Foto Friday: Fun on the Salt Flats
Jumping cars...
The most famous Bolivian Salt Flats (the Salar de Uyuni) are one of the most “out of this world” places on earth. It is just miles and miles of seemingly endless, perfectly flat, salt. It is one of the few places on earth where one can actually see the natural curvature of the earth’s surface from a land setting. Because of the freezing and thawing processes of the high altitude salt flats amazing hexagon shapes crack themselves into the thick layers of the salt. On the edge of salar there are pyramid shaped mounds of salt which are left to dry for later processing. Further into the skating rink-like scenery sites a hotel made nearly entirely of salt, and then, here on this lake of salt 3600 meters above sea level, there is an island filled with tall cacti dating back to births of over a hundred years ago. Just about anywhere you go on these blinding salt flats you can see people sprawled out in all sorts of funny positions hoping to take advantage of the perspective gained by the flat earth; some of the photos taken here are priceless. In all, the Salar de Uyuni will leave you unforgettable moments to coincide with the amazingly fun pictures you get. Here is just a small sample:
"Mountains of Salt"
Jumping cars...
A whole new meaning to "being stepped on"
WAR!!!
The Salt Hotel
The View from Fish Island (Inca Huasi)
900 year old Cactus on Inca Huasi
Salt Hexagons
Sun Setting on the Salt Flats
Love the pics — especially the one with the dude stomping on the people! Can’t wait to visit the Salar de Uyuni. Someday…
Great fun… it’s pretty impossible to take a bad picture here…
LOL Nice. I love the little soldiers and dinosaur. I did the same when I was there. Wish I had brought more toys though.
These photos from the Salt Flats are absolute gorgeous. That’s it, another place I have to put down on my list for future travel. : )
Love the perspectives pics and the dragon on War. Are the mountains of salt natural or man-made?
Thanks for the comments! The salt flats always make for fun pictures… just have to remember to bring props, and something to lay on… the salt can be deadly on your arms and legs!
Love the photos, especially the stamping one
I’ve always wanted to go to the salt flats for the top speed speed runs.
Nice shots! We checked out the Chott-el Jerid salt lake when we were in Tunisia. It didn’t occur to us to take some tricky perspective shots though! Bugger. It was stupendously beautiful though. In fact my twitter background uses a photo we took there. It was easily the highlight of our time in Tunisia!
Awesome photos! My favorite is the guy jumping over cars. Inwonder if this would work in the California salt flats..
Hahaha Thanks Brittany, The guy jumping the cars is me… being an ex-athlete helps with that kind of pic for sure. And I’m not sure if they’d work in Cali, you need a completely flat spot with as little backdrop as possible. It’s definitely worth a shot though!
Great pics, especially the ‘step on’ photo and the 900 year old cactus, I didn’t know they could get that old.
One of my most favorite places in the world!!!!!!!!! I seriously could not believe my experience there, it was so freaking amazing. It’s such a shame that I had broken my ankle 2 days before in Lima and couldn’t really have fun on the flats. Nonetheless, I had the time of my life!
I was there last month, it was just incredible. Very cold though due to the altitude. If you get the chance you must go!!
What a sparkling idea!
Fun to read this article.
The salt hotel photo is crazy. My mouth is getting dry just looking at this! I don’t know why, but the Salton Sea in California comes to mind!
I love these salt flats, i visited them in 2004 and was amazed at the islands. Great photos.
These photos are awesome!! I’m dying to see the salt flats and I am absolutely kicking myself that I never got a chance to make it to them when I was in S.Am. I ran out of time!
BAh!
Guess there’s always next time!
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I found this through StumbleUpon, I know I’m a year late, but I love it! The toy soldiers with the dragon was an especially nice touch.
Just saw this, shared by theplanetd on twitter. What an amazing experience and really creative and cool photos!
Thanks guys, I’m glad stumbleupon is guiding you to my site
. I’ve been to the salt flats 7 or 8 times, but I was always working and never really got to take shots of my own, other than the few here. I’d love to go back and rent a jeep for the day and just shoot photos all day long.
Thanks, it’s such a great place!