Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Salar de Uyuni
The
SALAR DE UYUNI
is not a lake in the conventional sense: though below the surface it
is largely saturated by water, its uppermost layer consists of a thick, hard
crust of salt
, easily
capable of supporting the weight of a car. Driving across this perfectly flat white expanse,
with unbroken chains of snowcapped mountains lining the far horizon, it's easy to believe
you're on another planet, so harsh and
inhospitable
is the terrain. When dry, the dazzling salt
surface shines with such intense whiteness that it appears to be ice or snow, while by night
the entire landscape is illuminated by the eerie white glow of moonlight reflected in the salt.
When it's covered in water after rain (Dec to April), the Salar is turned into an enormous
mirror that reflects the surrounding mountain peaks and the sky so perfectly that at times the
horizon disappears and the mountains appear like islands floating in the sky.
No less strange are the tenacious
ecosystems
that survive around its arid and salty margins,
including colonies of cacti and other hardy plants, rabbit-like viscachas and flamingos that
nest here during the rainy season. Equally hardy are the isolated communities of Aymara and
Quechua campesinos eking out a marginal existence here.
Brief history
The Salar de Uyuni occupies what was once the deepest part of an enormous lake, known as
Lago Tauca
, which covered the southern Altiplano until 12,000 years ago. Reaching depths
of up to 70m, Lago Tauca existed for a thousand years and covered the area now occupied by
Lago Poopó, the Salar de Coipasa and the Salar de Uyuni - and was itself the successor to an
earlier lake, Lago Minchín. The Salar was formed when the last waters of Lago Tauca evap-
orated, leaving behind salt that had been leached into the lake from the surrounding moun-
tains, where it had been deposited millions of years ago before the Andes were formed, when
what is now Bolivia was beneath the ocean.
According to studies, the
salt
extends to depths of up to 120m, packed in layers sandwiched
between sedimentary deposits. In the dry season, the surface of the Salar, up to a depth of
10-20cm, becomes extremely hard and dry.Beneath this crust, though, the salt remains satur-
atedwithwater.Asthetoplayerdries,itcontracts,formingcrackswhichdrawtheunderlying
salt water up by capillary action, thereby forming the strange polygonal lines of raised salt
that cover the Salar in the dry season. As well as salt, the Salar is also home to the world's
largest deposit of
lithium
(a mineral used in mobile phones, laptops, iPods, electric cars and
many other devices). The Bolivian government has started extraction projects - and interna-
tional mining conglomerates would dearly like to do so too - but there are fears that mining
could have disastrous consequences for the fragile ecosystems surrounding the Salar.
Legends of the Salar
For the campesinos living on the shores of the lake, explanations of the Salar's origin are
rather different. Legend has it the mountain goddess
Yana Pollera
- the nearest peak to Uy-
