77percent™

I´ve just returned from the salt flats (Salar) de Uyuni. As follows are my raw, unedited writings from the two nights we spent in this rather awe-inspiring abyss. I´ve noticed that the words have a tendancy towards a rather comically exagerated explorer-writer styling, mostly just for my own amusement I´m sure, I hope it´s still tolerable.

SALAR DE UYUNI
… into the abyss

this absolutely amazing, from-your-dreams expanse of pure whiteness seems to go on forever.
much like an incredible ocean, albeit one that you can walk on, it is devoid of any colour besides your own reflection, a few so-called islands, which tend to be overrun by a variety of giant cactae, are scattered across this chasm.

this is a very CRAZY PLACE … one who were to set up camp in the middle of it might expect to come frighteningly close to experiencing the truest definition of solitude; how to go about finding the middle is still a mystery, quite probably for the better.

for the FIRST NIGHT, staying on a small volcanic ´island,´ we experience the year´s first rain combined with harsh, loud hail (on the first day of december no less); in the morning, however, there is little proof as the ground has already been dried again to a starch by the surrounding 13 metres depth of salt around our sizeable island. My fellow adventurers and I awaken early in the morning in order to catch dusk. We were convinced that this sunrise would be worth the crude awakening-by-buzzing-alarm by the brilliant and serene twilight of the evening before, during which we nearly depleted my emergency satchel full of avocados, mangoes and pastries; we were not underwhelmed by any means, we also successfully consumed all remaining foodstuff reserves that I had quite generously provisioned.

THE ISLAND we visit is infested by stunningly enormous cactae as well as an excessively trendy paseño restobar that is allegedly popular with the NGO and expat crowds (foreigners) of La Paz. I am delighted to discover that our Crew has come equipped with a stove and their own, plentiful and impressively diverse, food supply: we PICNIC.

on the way out of the expanse, we visit a TRAIN GRAVEYARD filled with the decaying remains of English-made engine cars (several dozen). Almost every one is coated in countless ANARCHY symbols frehsly spraypainted on the the completely rusted metal that was once shimmering in high altitude sun, carrying the fruits of the previous iteration of globalization, Imperial colonialism. (please don´t mistakenly interpret this observation as IMPIRICAL reminiscing; although there obviously are two sides to the collapse of our COLONIAL past, I like to think the more worthwhile one has won out, even if it comes with its own arguably inherent costs).

when visiting the Salar de Uyuni,
be sure to GRASP YOUR SANITY very firmly.

(up NEXT: onto the mines of Potosi, which bankrolled the Spanish armada)