Photo Gallery

According to legend, Ayar Cachi was locked away by his three brothers in a cave on Mount Tamputoco. Trapped in the darkness and deeply saddened by the bitter betrayal of his own family, Ayar Cachi began to weep inconsolably. His salty tears of anger and despair flowed out of the mountain in vast quantities. They gathered in the valley in thousands of tiny pools. Over time, the scorching Andean sun dried out these pools, leaving behind the white and pink salt that is still harvested today. Over 3,000 small, terraced basins are fed by an underground, highly saline thermal spring called Qoripujio. – The Maras salt flats in a side valley of the Sacred Valley of the Incas – 1969

The two large salt pans of the Bolivian Altiplano, the Salares of Coipasa (picture) and Uyuni, are the remnants of a vast Ice Age freshwater lake, Lago Minchin. Due to low rainfall, the absence of tributaries and the extreme dryness of the air, the former freshwater lakes have evaporated into shallow lagoons and salt pans, their shores lined with deposits of common salt. Cut into blocks, the snow-white salt – considered to be of exceptional purity – is transported by lorry to the areas where it is consumed. - Book: Picture 158 - Bolivia - 1976

Traditional salt mining in the Salar de Coipasa in the Bolivian Andean highlands. Workers use simple tools such as axes or poles to chisel solid blocks of salt from the crust. The scene is set against the glistening white salt crust, with a mountainous backdrop in the Altiplano at an altitude of around 3,600 to 3,800 metres. – Bolivia – 1976

Traditional salt mining in the Salar de Coipasa in the Bolivian Andean highlands. Workers use simple tools such as axes or poles to chisel solid blocks of salt from the crust. The scene is set against the glistening white salt crust, with a mountainous backdrop in the Altiplano at an altitude of around 3,600 to 3,800 metres. – Bolivia – 1976