Breathless @ Salar de Uyuni

The endless white canvas of Salar de Uyuini invited play and even though it was a cliche, all the visitors to the salt flats engage in crafting their own visual illusions, we had fun. We held each other in the air, walked on our family comb, I stabbed the kiddos with a fork and Kuba attempted to eat us:) You can tell we were hungry that day as our lunch came at 4 pm, a torture for our skinny selves.

But then we got tired of staging it all and surrendered to just jumping around and running off towards the horizon as stumping the salty ground with our feet made us feel as if we owned a bit of its magic.

The salt flats were crazy special. Unusual. Stunning. They gave us huge grins and enough energy to move a mountain even on empty stomachs.

If you ever feel down about the state of the Earth or the monotony of life or frustrated with god knows what, just know that out there exists a place of unimaginable beauty with not a spec of imperfection. The pure white goodness of Salar de Uyuni is enough to melt away your little self and all its daily struggles. Here the sky and the land are married together in a union so breathtaking that just the piercing light, the crystal reflections and the pleasure of being a witness to the incredible miracle of life remains. Everything else gets erased in the bliss of the moment.

Amazing, right?

Imagine yourself standing in the salty water and drinking the quietness of the moment. I couldn’t perceive a more complete creation, yet, for the three days we spent in this corner of Bolivia we kept being surprised and over and over we kept on saying to each other~ This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen!!!

I get goosebumps all over even writing about our time in the Salar. We saw colorful lakes reflecting majestic peaks covered with snow. Pink flamingos with skinny legs and graceful necks whose wings were bright orange and framed with black feathers. Mud pits bubbling with life in random concoction of brownness and blackness and interrupted with shoots of hot air reaching for the sky. Green pastures surrounded by red rocks till the eye can see. Scary emptiness of desert. Snow. Endless sand. Clumps of sharp grasses in golden greens. Sky decorated with bright stars. Freezing winds, blinding sunshine and lagoons of all kinds – salty, sweet, black, green, pink, red, hot and cold, all hosting those same resilient pink flamingos. Cute llamas grazing green pastures, all of whom were adorned with colorful yarn attached to their ears. Hot springs in which one could jump in and observe all the awesomeness around, with a wool hat on of course, because this part of Bolivia is higher than 4.000 m and is freezing cold!

The photos below are not ours. Our fun companions on this journey Ricardo, Marilin and Luis were kind to share theirs as our camera finally gave in to our continuous attempts to destroy it. I can make a long list of all the mishaps in its 8 year old life and in summary I can only say that the poor thing held up bravely to our abuses. RIP sweet Canon. We are going to miss your fuzzy lenses, lack of a flash, scratched screen, lack of focus and what not:)

I have been breathless typing this post as we are heading to the jungle and I know we will have no internet for days on end and I had no patience to share this beauty with you.

Blessings,

~ M