but Dan and I tried our best...

Once we all finished taking pictures, Juan led us in a game in the salt flats. One person would be blindfolded at a time, and would then walk about 100 meters through the salt to the parked trucks. Initially, we didn't really understand the game, but I agreed to go first. As soon as I began walking, my senses became disoriented by the total blackness and by the continual crunch of salt underfoot. I walked for what felt like awhile before the group finally yelled for me to stop. I took off my blindfold to find myself about 10 meters to the left of the trucks. Juan told me I did really well, which I only understood after watching several other people go. Our group cracked up as one person after another ended up traveling in circles or odd zig zags, far from the intended endpoint.

After everyone had a chance at reaching the trucks, we got back into the vehicles. From there, we drove into a small town where we had lunch and got to see a "train cemetery" filled with old steam locomotives.

Our tour ended shortly thereafter in the town of Uyuni. There, we said goodbye to our guide, Juan, and a few of our new friends who were traveling in different directions from us. Then, we bought bus tickets with the Australian couple, German couple, and our Italian friend. All of us had heard that there wasn't that much to do in Uyuni, so we decided to end our day in a town called Potosi instead.

We arrived in Potosi late at night, so were not able to get a sense of what the area was like. Instead, we all checked into the same hostel and then ventured off together for a late dinner.