Salt

So I went to the Salar de Uyuni and did a three day tour through the ridiculously amazing landscape. It´s a 12,000 square km salt flat peppered with volcanic islands, but that´s just the first day of the tour. We went upwards of 5000m in altitude during the tour of colorful, stunning mountains and flamingo filled lakes in the following two days. As touristy as it was impressive, I had an unforgettable experience in the 900km jeep ride through the deserts of Southwest Bolivia. Interestingly enough, I bought some batteries for my camera before the tour and they were dead - or at least too weak for camera use. What luck? In a desperate attempt to enshrine the experience in eternity - without a camera! - I wrote some poems:

The first is about the most amazing sunset I´ve ever seen. Holy crap. And the thing is, I see em almost every day. But this one was...different.

SALTY SUNSET
Vicuña footprints drew me uphill
Where vivid lime green shrubs glow in contrast
To the red earth below
A startled egret reveals the stream
Thin ribbon of life
Feeding kidney shaped pools
Bustling with jumpy fish
Invisible amphibians chirp to honor the dropping sun
Backlighting angular ridges
Volcanic progeny cutting into
A flat moonscape
Of the purest white
Negating the horizon
Clouds catch fire
Painting the ruins grapefruit
I sit at the pool´s edge and encounter
This sacred place
Uyuni

TOOTH CHATTER
As the rough road jostles me
The landscape moves me
As high and dry as can be
A land of colored contours
Of rugged invitation
And photo snapping Europeans
Where blue sky meets iron red
Sulfur-stained peaks slice clouds
Zigzag truck tracks converge at overlooks
Of picturesque geology
Soft and Sharp
The volcanoes sleep
While the tourists jump in feigned elation
In front of natural wonders
The flamingos
In contrast
Scour the salt-crutsed laguna
Now are pink dots in the distance
As Roman calmly guides us
Confident in our direction
Gravel surfing in the ruts
Following the billowing dust
Of other tires
Gliding by a hillside of imposing boulders
Surrounded by sand
A dinosaur graveyard?
As bizarrely beautiful as Dali´s imagination
And also his inspiration
Cursing the dead batteries
Sold to me as new
My camera as dormant as surrounding volcanoes
I came to realize
A feeling
Is worth more than a thousand words

PARTY WAGON
The drunken brit dances exuberantly
Half-time visible in the blinking headlamps
She loses control
And crashes in the sand
Her friends chuckle indifferently