On Friday, July 11, our teams had the opportunity to go the Salt Flats, or Salar de Uyuni, which is the biggest salt desert in the world. What used to be two massive lakes has dried up to become this beautiful salty land. Pastor Rolando organized transportation for us. One of the stops we made prior to actually getting to the Salt Flats was to stop at a train graveyard. It’s as cool as it sounds. All of these abandoned engines and cars are piled in and around this area. To put it simply, the area is a glorified adult playground. We climbed all over and took goofy pictures.
Afterwards, we drove through the desert. In the car it looked like sand…miles and miles of sand. We could see mountains in the distance and it took at least 45 minutes of driving for those mountains to appear as if they were any closer. We finally stopped to get out to take pictures. I have never experienced anything like it. Uyuni is somewhat of a tourist town because of the Salt Flats and we had seen countless creative pictures displayed from visit that people had taken. Some examples include one person supposedly stepping on the rest of the group who had suddenly become very tiny. It’s hard to explain without seeing it. Look out for the pictures on Facebook and you’ll be able to see what I mean.
Once all of the picture merriment had concluded, our teams took the time to honor Anastasia Sloan, a girl who was supposed to be part of our squad but was tragically killed in a car accident just before training camp. We sang a few songs and said a prayer for her. It certainly seemed as if she was there with us. One of the comments that a teammate of mine verbalized was that it felt like Anastasia and Jesus were dancing in heaven while we honored her.
We then got in the car to drive to the Isla del Pescado…or Island of Fish. The drivers provided lunch for us. We ate and looked around the island briefly. There were a few llamas and countless cacti. We got back in the car and drove to the Salt Hotel. It was neat to see the structure made of salt with an entirely salt floor.
All of the driving throughout the salty, barren land got me thinking. At one point, the car that carried half of our group got so far ahead that it was completely out of sight. The desert just seemed to go on and on but we weren’t upset because it was so captivating to look at. It seems that we got a taste of eternity with this experience. Heaven is going to be so incredibly beautiful and simultansously unending. The best part is that we will be so overjoyed to be there celebrating with our God that we will only want more of the eternity. If you ever get the opportunity to see the Salt Flats, I highly endorse it. Day off well spent.
