Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

       Frozen in the depths of winter, the world’s largest saltwater lake is transformed in to a giant, sky-reflecting mirror during rainy season.

     Salar De Uyuni salt flat with an area of 10,582 sq.km and is located at a height of 11,995 feet above sea level. Salar means salt in spanish and Uyuni is the name of the city in the southwest of Bolivia which serves as the gateway to the salt flats. During the rainy season, a thin layer of water settles on the surface of the salt flats thus producing a mirror image of the sky above.

Geology

     The salt flats are a result of the gradual transformation of a giant prehistoric lake that existed about 40,000 years ago. The crust  is a composed of a mixture of salt and other minerals such as potassium, magnesium and lithium, with approximately 50% of the world’s lithium reserves coming from this place. Lithium is used in almost everything from medicine, to batteries, ceramics, rocket propellants, nuclear weapons and in the polymer industry.

Animals

       The Salar has a number of animals such as the Andean goose, Andean hillstar, Culpeo, Horned coot, Bolivian vizacha and during the month of november  even pink flamingos can be seen.

Flamingos seen here in the day time is most common during the month of November.

Vegetation

      The only vegetation seen on the salt flats are giant cacti, certain shrubs and quinoa plants.

Best Time To Visit

     There are basically two seasons during which you can visit Salar De Uyuni, the dry season and the wet season.

Wet Season

     If you would like to catch the mirror effect in which the sky is reflected off the surface of the salt flat, then you should visit the salar during the wet season.  The wet season extends from December to around the second week of April with January receiving the most amount of rainfall. In the other months during the rainy season, the number of days of rainfall is less than 5 per month.

Dry Season

   During the dry season which extends from mid April to November, the mirror effect is not visible but the salt flats still look incredible. Also, the salt flats are easier to navigate during this season thus enabling you to visit all the attractions in the area such as the Incahuasi Island, Tunupa Volcano, Train Cemetary, Laguna Colorado, Laguna Verde, Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve, Palacio De Sal and many more.

Altitude SIckness

       Altitude sickness does seem to be a problem for a number of travelers, so you might want to get acclimatized first. Coca leaf tea is also said to be helpful in dealing with altitude sickness.

Camping

      If you would like to camp, there are some decent camping sites such as the Isla Del Pescado and Jiriri. It is a good idea not to camp on the Salar though as at night time drivers might be drunk and things could get dangerous.

Tours

    There are a number of tour operators and most people would recommend Red Planet which is generally regarded as the preferred tour operator to go along with but they are also the most expensive. Other popular operators include Brisa Tours, Quechua Connections, Blue Line Tours and Your Travel. A 3 day/2 night  tour might cost you around 800 bs per head for a 6 person group or 1000 bs per head for a 4 person group.

Getting There

Plane

         Flights are available from La Paz To Uyuni.

By Bus

        Buses are available from La Paz, Oruro and Potosi.

By Train

        Trains are available from Oruro and Villazon.

Self Drive

        You also have the option to rent a car from La Paz and self drive but that can be a bit dangerous and road signs may not be clearly visible.

Location

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Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Antelope Canyon, Arizona, USA

In the Navajo desert of Arizona, Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon made up of stunning cracks and corkscrews, creating a wonderful light show. A must see for any amateur photographer or Instagram addict.

Antelope Canyon is located near Page on Navajo Nation land, just outside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and close to AZ 98 a few miles east of town (at milepost 299). Antelope is the most visited slot canyon in the Southwest.

     Partly because it is easily accessible and by far the most publicized, and also since it is extremely beautiful, with just the right combination of depth, width, length, rock color and ambient light; many other slot canyons are deeper, narrower or longer, and some have rock that is even more colorful and sculptured, but here conditions are ideal.

Permit :

        To visit either part of Antelope Canyon is expensive. There is a fee of $6 for a standard permit required to enter Navajo territory, and an additional charge is due to the families who own the land around the canyons and regulate all access the cheapest is currently (2015) $25 for the either the popular upper section or the longer lower canyon.

         This is the cost to travel to the canyons in a Navajo jeep, organized tours with a guide cost rather more, as do peak time visits (departing 10 am to midday). For the upper canyon the fee is paid to officials at the side of AZ 98 near the start of the track, and is now apparently only good for 2 hours, with longer visits costing an extra $5 per hour. The fee to enter the lower section is collected by attendants at the car park near the canyon edge. These amounts will doubtless increase as the Navajo continue to exploit the popularity of the canyon.

        Beautiful but commercialized slot canyon, visited by hundreds of people on a typical day in summer. Two sections are open to visitors, the 600 foot long upper narrows, south of AZ 98, and the deeper lower narrows to the north.

