Salar de Uyuni, Boliva

Ok so, here is a bit about the coolest thing i´ve ever seen. The Salt Flats of Uyuni. The worlds largest salt flat, that literally seems to go on forever. We awoke at 4:30 in the morning, yippe, to be on the road by 5 am to see the sunrise over the salt flats. Our group had spent the night in a Salt hotel on the edge of the salt flats. Literally the whole building constructed with salt. Bricks of salt make up the walls, big tables were the base of our salt beds, the floor was covered with loose salt, much like walking on sand, and the chairs and tables all constructed of salt bricks. So, wake up early and hit the road. We entered the salt flats in a wet area, about 2 feet of salty salty water over the salt flats. And drove until the sun started coming up at about 6 am. A beautiful sunrise, but as it was freezing cold (altitude people) i was not inspired to get out of the car like the others and take a million pictures. I did get one nice one, see previous post. Then we continued driving, on, and on, and on, and on. Salt in every direction. I was very thirsty, i must say. Also wish i had some tequila and limes with me. Oh well. Anyways. We hit a dry spot and kept on driving, hit the Isla del Pez, ate some breakfast at about 9, then kept on driving. Entered a wet area again, our driver hand covered our car in plants, i thought for camoflauge, but later realized it was to better protect his car from all the salty water that would quickly errode the metal. No wildlife anywhere to be seen, which is understandable considering there is no water, or plants for that matter.
Then crazy time began. At about 11 oclock, we finally got the driver to stop the car so we could take some pics. they had told us to wear flip flops because the salt would ruin our shoes, but being too lazy to look for them, i opted to just jump into the foot of salty water barefoot, thinking the salt would be like sand.... big mistake. think volcanic rock disguised as salt. Ouch. Run back to car, put flip flops on. ok. photo time. The strange composition of the salt flats inspired us to do some strange things. ie. kartwheels, very painful on the hands. anyways, we had a super fun time playing on the salt flats. Also saw the area where workers harvest the salt for sales, final pic in this post. So how did all this salt end up in the middle of a country so high above sealevel? Sesimic activity. As is with much of south america, back in the day, way back, a lot of these areas used to be under water until crazy angry sesmic activity thrust it up out of the sea, leaving for example, a huge salty lake surrounded buy mounatins. pretty cool. glad there isnt so much seismic activity now though... All in all, a crazy and amazing experience.