The Biggest Mirror in The World | A Salt Dessert in Bolivia, South America | Salar de Uyuni

in #photography7 years ago (edited)

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welcome @springfield

Bolivia is one of countries in South America that has a small village called Uyuni. Have you heard about this village? It ain't easy to get to Uyuni from other big cities. It took me 10 hours by night bus to get there from La Paz which is the capital city in Bolivia. Despite its poor look and small size, you can find a lot of Inn or hostels there because Uyuni is the nearest village to one of MUST VISIT places in South America, which is well known as Uyuni Salt Flats.

After getting a room and unpacking, I book Uyuni Salt Flat Tour at one of tour office. You can easily find any tour office since they are all close in a certain street. Most of Korean and Japanese travelers prefer Brisa tour, Hodaka tour or Oasis tour because the tour guides are professional and enthusiastic photographers :-)

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Uyuni Train Cemetery

Steam trains that transported mineral back in 1820's are abandoned and become rusty at the access of Uuyuni Salt Flats like gate keepers. The ground seems just like other dessert to me so far. But, it changes...

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White flats under the white clouds. You see that white stuff everywhere? Yes, it is Salt. Slat everywhere! I think myself it looks like snow but when I get off the jeep and step on the ground, I feel something crunch under the feet and hear rustling sound.

Once upon a time Uyuni Salt Flats was the ocean by a massive geological event and experienced Ice age. When the glaciers melted during the thawing about 20,000 years ago, a huge lake appeared here but all the water evaporated for the dry weather. As a result, only tons of salt have remained. They say that the amount of the salt can used by Bolivian for next thousands years.

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When you have tour, you will ride Jeep with 5,6 other people with a tour guide. Salt flats are pretty far away from the village and has no signs, no road way. If you don't want to get lost in the middle of this white wilderness, you better tour with tour guide who is experts of this dessert.

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Aaaahh! I'm not that delicious!!

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Let us out!! We are stuck!!

Look at the salt in the bottom! Since there is nothing, nothing at all on this flats but white salt, you loose all sense of perspective and it causes an** optical illusion**! Now we follow direction of our tour guide and pose. He is not only an expert of the flats but also a professional photographer! He takes pictures with everyone's camera.

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Now we finally arrived! The Salt dessert with the rain puddle, the real Salt Lake :D
During its rainy season (December~March), rain makes this shallow lake here and there. Don't worry if you can't make it on its rainy season, you also can meet this rain puddle even during dry season because the tour guides know there to go.

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Pictures at sunset.

If you do day tour with the sunset tour all together, you can enjoy the salt flats from about 11 AM to 9 PM with the price around $20 (less than 3.00 SBD!). My tour guide Johnny takes plenty of my photos even without my asking. Yes, that's what Johnny does everyday :D Now I see my steemit profile picture here!

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There were two Japanese guys in my tour team, and it was impressive that they said to each other after taking few photos, Let's stop taking pictures. We came here to see this view through our eyes not only through the lens. Although, everyone including me was still obsessed to take pictures and so busy with their cameras.

But, you know

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Where else can I take this photo shoot!
Do you notice what we try to say posing this?

The Biggest Mirror in The World

UYUNI

You can see the reflection on the ground, UYUNI

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After sunset, the night comes all of sudden. It is impossible to see anything without flashlight. And it is possible to see The Milky way. Countless stars cover the black sky. Since I am from a city, I couldn't see this amount of stars at night. I can't take my eyes on the sky. It is a shame that I can't show you how it really was through my picture since I am not good at taking photos and I didn't even have a tripod.

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Now it's Sunrising. (So soon? we all went back to the village and I came with another tour; Sunrise tour) Again, sorry for my humble picture. The white things on the sky are not dust! they are stars.

Even though it is Summer(Dec~Feb), it is freezing since the temperature drops so fast without the Sun and I've been here from 4 AM. If you will have this Sunrise tour, you MUST bring long sleeves jacket, long pants and wear sweat socks. Most of people wait for the sunrise in the Jeep, but I try to take pictures outside shaking my cold hands. That makes my photos even worse! lol

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If it is windy, the puddle make waves and don't reflect the sky. You can compare the picture above and the one below. It was windy for an hour and now it stopped.

