Yesterday, I drove Jeanine and Maya to the airport. They are going to spend the long weekend in North Carolina visiting my sister, Mayela. Apparently, word got out in our neighborhood that I would be fending for myself, and one of our lovely neighbors dropped off a delicious brisket and cake to ensure my sustenance. I am guessing Jeanine may have had a hand in this, if not directly, then by making known the limitations of my cooking skills. It can be said that I make a mean piece of toast and not much else.

Bolivia has 36 recognized indigenous groups, with the Aymara and Quechua being the largest, particularly in the Andean highlands. Indigenous women, often called cholitas, wear a distinctive, traditional outfit symbolizing strength and cultural pride: a pleated pollera skirt, a vibrant shawl (manta), a bowler hat, and long braids.

I did not include many people photos in my recent blog posts, so I thought I would rectify that today.

Today was a pleasingly uneventful travel day back to the US during which my cameras remained packed away. I decided to post this video depicting some of my overland travel from earlier in the week. Our caravan spent hours at a time for several days traversing the Bolivian altiplano, and this clip gives a pretty good sense of what that was like. This particular stretch was not very dusty. Other sections were so bad that I had to fashion a mask from my neck buff and still could taste the sand on my teeth.

The reward for all the jaw rattling, airway choking, driving was arriving at locations like the one below.

I arrived in Boston just after 9 PM, and Jeanine was there to greet me. It is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I was delighted to see her. As it happens, Jeanine leaves for North Carolina tomorrow with Maya to visit my sister Mayela. She said we were like two ships passing in the night. I think it would be more accurate to say that we were like two ships docking in the night 🙂

After a good night’s sleep, I left my hotel to explore Bogota on foot.

Monserrate, my first destination, is an iconic 3,152-meter mountain, topped by a 17th-century sanctuary dedicated to “El Señor Caído” (The Fallen Lord). Known for breathtaking city views and as a major pilgrimage site, it is accessible via hiking trail, cable car, or funicular, which is the option I chose. The peak also offers restaurants and a flag-draped artisan market.

Located at the foot of Monserrate in Bogotá, the Casa Museo Quinta de Bolívar is a colonial-era estate that served as the residence of the South American liberator, Simón Bolívar, on and off for ten years between 1821 and 1830. Today, it functions as a museum dedicated to preserving his personal legacy and the history of the independence movements. Surrounding the house is the Jardín Bolivariano, recently declared a Cultural Landscape and a national historic garden.  

I spent the remainder of the day on a random walk, enjoying the sights and sounds the city has to offer. I spent the remainder of the day watching the NASA YouTube channel coverage of the Artemis II launch from my 7th-floor room in the pictured Hotel Oceania.

My Bolivian adventure came to a close today as I began my journey homeward. I flew from Uyuni to La Paz to Cuzco to Bogota, where I will rest for two nights before flying to Atlanta and then Boston. The photo above, taken a few days ago, summarizes my feelings about my visit to Bolivia. I feel like the guy at the center of a perfect double rainbow. Very lucky, indeed.

My flight to Cuzco paralleled the Andes and over Lake Titicaca (pictured is Isla Campanario) before landing through a nice sunset.

Today was principally a travel day as our group made its way back to Uyuni. We left at 5 AM so we could enjoy the morning light of sunrise and made several stops along the way.

The Uyuni Train Graveyard (Cementerio de Trenes), located 3km outside the city, is an open-air graveyard of rusting 19th-century steam locomotives and carriages. Once a thriving transit hub for exporting minerals to the Pacific, the trains were abandoned in the 1940s after the mining industry collapsed and regional expansion plans failed. 

Throughout our journey, I have made numerous photographs of my fellow participants, mostly candid. Below is a staged exception that I like in particular. It features Las Chicas, a group of women who shared one of the SUVs, three of which have traveled together in the past.

As the sun set on the salt flats, we celebrated our time together and enjoyed one last look into the infinite.

Sol de Mañana (Morning Sun) is a high-altitude (4,900m) geothermal field in southwest Bolivia, noted for intense volcanic activity, bubbling mud pools, and sulfurous fumaroles. Located near Laguna Colorada, it features intense steam geysers erupting up to 50m.

Laguna Verde is a stunning high-altitude salt lake set against the Licancabur volcano, is famed for its emerald-green color, caused by mineral sediments of arsenic, magnesium, and calcium.

To end the day, we returned to Laguna Colorado. The striking red color is primarily caused by a combination of high salinity, intense sunlight, and the presence of pigmented algae (mainly Dunaliella salina) that thrive in the mineral-rich waters. Shallow depths and red sediments, along with white borax islands, create a vibrant contrast.

