|
Ryan Martis
|
 |
« Reply #12 on: February 22, 2010, 04:54:39 AM » |
|
 Moonlight bathes Incahuasi Island, an outcropping of cacti and fossilized algae in the Uyuni salt flat.
A great lake covered this area 16,000 years ago. When it dried up, it left a 4,000-square-mile basin of salt, the world's largest such deposit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ryan Martis
|
|
« Reply #13 on: February 22, 2010, 04:54:55 AM » |
|
 To find new grazing, vicuñas dash across a corner of the Uyuni salt flat.
Just three feet tall, these animals produce wool so soft it was reserved for Inca royalty.
Hunted almost to extinction, they're now protected and making a comeback. |
|
|
|
|
|
Ryan Martis
|
|
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2010, 04:55:04 AM » |
|
 Vehicles seem to float on a shimmering salt flat flooded by summer rains. |
|
|
|
|
|
Ryan Martis
|
|
« Reply #15 on: February 22, 2010, 04:55:12 AM » |
|
 Winter's relentless sun vaporizes snow to create spiky forms called nieves penitentes near the top of Pomerape Volcano,
at 20,000 feet. Snow falls lightly at such extreme altitudes in the cold, dry climate along the Bolivia-Chile border. |
|
|
|
|
|
Ryan Martis
|
|
« Reply #16 on: February 22, 2010, 04:55:21 AM » |
|
 Piles of salt, scraped by pickax from the deposit at Uyuni, await transport by truck to a nearby processing plant.
How much salt does this vast basin hold? Estimates range upward from ten billion tons—just one example of Bolivia's abundant mineral wealth,
which includes tin, silver, zinc, and natural gas. |
|
|
|
|
|
Ryan Martis
|
|
« Reply #17 on: February 22, 2010, 04:55:33 AM » |
|
 Rare puna flamingos make Laguna Colorada their main nesting ground.
Also known as James's flamingos, the birds were thought extinct before a 1957 expedition discovered this colony, which now includes about 15,000 breeding pairs.
During winter, when the air temperature here at 14,000 feet above sea level sometimes plunges to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit,
birds flock to the openings of the hot springs that keep Laguna Colorada warm.Go to The NEXT Page for More Pictures >>> |
|
|
|
|
|
IMAGE CORNER
