We had pancakes for breakfast, with dulce de leche (a cross between condensed milk and caramel), and were on the road by 7:30am.
The first stop was Árbol de Piedra, a tree-shaped stone in Desierto Sioli. It's a mandatory photo stop, which most people post to Flickr.
Because it's near the end of rainy season, the normal route wasn't accessible. We drove by a couple amazing lagunas instead.
The first was Laguna Cañapa. The surface was completely still, and formed a perfect reflection of the surrounding snow-capped mountains.
Next was Laguna Hedionda, which had a couple thousand flamingoes, which didn't run / fly away at the first sight of humans. It was signposted as to how close you were allowed, which is maybe why. We sat and took dozens of pictures of flamingoes with the Andes in the background.
The rest of the day was driving to Uyuni. We stopped at a few towns: Alota, a farming community surrounded by colourful fields of quinoa; Culpina K, a mining town with a plaza filled with iron works; and San Cristobal with a beautiful 350-year old church.
We also saw active Volcán Ollagüe, and drove through a giant area filled with rock formations as far as we could see. In another area, we drove through a sandy desert at 4500m. It's an odd sight to see snow-capped tips of 5000m mountains just peeking above the horizon. The whole day was filled with surreal images.
Tonight we are staying at Hotel Cristal Semaña, built almost entirely from salt, just off Salar de Uyuni. We just watched the sunset over the Salar from the 2nd floor dining area.
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