Nomad Dummy

Visiting the Uyuni Salt Flats during rainy season feels a bit like touching the sky.

My heart beating, my soul breathing

I found my life when I laid it down

Upward falling, spirit soaring

I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground

Touch the Sky, Hillsong United

My heart beating, my soul breathing… better than my lungs. ‘Cause the altitude, you know!

Upward falling, spirit soaring – the water covering the salt surface creates an amazing mirror effect. Up and down becomes relative and sky and earth contiguous.

I’ll be leaving Bolivia in 3 weeks and I got a bit emotional about it today. I guess that explains why this post is so poetic. But here are a few raw facts about Uyuni (’cause I’m Eastern European after all… can’t get too emotional!)

Raw, unemotional, apathetic, coldhearted facts

1. Location: south-western Bolivia, Potosi department
2. Altitude: 3,656m / 11,995ft – which makes it the highest salt flat in the world
3. Area: 10,582 sq km / 4,086 sq mi – the largest in the world
4. Natural resources: salt (duh!) and lithium (more than 50% of the world’s reserves).
5. The city of Uyuni is the gateway to the salt flats and tours usually include a visit to the train cemetery just outside the city.
6. We had lunch in a restaurant made of salt.

And yes, “I touched the sky when my knees hit the ground”.

• Goodbye Choo-Choo, Introducing Balù
• Sustainable Tourism: Going Beyond the Triple Bottom Line
• Tourism Must Change!
• Prisoner of Hope
• Chieri, Italy – Lesser Known Places