South America and South Africa

The last three days I made a tour to the Salar de Uyuni (elev. 3,660 m), which is with 12,000 km² (half the size of the land Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) the largest and highest salt-lake in the world in the South-West of Bolivia. It is surrounded by volcanoes, multi-coloured lakes, and the big nothingness. The trip started in Uyuni a little town in the middle of nowhere which was in better times in the last century a major railway junction.The first stop was at the train cemetery where old trains found their final destination in the desert.

From there we went to the Salar de Uyuni with its blinding white endless salt-crust. At the borders of the salt lake the layer of salt is about 30 cm thick whereas it is at the centre up to 45 m. The salt is formed to pyramids to dry for further processing.

The next stop was at the Isla Incahuasi, a small island covered with tall cactii, some of them up to nine meters high and considering the annual growth rate of approximately 1 cm almost 1,000 years old. The Galaxy Cavern with its bizarre stone structures was our final destination for day one.

The next morning we continued our tour through the big nothingness of the Bolivian Altiplano. It was a great experience to cross the desert for hours, so different than anything in Europe. Sometimes we could see strangely shaped rock formations caused by volcanoe eruptions along the dirt-road, some of the volcanoes still active.

Several lakes, some of those coloured in red, green or a pale blue due to algae or minerals/metals dissolved in it, provided habitats for hundreds of flamingos, a bird species one normally wouldn’t expect to see in the desert and an altitude of more than 4,000 m. (Unfortuntaly I got sick that evening, the first time since I started my trip, so that I didn’t feel well enough to take more pictures. The best views were anyway on the first two days.)

This is not the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro but the Copacabana at the shores of the Bolivian side of Lake Titikaka. It is a small town in an elevation of about 4,000 m and the atmosphere is very laid back. Lodging and food is really cheap and I enjoyed a lot staying here the last four days.

Yesterday morning I accidently spotted a women’s soccer tournament in the sports hall right opposite my hostel and when I went home in the evening around ten in the night it was still ongoing. Each team had their individual jersey which they wore over their complete traditional clothing. It appeared that they had at least four different layers of clothing and in their skirts they appeared like pawns moving over the chess board. The goalie kneeled down to catch a ball and it was caught in the seems of the skirt. Often lacking elegance it was visible when they were playing that they were doing regular training and at least prior to that tournament they had their tactics lesson as they were sticking to their positions. Also the spectators and the referees took the sports very serious.

The women had so much fun and it was very cute when they made a mistake and nevertheless smiled. I guess the life of a woman in Bolivia  is full of duties and that there is not much leisure or enjoyment.  Even more I was happy to see all the joy they had in their faces while they were playing. I think this is it about the things you are doing.

(The photos are far from being optimal or even good also owed to the difficult light. Nevertheless there is so much life in it that I publish them anyway. For those who like sunsets (and who does not?) there are more photos from Copacabana under photos “Evening at Lake Titikaka”.)