Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Pictures from Bolivia


Here is an image of the great Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat near the town of Uyuni in Bolivia. The photo is taken from an "island" that comes up off the flats, loaded with a type of cactus I've never seen before. The salt flats themselves stretch off into the horizon, an endless flat white gleaming surface. It is supposed to be the largest salt flats in the world, a source of a bare subsistence livelihood for the few people who live nearby in Uyuni.

This a charming photo of a desperately poor family making their living from the salt desert. The husband refines the salt he has scraped off the surface of the desert and his wife, here with her two children, put the iodized salt in one kilo bags which sell for about 14 cents apiece.





1 comment:

JC said...

Living near the Great Salt Lake isn't enough? You have to search out more salt desert? The picture of the family is heartbreaking.