Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia)

Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high. The major minerals found in the salar are halite and gypsum.

Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake. When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.

Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually. All miners working in the Salar belong to Colchani's cooperative. Every November, Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding grounds for three species of South American flamingos: the Chilean, James's and Andean flamingos. It is also a significant tourist destination; highlights include a salt hotel and several so-called islands. As it is so flat it serves as a major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano.

Also, Salar de Uyuni holds half of the world's reserves of lithium, a metal which is used in high energy density lithium batteries. There is currently no mining plant at the site and the Bolivian government doesn't want to allow exploitation by foreign corporations, but instead it intends to build its own pilot plant.

Due to its large size, smooth surface, high surface reflectivity when covered with shallow water, and minimal elevation deviation, Salar de Uyuni makes an ideal target for the testing and calibration of remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites used to study the Earth. In addition to providing an excellent target surface the skies above Salar de Uyuni are so clear, and the air so dry, that the surface works up to five times better for satellite calibration than using the surface of the ocean. In September 2002 a team took detailed GPS elevation measurements of a portion of the salt flats. This GPS data was then compared to the data from several ICESat passes over the area were used to evaluate the accuracy and precision of ICESat's instruments.

Traveler's Tips

1. Four day tours cost around $80 including food and lodging. This does not include the park entrance fee or your guide’s tip.

2. It is cheapest to book a tour in Uyuni—the train station is bustling with tour hawkers, although in high tourist season (June-August) business get busy.

3. Hotels (and simple restaurants) abound in Uyuni, most boast tourist lures like hot showers, but are otherwise basic.

4. There are dozens of tour agencies in Uyuni. Your guidebook will list some options. Colque Tours () appeared to be the biggest and most polished of the lot; personally, we were turned off by their long (albeit shiny and new) caravan. We booked weeks ahead with Tonito Tours but we were passed off by Tonito to Tunupa Tours and, although inconvenienced, we were not disappointed. (Search for the latest dirt on agencies!)

5. Bring cash (Bs. or $US)in low denominations and good condition (dirty money will be rejected). There are banks in Uyuni but lines are long and frustrating. There are exchange offices, but they run out of money.

6. WARNING: do not attempt to buy your train tickets to Uyuni in Oruro, the town where you catch the train. In travel agencies in La Paz, you can buy tickets ahead, but in Oruro you must buy the day of your trip; the line starts to form around midnight the night before. In a pinch, a pre-dawn arrival will cost you half a day waiting, but will get you a seat.

7. Acclimate to the altitude in Bolivia before setting off into remote areas like Uyuni and beyond.

8. What to bring: PLENTY of water, serious sun protection (including hat, sunscreen, and, most crucially: sunglasses), warm clothing, and lots of film (bring low speeds for bright light!).

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Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind São Paulo, and the second largest metropolitan area in South America, behind São Paulo. It is the state capital of Rio de Janeiro. The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and from 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation. It is also the former capital of the Portuguese Empire (1808–1821). Commonly known as just Rio, the city is also nicknamed A Cidade Maravilhosa, or "The Marvelous City".


Rio de Janeiro is one of the most spectacular cities in the world. Even the well-traveled individuals will love what the city has to offer. One of the best ways to appreciate the setting is by going up Sugar Loaf Mountain (Pao de Acucar), where you'll get a fantastic 360 degree view of Rio and Guanabara Bay. Across the Bay, you will see the Rio-Niteroi bridge (13,9 km long). Cariocas (Rio natives) disagree on which point gives the most wonderful view: Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf) or Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), elected one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World". It is well worth experiencing both and deciding afterwards which view is better. Notice how the natural harbour is surrounded by lush, high mountains that meet the sea in the world-famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.


Rio de Janeiro is famous for its natural settings, its Carnival celebrations, samba and other music, and hotel-lined tourist beaches, such as Copacabana and Ipanema. Some of the most famous landmarks in addition to the beaches include the giant statue of Christ, known as Christ the Redeemer ('Cristo Redentor') atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car; the Sambódromo, a giant permanent parade stand used during Carnival and Maracanã stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums.


