Our last day was amazing as the rest. I feel like I am repeating myself about how shocked I get with the nature views. Although I have amazing pictures To prove what my eyes saw they can still not truly do it justice. How Can a picture portray in a small image the gorgeous and massive scenery surrounding you. These salt flats are no exception!
We spent the night in an amazing hotel built out of salt. It was very fancy, yet still freezing cold, for a Hoeflein made out of salt. I guess when you are in the middle of no where things such as heat and hot water aren't possible.
Since we arrived to the flats in the evening we did not have the full effect of what we were truly on.
We started the morning with a trip to a mans house who collected old artifacts from the past lives of the people in the regions.
Next, he had a garden of stoned that people found that looked like objects. Some really did a good job of portraying them! Of course there was another mummy here! I was most impressed with the fact that all of the stone were standing based solely on balance and nothing else!
The next hours were spent driving through the flats. Depending on the area of the flat, different salt crystals were formed. For those of you who know me well it seems like this should be w dream come true. I'm not going to lie, I licked the wall at the salt hotel because I had to see for myself! But really this is never ending forever life supply of salt! Heaven!
Some areas were chunky.
These areas dried in awesome patterns.
The landscape sprawled out as far as the eye could see. The bright sun beating down on the white made it hard to look at anything without strong sunglasses.
They had so many cactuses! I've never seen a wild cactus let alone these massive ones.
They even had cute signs saying not to destroy them!
One of the coolest things about the flats are the amazing pictures and illusions you can make with them!
Our guides are so fabulous coming up with poses, taking pictures from the car, and having a laugh with us. I think they have become more of our friends than just guides.
In the middle of the flats there is the original hotel made out of salt. Because of the pollution it is no longer operation. We stopped to check it out and take some pictures! This is another amazing hotel made entirely from the salt flats. Ours was prettier!
We stopped at one of the islands. Scaling to the top I was greeting with a ridiculous view of salt. Salt salt salt! Everywhere! Up here was also the spot where they sacrifice a llama on the new year. Ruth explained the process and that the new year was in two days! The president would be traveling to the island to watch the ritual.
Our finals stop was at the edge of the flat to see how they process the salt. It's a pretty intense process. A guy has to shovel the salt into piles to dry. They make these cool pyramids.
Next, they shovel it into trucks.
Then they roast, and clean, roast, and clean the salt until it is ready. The crazy part is is that they have an unlimited amount of salt and it is not exported out of the country. It is so cheap you could buy lifetime supply for less than 10 dollars if you wanted! I love it!!!
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