If you wonder where you can find a place which is more likely to be a fantasy in your head, I will tell you about a place that I have been dreaming to be there. I think that only few people know this place. It is salt flat or salt pan. Salt flat is a flat ground, covered with salt and other minerals, that usually shines under the sun. It looks like a white desert, with an exception that salt flats are covered with salt, not sand.
The largest salt flat in the world, at 10,582 square kilometers, is Salar de Uyuni. In Spanish, Salar means Salt Flat, and the word "Uyuni" originates from Aymara language, which means "enclosure". Uyuni also refers to a name of town that serves as a gateway for tourists to visit Salar de Uyuni. It is located near the Potosi region. Although it is covered by so much salt, Salar de Uyuni is located nowhere near the sea, as we know that Bolivia is a landlocked country. It looks so deceiving, because at first glance it looks like an expanse of snow, so we might think it is a picture of Northern Russia, Greenland, Arctic, or even Antarctica. But it's not!
Salar de Uyuni was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar de Uyuni. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted.
The area has a relatively stable average temperature with a peak at 21°C (70°F) in November to January and a low of 13°C (55°F) in June. The nights are cold all through the year, with temperatures between -9 and 5 °C (16 and 41 °F). The relative humidity is rather low and constant throughout the year at 30 to 45%. The rainfall is also low, at 1 to 3 millimeters per month between April and November, but it may increase up to 70 millimeters in January. However, except for January, even in the rainy season, the number of rainy days is fewer than 5 per month.
At the soil of Salar de Uyuni, there lives various flora and fauna. We can see giant cacti grow in the soil of the salt flat, and other plants that include Pilaya Shrubs, Thola, and some Quinoa Plants. There are also various fauna, such as flamingo, Andean goose, Andean Hillstar, Bolivian vizcacha - animal that looks like a rabbit - and so many others.
In the middle of Salar de Uyuni, there is a place called Isla Incahuasi. Incahuasi means "Inca House" in Quechua language. It is actually not an island, but it is a hill that looks like an island in the middle of sea. It is rocky and there is the habitat of gigantic cacti (Trichochereus pasacana) and a unusual-looking coral-like structures. The houses are barely identificated, because of the similarity of the exterior paint and the colour of the hill of Isla Incahuasi.
The reason I like this place is because when I see the pictures of Salar de Uyuni, I feel the tranquility comes out from the place. But, the difficult thing is the access to Salar de Uyuni is considered to be complicated and if we have never gone there, it would be super difficult to get there. Someday, I will go to Salar de Uyuni and stay at Isla Incahuasi with my relations for just a few days, and of course, I don't want to be lost there!
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