Smell something salty?

Wednesday July 7th - Friday July 9th
The seven of us (Sophia, Ville, Jos, Willem, Veronique, Camille, and myself) set off for a three day surreal experience. We would drive across the salar - which contained salt plains, hot springs, volcanoes, geysers, lagoons, flamingoes, llamas, and buildings/towns made completely of salt. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat. The park sits at 12,000-15,000 feet altitude and spans over 19,600 square miles. It used to be a prehistoric salt lake and was created when the Andes were being formed.
The first day we drove to a railroad cemetery - a bunch of old (steam/coal engine) trains that were no longer being used. It was pretty cool. Next we headed to a salt processing center. This is where Bolivians process all the salt that they gather from the salt flats to make it edible and ship it out all over the world. Now I was thirsty to see the salt flats and to see just how much salt there actually was. We then drove to the heart of the salt flats and I was AMAZED! The earth for as far as you could see in every direction was covered in salt; in addition, the layer of salt was 15-20feet deep. The ground was cracked like the Mohave desert and was sharp to the touch if you rubbed your hand across it. 
We then drove to the first ever hotel made completely of salt. The building itself and everything inside of it was made of salt (tables, chairs, beds, etc.). It smelt like salt and even tasted like it when you stepped inside the hotel. It was bazare! We ate lunch outside the hotel and then worked off our meal by riding bikes around the flats. 
After the bike ride, we drove to an "island" called isla del pescado (kinda funny since there were no dig or water to be found near or on the island). The island was hilly and covered in huge cactii that stood about 30 feet tall and was surounded by a sea of salt. After a hike on the island, we set off for our sleeping destination - a hotel made of salt. For the remainder of the next few days and saw lots of different topogrphical features. The land changed rapidly from white salty ground to desert to giant rock structures shaped by wind erosion to rivers to giant valleys to volcanoes and lakes/lagoons to boiling geysers and finally the refreshing hot springs. 
One lagoon that we visited called Laguna Colorada was brick-red in color and was rimmed with white minerals. It was surrounded by colorful snow-topped inactive volcanoes.     
The Sol de Mañana geyser basin sat at 4950 meters high and contained boiling mud pots, sulfurous fumaroles, and crackling earth. It was stinky but fascinating.
The Termas de Polques hot springs were a very comfortable temp of 90 degrees. We jumped in the hot springs at about 9am and the air temp at that time was about 0 degrees. I didn't want to get out of the hot springs once I was in...you could imagine my dilemna. 
The animals that lived on this harsh landscape were a few different species of flamingoes, llamas, vicuñas, foxes, donkeys, and various farm animals. It was surprising to see animals, but I couldn't even believe that people lived out here. At night temps were around -5 degrees  (and during the day the high was probably around 40 degrees farenheight. It was ridiculously freezing. And these folks that live out here don't have heaters, fire places or hot showers. Most of them don't even have easy access to drinking water. It's a harsh but beautiful world out here. The seven of us had the best time. We nick-named our group the "extreme fun" group. All of us got along swimmingly and we thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We joked around, played numerous games of truth or dare, and shared personal stories. It's amazing how well you can get to know someone when traveling with them for two weeks. I felt very close to all my compadres and was sad to part ways from them all. Everyone but me headed south to Chile. I had to start a long and exhausting 24 hour voyage north back to Peru, more specifically to Cuzco and to hike Macchu Picchu.