Reserva National de Flamencos overlook for sunrise near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
This is one of our first photography outings while acclimating in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on our way to the much anticipated salt fields of Bolivia. Our goal was to see the tens of thousands of acres of salt flats of Bolivia or the Salar de Uyuni. These salt flats are submerged in 4-8 inches of calm reflective water. My desire to drive to the salt flats of Bolivia resulted from Art Wolfe showing beautiful, unique photos through his TV series, Travels to the Edge. So much of the Uyuni salt flats of Bolivia have changed since then and not necessarily for the better. (Please note you may click on images for a larger viewing)
Acclimating in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Driving to the Bolivia salt flats, Salar de Uyuni, is not easy. It is an arduous journey taking us to altitudes above 16,000 feet. While I grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, at an altitude of almost 8,000 feet, that would likely do me little good some 50 years later. So first came some required days of acclimatization. For that we stayed in a small dirt road town of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We would venture out on short day trips above 10,000 feet for evening and morning photography, then return to the town. The food in this town was very enjoyable. As it turns out it was the best of the trip. It went downhill from here.
Scenes along the Main Street of San Pedro de Atacama.
I was surprised to see gutters on the homes in this, the driest spot on earth. However, when it does rain it may really be a downpour.
Morning and Evening Outings, Getting used to the Altitude.
Below is a photo from our first evening shoot. This is a typical ‘near-far’ landscape photo. It has some foreground, the cactus, which is in focus and a distant mountain, which is also in focus. Similar to my insect photography, where I take hundreds of photos to get the entire bug in focus, likely three to five photos are taken of this landscape and later stacked together to get one in focus photograph. Fewer photos are required due to the greater depth of field in landscape photography. High end cameras are making all of this much easier now. Cameras will automatically take the necessary number of photos to achieve complete focus, front to back. I had not yet made such a purchase for this trip.
This cactus might have been about 16 inches from my camera. Time is spent getting everything all set up, taking experimental shots then waiting for the golden light of sunset. In the end, I have a photo that is only ‘blog worthy.’
An interesting scene with pampas growing in the bottom of a canyon, but no prize winners on this trip…
Descansos a Plenty
The roads in this barren landscape would go straight for many, many miles. Then, much to the surprise of many, there is a turn in the road. On these turns would often be over 15 descansos, a Spanish word meaning resting place, generally the scene of a traffic fatality. Landscape photographers have no interest in stopping to look at such things. Just like the avid bird photographers of Costa Rica, the photographers are intent to get to their next spot. See my Costa Rica Blogs: Colorful Birds of Costa Rica or Costa Rica Humming Birds and Frogs. So I took these photographs through the window, cruising along at 60mph.
Growing up in New Mexico, these roadside memorials were a common site. I was surprised they are in every country in Europe as well. One European country did not want the competition for the biggest descanso, so they standardized the memorial to one size, one color and one design.
Descansos taken with iPhone crusing by at 60mph, or maybe it was kilometers per hour. Nothing but rocks and gravel for as far as the eye can see.
This descanso had a metal box to place items inside.
Sometimes we would stop to stretch our legs and there would be several descansos. I do have to say, nobody but me took much of an interest in them. I hear there is a coffee table book sold in NM showing the variety of these roadside memorials.
Finally, the Bolivia Border Crossing
It took well over two hours to go through the necessary paperwork to get into Bolivia. They require a crisp $100 Benjamin Franklin bill. No torn or worn bills accepted. Recent photos of yourself and much paperwork all to be completed by one busy hombre in a cold, dark shack. We also had to switch to Bolivian drivers for our three Land Rovers, as required by the Bolivian government.
During the first seven or so days in Bolivia, I’m confident we saw no asphalt, no paved roads. Nothing but gravel and dust. Why oh WHY did our drivers insist on following so close to one another, keeping us in a constant dust cloud for hours each day?
Somewhere along the way, we were supposed to see some scenic places…. but not just yet. Below is one of our hotels. This was the hotel that was supposed to give us great home cooking. Later I was told, the wife and lead cook was in a car wreck, no descansos involved, so she could not cook and the husband took over. We think this may have been the place that gave some of us (not me) food poisoning. There were no showers and no hot water.
While beer was advertised, we were told that alcohol was not good when trying to cope with high altitudes. So after poor food, but lots of it, and no beer and no showers, we hit the road at sunrise to venture on.
Scenes Along the Dusty Road
The barren land was quite beautiful at times. There were no plants whatsoever to be seen.
The land in Bolivia is full of a variety of metal ore, making the peaks quite colorful at times. I do not know the story on the randomly placed boulders in the foreground.
This was not an advertised stop, but the reflection was so vivid we stopped to take a few photos. While driving to the salt flats of Bolivia, we would drive for up to 10 hours a day and randomly come across very beautiful sites. Soon the wind picked up, reflections were gone and the photographers piled into the Land Rovers stirring up clouds of dust once again.
More colorful mountain peaks full of various minerals, resulting in many different colors.
For one evening shoot we visited the flamingos of Laguna Colorado. The cold wind was terribly strong and shaking our tripods. So I thought I would go with it and take long exposures of the flamingos walking about, allowing for a blurry image. Heck, anyone can take an in focus photo….
Once again, the all toooo numerous Instagram and Facebook crowd went too far trying to take selfies of themselves with the flamingos in the background, So you can no longer get as close to these birds as you once could.
The specific week of the month we were in Bolivia was not randomly selected. This time was chosen since the moon was just a sliver, so it would not interfer with the stars.
Random Geysers in the Mountains
We would later visit a Bolivian geyser national park. After staying up most of the night to shoot the stars, we then drove for hours and arrived at the geyser park in the dark at about 5:00am. However, it was mostly a bust as it would eventually fill up with the Facebook and Instagram crowd. These random geysers were much more appealing.
Geysers at the peaks of old volcanoes.
Lone random geyser as we make our way to the salt flats.
At various nondescript places along the dusty road there would be a gate down blocking our passage. Some lady would waddle out and ask for some money. Satisfied, she would manually press down on the weighted end of the gate to raise it and we would go on our way.
Greener Pastures
Driving up and down the valleys provided varied scenery, sometimes full of guanaco. Yep, I think these are the same creatures I ordered at the restaurant in Chile while waiting for out trip to Antarctica.
Maybe the younger ones are more tender…
Guanaco in their beautiful surroundings.
Next we Arrive at Salar de Uyuni, the Bolivian Salt Flats. Eleven second video below….
See you there…
Gee it’s remote, yes there are descansos all over NM and they are almost considered a sacred site not to be disturbed. I hear road construction crews must work around them.
I would like to go to NM and just concentrate on the NM descansos, but it would be hard to make each one unique and interesting.
you are so hilarious!!!
Glad you are still following after all these years