The city also boasts the largest and second largest urban forests in the world: Floresta da Tijuca, or "Tijuca Forest". and the forest in Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca, or White Stone State Park. Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport connects Rio de Janeiro with many Brazilian cities and also operates several international flights.


Despite its charm and beauty, Rio is reputed to be one of the most violent cities in the world and motivated movies such as Bus 174, City of God and Elite Squad portraying severe social issues. Much of the violent crime is concentrated in the favelas or shantytowns but it also spills into middle- and upper-income neighborhoods. In Rio, unlike other major cities, many of the slums are directly adjacent to some of the wealthiest areas of the city.


There are enormous disparities between rich and poor in Rio de Janeiro. Although the city clearly ranks among the world's major metropolises, a large proportion of the city's 6.1 million inhabitants live in poverty. The poorest of the areas are the slums and shanty towns known as favelas; often crowded onto the hillsides, where sturdy buildings are difficult to build, accidents from heavy rainfall are frequent, and access to the sanitation and electricity can be inconsistent. A unique aspect of Rio's favelas is their close proximity to the city's wealthiest districts. Upper-class neighbourhoods such as Ipanema and Lagoa and others, like Jardim Botânico, Joá e Gávea are squeezed in between the beach and the hills, the latter of which are covered with poor neighbourhoods. Bad public education, a poor health system combined with the saturation of the penitentiary system contribute to the overall poverty of the favelas. But the North Side, the poorest area of Rio that tourists rarely see, gathers the vast majority of Rio's impoverished masses. This social contrast creates a clash between rich and poor.


Christ Redeemer, symbol of the city of Rio de Janeiro, is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, The carioca, original from the city of Rio de Janeiro, postal card standing 38 meters high, had its corner stone established in 1922 and its opening on October 12, 1931. The choice was well deserved. From its 38 meter of height, and 710 meters of the Corcovado Hill, the Christ is the image of the carioca people faith and sympathy and celebrates, in 2008, 77 years of existence. Since May 2000, when it received new lighting, the monument and its accesses have been enduring a revitalization process. The high point was the opening of the mechanized access in 2002, with panoramic elevators and escalators. Thus, there is no longer the need to climb 220 steps of stairs that lead to the statue's feet.

The Christ Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) counts now on three panoramic elevators, each one capable of taking 14 people. The access is through an area that assists both the visitors that arrive by car and the visitors that come from the railroad platform of the Corcovado station. Metallic footbridges were also built, sustained by another structure with approximately four meters wide and four escalators, with traffic capacity of 9 thousand people per hour. The trip starts there, for the tower, with 31 meters in height, will uncover the first view of the city. To complete the access to the statue, four escalators were installed.

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Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 metres (8,000 ft) above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. The river is a partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River. Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is one of the most familiar symbols of the Inca Empire.


The ruins of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. While the Inca people certainly used the Andean mountain top (9060 feet elevation), erecting many hundreds of stone structures from the early 1400's, legends and myths indicate that Machu Picchu (meaning 'Old Peak' in the Quechua language) was revered as a sacred place from a far earlier time. Whatever its origins, the Inca turned the site into a small (5 square miles) but extraordinary city. Invisible from below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population, and watered by natural springs, Machu Picchu seems to have been utilized by the Inca as a secret ceremonial city. Two thousand feet above the rumbling Urubamba river, the cloud shrouded ruins have palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, all in a remarkable state of preservation. These structures, carved from the gray granite of the mountain top are wonders of both architectural and aesthetic genius. Many of the building blocks weigh 50 tons or more yet are so precisely sculpted and fitted together with such exactitude that the mortarless joints will not permit the insertion of even a thin knife blade. Little is known of the social or religious use of the site during Inca times. The skeletal remains of ten females to one male had led to the casual assumption that the site may have been a sanctuary for the training of priestesses and /or brides for the Inca nobility. However, subsequent osteological examination of the bones revealed an equal number of male bones, thereby indicating that Machu Picchu was not exclusively a temple or dwelling place of women.


Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. Since it was not plundered by the Spanish when they conquered the Incas, it is especially important as a cultural site and is considered a sacred place.

Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. These are located in what is known by archaeologists as the Sacred District of Machu Picchu. In September 2007, Peru and Yale University reached an agreement regarding the return of artifacts which Hiram Bingham had removed from Machu Picchu in the early twentieth century.


One of Machu Picchu's primary functions was that of astronomical observatory. The Intihuatana stone (meaning 'Hitching Post of the Sun') has been shown to be a precise indicator of the date of the two equinoxes and other significant celestial periods. The Intihuatana (also called the Saywa or Sukhanka stone) is designed to hitch the sun at the two equinoxes, not at the solstice (as is stated in some tourist literature and new-age books). At midday on March 21st and September 21st, the sun stands almost directly above the pillar, creating no shadow at all. At this precise moment the sun "sits with all his might upon the pillar" and is for a moment "tied" to the rock. At these periods, the Incas held ceremonies at the stone in which they "tied the sun" to halt its northward movement in the sky. There is also an Intihuatana alignment with the December solstice (the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere), when at sunset the sun sinks behind Pumasillo (the Puma's claw), the most sacred mountain of the western Vilcabamba range, but the shrine itself is primarily equinoctial.


Machu Picchu is 80 kilometers northwest of Cusco, on the crest of the mountain Machu Picchu, located about 2,350 meters (7,710 feet) above sea level. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in South America and the most visited tourist attraction in Peru.

It is above Urubamba Valley. From atop the cliff of Machu Picchu, there is a vertical rock face of 600 meters rising from the Urubamba River at the foot of the cliff. The location of the city was a military secret, and its deep precipices and mountains provide excellent natural defenses. The Inca Bridge, an Inca rope bridge, across the Urubamba River in the Pongo de Mainique, provided a secret entrance for the Inca army. Another Inca bridge to the west of Machu Picchu, the tree-trunk bridge, at a location where a gap occurs in the cliff that measures 6 metres (20 ft), could be bridged by two tree trunks. If the trees were removed, it would leave a 570 metres (1,900 ft) fall to the base of the cliffs, also discouraging invaders.


The city sits in a saddle between two mountains, with a commanding view down two valleys and a nearly impassable mountain at its back. It has a water supply from springs that cannot be blocked easily, and enough land to grow food for about four times as many people as ever lived there. The hillsides leading to it have been terraced, not only to provide more farmland to grow crops, but to steepen the slopes which invaders would have to ascend. There are two high-altitude routes from Machu Picchu across the mountains back to Cusco, one through the sun gate, and the other across the Inca bridge. Both easily could be blocked if invaders should approach along them. Regardless of its original purpose, it is strategically located and readily defended.


Hikers, tourists, and the early explorers describe similar emotions as they climb their way through the Inca Trail. Many call the experience magical. Glancing out from the Funerary Rock Hut on all the temples, fields, terraces, and baths seems to take you to another time. Blending in with the hillside itself, many say the area creates a seamless and elegant green paradise, making it a must for anyone who travels to Peru.

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Gran Sabana

The Gran Sabana is an important natural attraction in Venezuela and is located in the south of Bolívar State on the Venezuelan-Brazilian border, approximately 1,400 km from Caracas. The area has a tropical humid climate with an average temperature of 28 °C, but at night it can go down to 13°C. The Gran Sabana lies on a plateau with a mean altitude of 1,000 meters above sea level and is dotted with huge table-top mountains called tepuis, which rise dramatically from the surrounding plains. Mount Roraima is the tallest of the tepuis at 2,810 meters above sea level. It also marks the triple border point for Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.
Kukenan tepui.


The most important town in the region is Santa Elena de Uairen, the municipal capital, which is 5 kilometers from the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. It has a population of approximately 12,000 inhabitants. The region is inhabited by several indigenous groups, including the Pemon, who are the most numerous. Canaima National Park, which was created by a decree on the 12th of June, 1962, encompasses most of the Gran Sabana but the areas do not exactly match. In 1975 the Canaima National Park was extended from the original 10,000 km² to 30,000 km², making it the sixth largest national park in the world.


The main attractions for visitors to the region are Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall, Mount Roraima, the mountain which inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World, and the many other mountains and waterfalls.