Early this morning (1-3 AM), conditions were ideal for photographing the Milky Way, as was our location, which offered great foreground subjects. The abundance of foreground options allowed members of our group to spread out, allowing each of us to enjoy the experience in total darkness and total solitude. As much as I enjoyed the photography, I felt at one with the universe in these moments in a way I have never before. Both of these astrophotographs are composed of two rows of ten images that are “stitched” together with specialized software to create a wide-angle panorama. The image below is my favorite composition, but I have yet to coax out the colors of the gases, which was done in the image above.

The Altiplano (Spanish for “high plain”) or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the latitude of the widest part of the north–south-trending Andes. The bulk of the Altiplano lies in Bolivia, but its northern parts lie in Peru, its southwestern fringes lie in Chile, and it extends into Argentina. The average altitude is 12,300 feet, and the surface ranges from sand to exposed and/or strewn rock.

Our caravan includes four high-clearance, 4×4 SUVs. Each carries four five-gallon gas cans on the roof and, in our case, a 20-pound tank of propane. I shuddered to imagine what would happen if we were to flip over, something that often felt possible as we raced along the bumpy surface of the desert.

The Árbol de Piedra (“Stone Tree”) is a 5–7 meter tall volcanic rock formation in Bolivia’s Siloli Desert (Eduardo Avaroa National Park). Shaped like a tree with a thin stem, it is a natural monument sculpted over thousands of years by high-altitude winds carrying sand, creating a striking “mushroom” appearance. 

Laguna Colorado (the “Red Lagoon”) is a shallow, high-altitude salt lake famous for its striking blood-red waters and massive flocks of flamingos. Located within the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve near the Chilean border, it sits at an elevation of approximately 14,035 feet. I literally took hundreds of photos of the flamingos, but I will have to wait to sort out my favorites on my large-screen monitor. These will have to do for now.

While driving, we encountered a couple of ostriches running about. Later, one of our drivers discovered what I am guessing is a baby ostrich.

My day started at midnight when our group returned to the Uyuni salt flats for our first opportunity to photograph the Milky Way. Because I did not have the optimal tripod head for shooting a panorama of the sky, I opted to focus on making a single image and used myself as a foreground object, using my iPhone to illuminate my face. As a first attempt at astro photography, I am pleased with the outcome.

While driving to the Bosque de Piedras, we stopped at a small watering area where the local alpacas were gathered en masse. Parents are very attentive to their young, and I have too many family portraits to pick a favorite.

Bosque de Piedras (Stone Forest) generally refers to several unique geological areas characterized by massive, wind-sculpted rock formations. While “Bosque de Piedras” is a common term for such landscapes across the Andes, the most famous ones in Bolivia are located in the high-altitude Altiplano region.

The southern viscacha (Lagidium viscacia) is a rodent related to chinchillas that strongly resembles a rabbit with a long, bushy tail. While often called an Andean rabbit, it is not a true rabbit but a rock-dwelling mammal often seen sunbathing on rocky outcrops. They are gregarious (live in colonies), diurnal (often active during the day, especially sunbathing), and feed on grasses and lichens. The one pictured below appears to be napping, allowing me to approach fairly close.

Heavy rains last night covered most of the Uyuni basin with a few inches of water, creating the largest mirror on earth. These are exactly the conditions I hoped to find here, and I feel very lucky. I was happy to step in as the foreground object needed to establish a sense of scale and perspective. The video below gives a 360-degree birds-eye view of the basin.

The leader of our group, Jheison Huerta, a world-class photographer, took the photo below at my request. He clearly understood which was my better side.

For me, being in a place like this is a spiritual experience. I feel both insignificant and yet fully connected to the universe.

The Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat, spanning over 10,500 square kilometers (4,000 square miles). Situated on the high-altitude Altiplano at approximately 3,656 meters (12,000 feet) above sea level, it is a surreal, blindingly white landscape formed by the evaporation of prehistoric lakes tens of thousands of years ago. 

From December to April, a thin layer of rainwater can accumulate on the surface, transforming the flat into a perfectly reflective mirror. This effect blurs the horizon, making it difficult to distinguish where the earth ends and the sky begins, a photograph I have yet to capture.

From May to November, the water evaporates, leaving behind a hard, cracked crust that forms distinctive hexagonal salt patterns across the vast expanse. I took the photo below from a moving vehicle, and the dark item is the side view mirror.

The Colchani Salt Mazes (locally known as Laberinto de Sal) are a series of immersive tourist attractions. These labyrinths are hand-crafted by local artisans to diversify the region’s tourism beyond traditional salt mining. The mazes are built entirely from compacted salt blocks carved directly from the salt flats. These blocks are stacked like bricks to form intricate, solid walls. I followed members of our group to reach the center of the maze, which was quite challenging. I used the “wall follower algorithm” to exit on my own. The wall follower algorithm (also known as the left-hand rule or right-hand rule) is a simple, memory-efficient method for solving a maze by consistently keeping one hand in contact with a single wall. This algorithm is guaranteed to find the exit if the maze is “simply connected,” meaning all its walls are connected to each other or the maze’s outer boundary, and there are no loops or detached sections (islands).