Length: 

600 feet (upper canyon, to which visitors are driven in 4WD vehicles), 0.5 miles (lower canyon)

Difficulty:

Easy, ladders and railings are installed in the lower canyon

Management:

Navajo Nation

Rocks:

Navajo sandstone

Season:

All year

Trail head:

Parking areas south and north of AZ.

 Location :

The seasonal stream of Antelope Creek flows into Lake Powell 3 miles east of Page in far north Arizona. Most of the watercourse is wide and sandy, but it forms two sections of slot canyon near the lake (Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon), separated by several miles of flat desert terrain. Both may be approached from AZ 98, the upper canyon (also known as Corkscrew Canyon) is reached at the end of a very sandy 2 mile 4WD track south of the road beginning near milepost 299, and it is this part which is usually visited. Lower Antelope Canyon extends between AZ 98 and the lake, and is reached by a short track northwards leading to a parking area from where the escorted tours depart.

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Son Doong Cave

Son Doong Cave is in the heart of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in the Quang Binh province of Central Vietnam. Only recently explored in 2009-2010 by the British Cave Research Association, the cave has only been open to the public since 2013. 

Less people have seen the inside of Hang Son Doong than have stood on the summit of Mount Everest. Join us on this otherworldly expedition and become one of the lucky few who have had the life changing experience of exploring the world’s largest cave.

Imagine trekking straight into the depths of the world’s largest cave on an expedition unlike any other. A cave so massive that a 747 could fly through its largest cavern. A space so mesmerising that it forces you to question whether you are still on this planet at all. Foreign landscapes found nowhere else, enormous stalagmites rising from the ground and statuesque stalactites hanging from the ceiling like an alien species. Jungles emerge from inside the cave itself, a scene so surreal that you have to see it to believe it. Misty clouds envelop the whole scene, a result of the cave’s own localised weather system. Passages adorned with ancient fossils offer evidence of the millions of years that have passed on this Earth.

As you approach the jungle just outside the entrance, the rush of cool wind that cascades out brings to life everything inside of you. Hazy, cold and exhilarating, it is apparent that there’s something magical waiting just beyond the opening to the cave.

How was Son Doong Cave first Discovered?

       From an early age, local man Ho Khanh used to spend weeks on end trekking and maneuvering his way through the jungles of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, searching for food and timber to earn a modest income.

       In 1990 while out on a hunting mission, Ho Khanh stumbled across an opening in a limestone cliff and moved forward to investigate. As he approached he noticed clouds billowing out of the entrance, and could hear the sounds of a river raging from somewhere inside the cave.

       When he could feel a strong wind also blowing out from the cave, he decided to move on without further inspection. By the time he had returned to his home a few days later, he had forgotten its exact location and thought no more of it.

          At the same time two members of the British Cave Research Association (BCRA), Howard and Deb Limbert, were basing themselves in Phong Nha to conduct exploratory cave expeditions in the area. While chatting with Ho Khanh one day, he mentioned to the caving experts that he had found a cave with clouds and a river inside. Howard and Deb were intrigued and urged Ho Khanh to try and rediscover the cave. After many failed attempts, they began to think this elusive cavern might remain lost in the jungle forever more.

        In 2008 while out on another food gathering trip, Ho Khanh found the mysterious opening again and studiously took note of the path on how to get there. In 2009 he led Howard, Deb and a team of professionals back to the cave for the first expedition to enter what would later become known as Hang Son Doong, or ‘Mountain River Cave’.

Geology of Son Doong Cave

The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam contains the oldest karst system in Asia, between 400-450 million years old. Hang Son Doong itself is relatively young, with the analysis of sediment dating it to be only 3 million years old.

          Formed on the edge of a fault zone, Hang Son Doong has been carved out by the mighty Rao Thuong River as it erodes away the limestone, forming the enormous tunnel beneath the Annamite Mountains. Giant sinkholes, known as dolines, have collapsed sometime up to 300’000 years ago, creating massive openings to the outside world. Cave pearls the size of baseballs have been formed by water dropping from the ceiling.

How Big is Son Doong Cave?

The first expedition had been halted by an 80m high calcite barrier, which was jokingly dubbed the ‘Great Wall Of Vietnam’. It wasn’t until their second expedition in 2010, when the Great Wall was finally climbed and the end of the passage was found, that Hang Son Doong was determined to be the largest cave in the world.

At over 5km long, with sections reaching up to 200m tall and 150m wide, Hang Son Doong is large enough to house an entire New York City block, complete with 40 story skyscrapers. With a total measured volume of 38.5 million cubic metres, this comfortably surpasses Deer Cave in Malaysia, which was considered to be the previous record holder. Stalagmites up to 80m high have also been surveyed, the tallest every encountered.

Location :

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