How to get there???
You need to take the road that goes from El Dorado to Brazil. The road is paved and in good conditions. However to reach the most interesting places (like some waterfalls) a 4 wheel traction is recommended. Some other places like Kavac must be reached by air.

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Galápagos Islands

Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site: wildlife is its most notable feature.


The Galápagos Islands form the Galápagos Province of Ecuador and are part of the country's national park system. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of around 40,000, which is a 40-fold expansion in 50 years.


The islands are geologically young and famed for their vast number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.


Ecuador's most beloved and popular national park lies in splendid isolation about 960 kilometers off the mainland. Made famous by Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands are no less enthralling now than they were a hundred years ago. Every year, thousands of curious visitors journey to the remote islands to behold the wondrously variegated wildlife that inspired The Origin of Species.


As the Garden of Eden of evolution, the Galapagos Islands are magnificent. The Islands are underwater volcanic formations which surface as an isolated paradise of flora and fauna. Where else can you coexist with penguins, sea lions, iguanas and hundreds of other exotic species?

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Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile. Easter Island is famous for its monumental statues, called moai, created by the Rapanui people. It is a world heritage site with much of the island protected within the Rapa Nui National Park.


Located 3,700 km (2,300 miles) off the west coast of Chile, Easter Island is the world's most isolated inhabited island. It is also one of the most mystifying places on Earth, possessing a history that remains as unclear as it is evocative.

Easter Island's tiny land area (only 117 sq. km.) and remarkable isolation make its discovery and settlement an event that seems as unlikely as it was mysterious. The original settlers seem to have been Polynesian, although there is substantial evidence that they were joined by a South American people early in the island's history. The island's native name, Rapa Nui, is Polynesian. Isolated for centuries from the outside world, the people of Rapa Nui developed their own distinctive culture, a culture perhaps best known by the moai, huge figures carved of volcanic rock. Hundreds of these sculpted monoliths dot the landscape, some in imposing rows, others toppled, broken, and scarred by violence. Scholars have been able to reconstruct some of the tragic history that lies behind the disintegration of Rapa Nui culture, but many important parts of the puzzle-including how and why the moai were built-remain uncertain.


The first Europeans to stumble upon the tiny island were the Dutch, under the command of Admiral Jacob Roggeveen. Roggeveen made landfall on Rapa Nui on Easter Day of 1722, thus providing Easter Island with its modern name. Easter Island remained only slightly less isolated over the ensuing centuries, although it did attract the malevolent interest of Peruvian slave ships during the 19th century. Despite these depredations, the majority of Easter Island's population is still composed of descendants of its original inhabitants Even today, their distinctive language and cultural traditions give visitors a glimpse of an ancient lifestyle.

All of the residents of Easter Island live in the town of Hanga Roa, and it is an easy day's drive from town around the island in search of moai and ahu (the rectangular stone platforms which moai were mounted on). One of the most famous sites on the island is Rano Raraku, where 70 moai seem to rise from the earth. The remains of over 150 other figures lie in a nearby volcanic crater, where the rock for the moai was extracted. It is still unclear how the moai were moved from these rock quarries to other parts of the island.

The history of Easter Island is rich and controversial. Its inhabitants have endured famines, epidemics, civil war, slave raids and colonialism, and the crash of their ecosystem; their population has declined precipitously more than once. They have left a cultural legacy that has brought them fame disproportionate to their population.


Trees are sparse on modern Easter Island, rarely forming small groves. The island once had a forest of palms, and it has been argued that native Easter Islanders deforested the island in the process of erecting their statues, and in providing sustenance for an overpopulated island. Experimental archaeology has demonstrated that some statues certainly could have been placed on "Y" shaped wooden frames called miro manga erua and then pulled to their final destinations on ceremonial sites. Other theories involve the use of "ladders" (parallel wooden rails) over which the statues could have been dragged. Rapanui traditions metaphorically refer to spiritual power (mana) as the means by which the moai were "walked" from the quarry. But, given the island's southern latitude, the climatic effects of the Little Ice Age (about 1650 to 1850) may have exacerbated deforestation, though such speculation is unproven.

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