Choose another map, showing:

• South America (central)
• South America
• The World

Other entries in Uyuni

Nature's Favourite Creations

Nature's Favourite Creations

Essentially a passing-through town on the way to Bolivia's wild south west, we arranged a four wheeled drive tour from Uyuni on the morning we arrived. When Bolivians say the word Uyuni, they mouth it tenderly and linger on the middle as though it were a note. The music in the name of the town reflected the music which we were to later find at nearly every natural turn. The south west of Bolivia is as wild and tuneful as wind passing over mountains, and intensely more surreal.

Our companions on the three day trip were a happy group, and made the experience all the more fun, as there was plenty of driving to be done. Hello Naira, Faviola, Linda and Sean! Through these beautiful people, we learnt exactly how to dance to Bolivian pop songs (raise one hand in the air and just keep saluting to the beat!) and through copious example, how to sing along. Lollies were circulated every half hour, and we barely noticed the hours pass.

The images were saturated and isolated, and began most spectacularly with the great salt lakes. They spread as far and formlessly as the sky itself. Our vehicle plummeted soundlessly (save for the Bolivian pop music!) through the powdery white crystalline, stark against the bold formless blue. Reflections cast by the salt made bewildering images before the eyes, and the mountains appeared to be floating in pieces above the horizon.

Animals know their significance in places such as these, and although there are few of them, show a wild regal indifference to be in nature's favourite site of creation. Atop Fish Island's cactus-glittered crags, we sat beside an eagle who had made the island his home. He cared little for people nearing him, but when forced to fly by those who wished to see a hawk in motion, glided lazy, short turns above the salt and then returned to his former stature, nonplused and dignified above the lunaresque landscape. Flamingos trod neatly through blood-coloured knee-high waters and gossiped in untouchable clusters. Llamas stood tall, still and shag-heavy against sharp volcanic snow-streaked peaks, as if knowing that they posed for photographs, but with the peverse satisfaction of being aware that they stood too far away.

Other images abounded. We passed the red waters of Lake Colarado, the green waters of Laguna Verde, the white waters of Laguna Branco. We saw houses made of salt, mud that boiled, and Salvador Dali stones which lay grandly deformed and isolated against miles of formless dunes. We bathed in hot springs which were directly beside water so iced that a person could walk upon it.

On our first night we stayed in a town which, randomly, had decided to have a party on a Tuesday. We drank and danced with the locals; they beat drums and played horns all afternoon and evening without any particular tune or rhythm, and people kicked dust, tripped over, kissed, hugged and swung each other in circles until dawn. I took a young boy and danced with him; his hands were as sharp as sandpaper and his face as smiley as the sun. B took a withered old crone by the top hat to dance; he kneeled before her in a dance move and she placed one stockinged foot on his chest and kicked him groundwards with gusto! Her dried face was creased with smiles of reinvigorated sexual youthfulness while B got up, dancing and dusty, and the woman's old toothless husband clapped on.

At night we ate llama and drank Bolivian wine. That night, B and Sean also decided to creep out and risk lung-icing to watch the pure night sky. When they did, the horizon was altered and magnificent. Familiar constellations hovered lower, and stars that usually span high in the night-sky were even obscured by the horizon. Yet for all those bright specks that slipped silently five-thousand metres below our sights, there were faithfully multitudes more, milky thick and pulsating above our wondering heads.

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Nature's Favourite Creations":