Our photography group is currently staying at the Cristal Samaña Salt Hotel, famous for being constructed almost entirely out of salt blocks, including its walls, floors, and furniture. The hotel’s design is inspired by the coca leaf, a sacred plant in Aymara culture, and is built according to Feng Shui principles to promote energy balance. Throughout the property, you can find intricate salt sculptures and carvings inspired by Aymara astrology as well as areas such as the one pictured below for mediation.

Thus far, cloud cover has prevented our group from experiencing the Milky Way at night, which we are all hoping for. There has been some talk of sacrificing a baby lama to the Gods for good weather. Conveniently, one can be found on the hotel grounds.

Our group spent much of the day on the slat flats photographing a local model wearing traditional clothing. I must have shot 100 variations of this image, but I will not pick a final favorite until I can view them on my large computer screen at home. Pictured in the distant background is the Tunupa Volcano.

Attempting to fly my drone in high winds yesterday almost resulted in a crash. Today, the winds were more moderate, and I was able to make several flights both for stills and videos, including the ones below.

When I checked in yesterday for my flight to Uyuni, I discovered that I had been rebooked on an earlier flight leaving at 6:15 am, requiring that I leave my lodging at 4 am. Not happy! When I joined up with my photography tour group in Uyuni, most of whom were on my original flight, I learned that their entire flight’s worth of luggage had been lost. No longer so unhappy!

When I decided to travel to the Salar de Uyuni, Jeanine made it clear that she wanted me to do so with a group for my own safety. It is a vast salt flat, portions of which are covered by water, and not a place where you want to strike out on your own.

I joined a small photography-focused tour group. We are twelve in total, with 2 from the US, 2 from the UK, 1 from Germany, 3 from Mexico, 1 from Panama (my roommate), 1 from Spain, and 2 from Colombia. After introductions, we set out for our first visit to the salt flats. Unfortunately, weather conditions were not in our favor. High winds and scattered thunder showers reduced our options, but this is a place of immense beauty on any day. We enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by the tour company staff.

Plans for a return to the salt flats for astrophotography had to be cancelled due to the storms and cloud cover. Fortunately, we managed to evade the rain and had an opportunity to photograph a flock of flamingos and the sunset.

Laguna Charquini (also known as Laguna Esmeralda) is a small high‑altitude glacial lake located in the Cordillera Real of the Andes, near the town of Milluni in the La Paz Department of Bolivia.

The lagoon sits at just over 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) above sea level, nestled at the foot of Nevado Charquini (about 5,390 m) and close to the peaks Huayna Potosí and Chacaltaya, giving it a dramatic mountain backdrop.

After a bit of research last night, I decided that hiking to this lagoon would be a great way to spend my last day in the La Paz area. I joined a small tour group that provided transportation to the trailhead about 900 feet below the lagoon. Trust me when I say, this was a difficult hike given the altitude and my lack of acclimatization. Before starting the trail, I took a full panoramic of the range (click on the photo above and see if you can spot the lake) and progressively closer shots of the lake. This put me thirty minutes behind my group, but allowed me to get these photos before the clouds started to obscure the peaks.

It has been a while since I hiked at high altitude, and I was grateful that my body held up. I made the entire ascent in one continuous effort with no stops. I breathed only through my nose and adjusted my stride to keep my heart rate constant. At some points, I was advancing one foot only 6 inches in front of the other. While hiking, virtually everyone else passed me, but when they stopped to rest, I just trudged on by. This approach to high altitude climbing has served me well. When I got to the top, I hydrated and got a few selfies before turning right around to find thicker air.

Our driver was very skilled and inspired confidence as we traversed small streams that were often one with the road and passed trucks with a sheer drop off on our side. We made a couple of stops, including a reservoir and an ancient cemetery that were just as lovely as the lagoon.

Tomorrow I depart for Uyuni, and I do not know if I will have access to the internet. If not, it may be a week or so before I can post again.

The Witches’ Market of La Paz has become quite a tourist attraction in recent years. Among the many items sold at the market are dried llama fetuses that are said to bring both prosperity and good luck, dried frogs used for Aymara rituals, soapstone figurines, aphrodisiac formulas, owl feathers, dried turtles and snakes, herbs, and folk remedies. Witch doctors in dark hats and dresses wander through the market offering fortune-telling services.

I got a late start this morning to avoid last night’s lingering rain. Even so, when I arrived at the market, I found it almost empty. This allowed me to get some clean shots of the decorations that adorn the streets, but they do not convey the hustle and bustle that is the normal state of affairs here.

Rather than wait for the market to fully open, I decided to make the arduous hike to the main cemetery of La Paz, which is said to be lovely. Along the way, I encountered several more traditional markets and paused to enjoy some street food. When I arrived at the cemetery, I found it closed for the day despite signs on the main gate indicating it should be open.

UPDATE: I just learned that today is an election day, and this was the reason the cemetery and markets were closed.