That's not water, it's salt. At dusk the blinding glare of the white salt plain softened. The sun left the salar and briefly lit distant mountains and clouds. Three vicuña settled down on the plain a long way out from the shore. I guess they were as safe there as anywhere — nothing could sneak up on them there.
[23 October 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 100, 1/30 at f8]
All content © 2012 Pete McGregor
Probably did look like this when it was a shallow sea, right before it settled into salt flat. Shallow enough, maybe to include some creatures about - there.
ReplyDeleteZhoen, during the rainy season the salar's often covered by a thin layer of water; the salt beneath turns it into a giant mirror. I'd have loved to have seen it like that. Must be hard on the vehicles, though.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteA long way to go for a bit of breakfast, but a great place to spend a quiet night.
RR, they'd cover the distance in no time. I wonder, too, whether they were really out there for safety's sake, or perhaps for some other reason — the temperature, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteOne day, one day, one day I want to visit a place like that. That is incredible.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why we always assume other animals have purely practical motives? I mean, what is practical about a mountain lion lying on top of a crag for hours and hours just watching, never moving? What is going on in its head?
Or what was up with the lone macaque I once saw way up at 3,500 meters on a windy, rainy day on the peak of Mount Kitadake here in Japan? No food, cold, little shelter, no companionship. And yet he was there... hiking?
Miguel, don't leave it too long. The Salar lies on top of the world's largest (I think) reserve of lithium, and even if that's not tempting enough to destroy it, visitor numbers are increasing. (Sometime soon I might post a photograph showing another, very different aspect of the Salar.) It's still easily possible to achieve the kind of feeling I trust this photograph conveys, but whether that will still be true a decade from now seems highly debatable. Everything, everywhere, is rapidly getting more expensive, too. Go soon.
ReplyDeleteMacaques are much too human for me to say I love them the way I love most animals. Fascinating, yes. But in India, where the two abundant monkeys were macaques and langurs, I admit I much preferred the latter.
It's a lonely place. Sometimes there's safety in nothingness. -Maureen
ReplyDeleteMaureen, I didn't find it lonely. Well, I suppose I had excellent companions... but even if I'd been alone, I doubt I'd have felt lonely. Safety there might be in nothingness, but there's solace in solitude.
ReplyDelete