Center piece of my Bolivian altiplano dream was the famous Salar de Uyuni. Not that I have never seen a salt flat. There are plenty of wonderful samples scattered around the American Southwest, but Salar de Uyuni is the mother of all salt flats. Besides, I wanted to see reflections going all the way to the horizon, hence the decision to do this trip during the rainy season.
Once we finally made it to the Salar de Uyuni and we were able to have a first glimpse of it from the top of a slope I was shocked. It is HUGE and it was ALL under water. My desire to drive to Isla del Pescado or Incahuasi was under serious threat. The initial plan was to spend a night at one of this two islands. The drive to these islands is about 20 miles.
After some exploration along the shore, seeing the depth of the water and some serious deliberations about the risks of having the salt water corroding through the electrical parts of the car and/or bogging in the middle of the salt flat my wife and I decided to take the risk. Off we went to Isla del Pescado. Two hours later, driving through the salt water with an average depth of 5 inches, we set foot on the island.
We had the island just for ourselves and were surrounded by water as far as we could see! Certainly a unique experience!
The drive to the Isla and back to the mainland at Tahua is the single most bizarre experience in our live. Despite having some exasperating electrical problems with the car later on we do not regret for a single moment this adventure. Would I recommend other people to follow the example? NO!
So, you might want ask yourself what is so different on this image to all other photographs taken of this place. What you usually see from here is the blistering salt flat in the background. Not here! The flooded flat gives reflections up to the horizon. Can you see the limits of sky and earth?
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70 mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm
1/200s at f/9.0
RAW ISO 100
03/23/2018
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Image is under Copyright by Peter Boehringer.
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