Salty

Could this be the most entertaining day of our trip? Quite possibly!

A sensational morning was spent on the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) in Bolivia.

Well before dawn, we woke and left our salt-encrusted hotel (yes, it was made of large Lego bricks of salt). After an hour, we rolled out onto the flats, and at first, you could hear the spray of water hitting the undercarriage. Then, after some crawling, it became more like a desert highway, dry as a bone. The convoy of Land Cruisers came to a halt for a brief photo stop. Our subject, the Milky Way, was incredibly clear and the lack of light pollution around these parts was fantastic. Only ever seen it like this in outback Australia.

The four or so cruisers split off, heading their own way. A 360-degree highway allowed you to choose your adventure and keep well away from others. Ramiro zoomed along at some speed (it was hard to tell as his speedo never worked), sometimes with his light on and often turned off. Quite the experience!

With our morning campsite in view, we pulled up and took our first steps on the crusty planet. A chilly and lifeless world with nothing around, only specks of land off in the distance. "See that mountain over there? Approximately 200 km away. And how about those lights? Yep, they're 150 km away," Ramiro would announce. None of us would believe him until we brought up Google Maps and did our fact-checking.

The heat of the rising sun turned everything a warm shade of gold, including our insides. Soon, our parkas and jackets would be stripped off.

After a picnic, the real photographer came out to play, and I took a backseat. Ramiro is an expert in comical perspective photographs and videos. He made us act and look like clowns, using props to create visual illusions you see within this post. We all went along with it as he was a master. One particular photograph made us all stand in a line, one behind the other. He contorted our arms, all slightly more than the next. What on earth was he getting us to do? The result spoke for itself, and many OMGs, WOWs, and cheers were spoken.

The most hilarious moment was watching my lovely wife getting stomped on by her mother. Hahaha! The force with which the boot came crashing down was next level. Picture a giant "Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood!" What did you do to deserve that!? The laughter from the rest of us would have been heard from the mountain off in the distance.

To Ramiro and our new French buddies, Jusuf and JP, thank you for a sensational three days. Our desert adventure was better than we could have ever expected. You made our experience one we'll never forget with the hours of laughter shared, the silly stories told, and the sights we saw were so impressive.