Salt

We got up late.  An hour of sunlight warmed up the atmosphere enough for two travelers from Key West to feel like 11,500 feet was approachable outdoors. 

We rolled out at eleven o’clock which even for us was tardy. Except we had nowhere to be on a Sunday morning, at any rate not too early. 

We had a goal half an hour away. No, not a sharecropper’s home. I just threw the picture in for color. This part of Argentina is less than 200 miles from Bolivia and the people and their culture look more indigenous Bolivian than white Argentine. 

I said salt. And around here they not only dig salt, they show it off to tourists. 

This is salt. 

These are tourists. 

Okay I know it’s goofy but it was stupidly funny.

It’s a weird otherworldly panorama here. 

You park, and read the bill boards opposing lithium mining that benefits the bosses and ruins the community. 

My kid needs clean water more than they need lithium.  You can see their point. You and I need lithium to power our middle class lives but they just need to be allowed to exist. 

We paid three bucks each to get into the salt flats.

It was Sunday so visitors were out in force. You just wander out onto the salt, look around and think this is weird. 

Then you look for someone in a high visibility vest who will further mess with your head. 

The guides lie on pallets and point your phone camera at you and make you do stupid things. 

The results you will see below. 

I watched another couple being put through it. 

The sun was hot. 

I also tasted the water. It was pure salt.  No surprise but I like proving to the world how stupid I am. No, I look to test everything I come across and if you didn’t know it before, the best advice I can give is do not drink salt water. 

The salt crystallizes into these hexagonal shapes. Underneath it’s mud. If your vehicle is too heavy and breaks through the going rate on the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia is a thousand dollars to get you out. We met an overland family in a Toyota Tundra who got stuck in Bolivian salt for four days. 

Happily here in Argentina you are only allowed to walk on the salt but we aren’t tempted to drive on it. 

There is a huge salt flat in Bolivia that you can drive on. We’ve already decided we’ll hire a local with a truck. GANNET2 is not going to be exposed to the corrosive effects of salt. This was plenty for me. 

We bought lunch to go. Big flat tortillas folded and filled with cheese and ham, salami, or tomato and basil. 

Lunch to go. 

And the photos. Now you know how.