Bolivia Salar de Uyuni

Dave explores the Bolivian Salar de Uyuni desert.

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Located to the south of La Paz, in the Department of Potos, at a height of 3,660 meters, Salar de Uyuni is considered the biggest salt flat in the world. It covers an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometers and is composed of 11 layers of varying thicknesses, reaching a depth of 120 meters. Salar de Uyuni contains about 64 million tons of salt as well as chemical elements such as boron, chlorine, magnesium, sodium, potassium, strontium , etc.

The most important element is lithium, a key mineral used throughout the world.
Salar de Uyuni is a plain of singular beauty with its impressive mirror of salt. With rain from November to March, it is dry the rest of the year. Temperatures drop below 0 degrees Celsius at night, rising during the day to 14 degrees due to the solar radiation.

The circuit begins at Uyuni, stopping first at Colchani to see the salt making process. Then I visited the Salt Hotel, Island Inka Wasi "Fish Island", and lagoons such as Ca'apa, Hedionda, Chiarcota, Honda, and Ramaditas. From there I continued on to Sud Lipez, with fascinating volcanic landscapes.

It is blindingly white on the salt lake, which is a beautiful contrast to the bright blue sky. There is much fun to be had on the salt flat as it is possible to take great photos that create optical illusions.

Flamingos in Laguna Hedionda (4368 m) in the southwest of the altiplano of Bolivia.

Laguna Hedionda shimmers in stripes of pale blue and white and smells faintly of sulphur. There was no human settlement nearby, but the human impact could really be seen here. It's a regular stopping point for all the companies on Day Two, and as the Day Two menus are the same across all the agencies - tuna and rice - there were masses of empty tuna cans old and new strewn about. And wads of toilet paper and cigarrette butts and feminine products. The local foxes gathered round waiting for our scraps, close but not too close. It's a worry when animals have come to depend on people's scraps.

After driving 55km through the Desert of Siloli, which contained the odd big rocks with viscachas living in them (look like rabbits but with long tails), we came to the Arbol de Piedra (stone tree), a rock worn away by the winds over 1000's of years and now looks like a tree.

The Sol de Manana Geysers is the highest geyser field in the world at almost 5000m. There are no rails so safety is up to the visitor. The geysers shoot out steam and there are bubbling, pitting pools of sulphur - impressive but smelly and its very cold.

Playing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as only two knockabouts can in the desert of South West Bolivia - where the movie was made!!

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Saddling up on the outskirts of Tupiza, a frontier mining town in far south-west Bolivia, it was impossible not to sink into the same romantically rugged imagery that lured Butch and Sundance back to lawlessness after a stint of the straight life as ranchers in Patagonia and Chile.

Dusty winds whipped up around me, racing across the desert cactus landscape before disappearing up rust-coloured canyons. It's easy to understand why Butch and Sundance made world famous by the 1969 movie of their exploits starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman fled here: it was a reminder of their Wild West roots in North America. And with numerous train lines, mines, banks and payrolls, it also provided cash targets.

It was here, on 4th November in 1908, that the bandits forever emblazoned their names in the sands of outlaw history when they held up the Aramayo Mining Company payroll as it was delivered to workers in the north.

Today, the valleys, gorges and trails of this hauntingly beautiful Andean outpost whisper legends of the outlaws gun slinging adventures including what became their final hold-up and bullet-riddled demise. For many travellers, being able to trace the pairs last days in authentic posse fashion is one of South America's most unforgettable horseback adventures.

Riding through barren passes up to Huaca Huanusca (Dead Cow Hill), the isolated hold-up site fifty kilometres north of Tupiza, gave me plenty of time to take in the impressive mountain scenery. Ten shades of brown mixed with long shadows created by strange, weather-shaped cliffs that soared above. Cartoon-like cactus fields flashed brilliant green among spindly, low-growth bush.

Butch and Sundance met with little resistance as they surprised the payroll donkey train from behind a large rock on the creek-bed trail cutting through Dead Cow Hill, a picture postcard spot for a hold-up if ever there was one. Not one shot was fired. The prize for their brazen but courteous robbery was eighty thousand pesos, today's equivalent of roughly half a million US dollars.

Leaving their victims stunned but unharmed, Butch and Sundance circled around, staying high in the Cordillera de Chichas as they tried to shake off the posse of police and angry armed miners quickly recruited to help retrieve their own payroll. Fleeing through ravines the pair escaped south, skirting Tupiza before heading further west.

Here the countryside is a palette of geographical drama where towering rock faces and distant ranges constantly change their vivid earthy hues as the burning sun crosses from horizon to horizon. Riders can only marvel at how the fleeing pair managed to safely navigate through the hundreds of valleys and gorges, all the while not having a moment to stop and wonder at the Dali-esque landscapes of Puerta del Diablo (Devil's Door), Valle de Los Machos (Valley of the Matches) and Canon del Inca (Inca Canyon) as they galloped further into the mountains.

After two days on the run, Butch and Sundance arrived in the tiny mining settlement of San Vicente, 119 kilometres from Tupiza and over 4,000 metres up in the Andes. Hungry and tired they decided to rest. Figuring they were for the moment safe, and unaware of a posse closing in from the northern mining centre of Uyuni, they found lodging in a local's adobe-bricked house. After paying for food and drink with wads of illicit cash, the host became suspicious and, under the pretext of buying beer, he headed straight to a nearby army post to inform the commander of his gringo guests.

And the gun battle was on. Bullets rained on the small house as soldiers and miners surrounded the hapless outlaws. Heavily out manned and gunned, they were trapped.

As the sun rose, silence prevailed. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were found dead on the floor, riddled with lead. After nearly twenty years of run-ins with the law, they had finally run out of luck, not riding into a blazing sunset on horseback as they'd dreamed, but in a blaze of bullets in a small house high in the Andean mountain desert. Butch had shot his badly wounded partner, putting him out of his misery after Sundance was hit so many times he couldn't lift an arm to return fire. Then, with a final bullet, Butch shot himself.

The bodies of Butch and Sundance remain in San Vincente despite being exhumed from their simple, unadorned graves for DNA testing. The shoot-out house also remains but bullet holes have long been covered and, as a private residence, visitors are denied the chance to stand where the bandits fell, to picture their last, defiant moments cut down in a hailstorm of Wild West justice.

Instead, you're left to imagine the desperate final stand of America's most notorious outlaws from the viewpoint of the sheriff and his army posse outside. Maybe it's a better cowboy fantasy anyway. After all, the lawmakers lived to return home with tales of gun-slinging adventure in the Bolivian badlands, just like those who ride in the hoofprints of Butch and Sundance today.