The Spectacular Salar de Uyuni: World's Largest Salt Flat

Wanna go to a place on Earth that has a super-flat surface with apparently no horizon? Where the clouds descend to your feet, and it feels that the night sky is gazing at you and not the other way round? A desert land in Bolivia offers you all of this!
Rujuta Patil
Last Updated: Dec 13, 2018
Sorrowful Tunupa cried, and her tears are believed to have formed the salt flat. Locals thus revere Tunupa as their deity and want the place to be called 'Salar de Tunupa'.
The difference between altitudes throughout this crust is less than a meter, which explains the super-flat nature of the Salar. Now you know why it can be a photographers' paradise to obtain a tweaked perspective.
Why Do Tourists Flock To This Bolivian Desert?
Simply for its breathtaking views. Salar de Uyuni becomes a huge natural mirror in the wet season, between March and April. When it rains, one can see serene reflections of the sky and clouds in water; like the sky and earth have merged into each other.
Also, unique shots that highlight the ultimate flatness of the terrain can be clicked, not to mention the mesmerizing sunsets that one can witness at this magical landscape.
This lake dried up leaving behind two smaller lakes, (Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake), and two salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni (the larger one).
Culpeo, or the Andean fox, Andean goose, Andean hillstar, and the rabbit-like Andean viscachas are found here too. Besides, Incahuasi island, a remarkable hilly outcrop in the middle of Salar, grows giant cacti.
Interestingly, the hotels in this area are built using salt blocks; so don't be surprised to find your hotel pillars, doors, or windows to be salty (you can lick'em up a little to check!)
The antique train cemetery housing old British-built trains from the 1880s, which used to transport minerals to the Pacific Ocean ports; and Laguna Verde, a lake that boasts of turquoise blue waters because of arsenic and other minerals present in it.