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I've been taking photos of the view alone for few hours and a Korean guy next to me who covered himself with a blanket and has stared the salt flat without doing anything else offers me some photo shoots of mine with my camera. You are not bringing your camera?. I asked. I already took plenty. I've been staying in Uyuni village for three weeks and come to see this view almost every day when the weather is fine. I love it here.

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Finally, the sun appeared. I really feel that I am standing on a huge Mirror.

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Since I have no company with me, the tour guides (even from another tour teams) volunteer to take my pictures. They order me to climb a Jeep and pose and after I had to jump more than 10 times in the puddle to get a good result and satisfy them! lol

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Anyone can be a model,
Anyone can be a photographer here in Uyuni Salt Flats.
This unbelievable landscape makes everything beautiful.

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This is a real image that I've hidden so far with the sunlight. Covered with whatever to protect myself from the cold and look at the stupid boots! I've been wearing them a whole day. Actually the rain boots are essential and the tour guides lend you.


How was Uyuni Salt Flat? If you plan to travel South America, you should check out this place :-) In fact, some people come to South America only to visit Uyuni. As you noticed, I am not a native speaker of English, but I tried my best to introduce this place to you guys. I hope you enjoyed :D

And Happy New Year!

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If you enjoyed my post,
please vote or resteem it
so that as many as possible can see this beauty :-)

Thank you @springfield

Sort:  

these photos make me smile :)

Thanks, @jogabonito. Your reply is so sweet and makes me smile :-)

오왕 우유니사막! 사진 진짜 너무 멋지네요!! 가고싶다아아~~ ㅠ

쪼야님 컴온!!! 나 기다리고 있어요? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

사진에서 만 보던 곳을 가셨군요 ^^ 우 유니 ^^
heart pup 1.gif

유니님 :D 우유니 저도 사진만 보다가 직접 가서 사진을 찍게 될 줄은 몰랐어요! 앞으로도 열심히 살다보면 이런 특별한 경험을 계속 할 수 있겠지요?

Ad Bolivia somewhere near the top of my never-ending list of places to visit! This is just beutiful, thank you for the photos

@kwjeagle, hahaha yeah, it is somewhere in Bolivia. Hope you will get there and see all this beauty. Thanks for your sweet comment!

Thanks for sharing ~^^

@leemikyung :-) Thanks for visiting and the comment. Hope you have another great day.

anyone can be a model!!!!!wow!!!아침에 눈도 제대로 못뜨고있었는디 이거보고 눈떳어요~!와..세상 넓고 난우물안 개구리네요 멋져요~~좋은여행인게 느껴지네요 글 사진 잘봤습니다~

@happy4u 님 :D 아침에 눈도 제대로 못뜨고 있었는디 ㅋㅋ 옆에서 해피님 목소리가 들리는 것만 같아서 웃었어요. 세상은 정말 넓고 모르는 것들 투성이네요. 제가 경험한 것만이라도 이 곳에 이야기 들려드릴 수 있어서 기쁩니다. 오늘도 좋은 하루 되세요! 해피님 :-)

사진 하나하나가 다 예쁘네요ㅠ
꼭 가보고 싶은 우유니 사막..!
잘 읽었습니다^^

@zorba 님 :D 저는 조르바님 포스팅보며 날마나 허벅지를 꼬집(?)는 걸요. 제게 일본은 언제나, 방금 다녀왔어도 또 가고싶은 그런 곳이예요 ㅜㅜ

허머 세상에 영어도 잘하시네~

케콘님ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 영어 잘하는 사람들은 무슨 말인지 못알아들을텐데 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 제가 잘해보였다면 케콘님도 저랑 비슷한 수준인 것 같은ㅋㅋㅋ 지난 번 한글로 쓴 거 번역한 건 데도 시간 무지 걸렸어요 :D

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ실은저두 영어 혼자서 독학하고 나름 잘한다고 착각하는 우물안개구리입죠 ㅋㅋㅋ

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