Salar de Uyuni, the Uyuni Salt Flats, encompasses an area about 12,000 sq km at the southwestern portion of the altiplano. At 3653 m, the weather is always cold and dry, as this photo of cracked earth shows. The salar was once part of a prehistoric lake, Lago Minchín, which covered most of the area.

Bolivian campesinos harvest the salt by hand, then dried on a platform over a fire. When the salt is dry, the campesinos take it to a warehouse, again by hand, where it is packed by hand in small plastic bags for marketing.