A salt sculpture of the logo (which is meant to look like someone wrapped up to protect against a sandstorm) of the Dakar Rally, an endurance event for off-road vehicles. Originally the Paris-Dakar Rally, it has been held in South America since 2009 due to security concerns over traversing west Africa to get to Dakar, Senegal. In 2014 the Rally came to the Uyuni Salt Flat for the first time.

In the background is the original salt hotel, the White Beach Salt Hotel, built in 1993-1995 out of salt blocks in the middle of the Uyuni Salt Flat with 12 double rooms, a common bathroom, and no shower. Environmental concerns (e.g., waste-treatment issues) have now relegated salt hotels to the perimeter.

The Uyuni Salt Flat is the world’s largest salt flat covering 10,582 sq km/4,086 sq mi (100 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in the United States). Part of the Bolivian Altiplano (high plateau), the Uyuni Salt Flat sits at an elevation of 3,656m/11,995ft surrounded by the Andes mountains. It is the bed of a series of vast lakes that once covered the area starting around 40,000 years ago, the last of which was radiocarbon dated to 11,500 to 13,400 years ago. In November, three species of South American flamingos breed here. The crust, which varies in thickness from tens of centimeters to a few meters, is a source of salt. Underneath is a pool of brine rich in lithium which Bolivia is just starting to extract. (Bolivia is the holder of the world’s largest known lithium reserves.)

On Google Earth: