By the Salt of the Moon

The name of the hotel, at which we are staying, is Luna Salada, meaning 'salty moon'. It is apt, as just about everything in the hotel is fashioned from salt bricks cut directly from the neighbouring salt flats. The bricks are removed in a single layer, which is then left to fill with rainwater, subsequently evaporating and replenishing the the area with salty residue. The bricks have subtle striations, which show the years of rainfall, with more brown dust indicating drier years.

Having little to do but wait for a midnight train today, we ensconced ourselves in one of the salty nooks and toasted ourselves by the popping and crackling log fire.

Salty comforts

Despite being a day of rest, in a luxury hotel, there was an inevitable sense of coming down from the precious few days that offered such sensory highs. This, we have discovered, is one of the risks of travel - the mundane threatens to become an exaggerated low after the incomparable experiences of sublime nature. However, it seems churlish to complain given that we have the opportunity at all to bask in the glory of the world's wonders.

As we sat, grumpily fighting an unjustified but nevertheless encroaching sense of traveller's ennui, a couple from Delhi arrived to share the warmth of the fire. We got talking and they were, by turns, astonished, impressed, envious and admiring of our decision to travel. Their level of admiration bordered on the embarrassing for our British sensibilities, but the conversation was affirming and picked up our spirits at just the point (8 months into a planned 11-month trip) when we were beginning to flag and were hankering for some familiar ground.

Salty dining

Requiring nourishment before we were abandoned at the cold Uyuni train station, we indulged for a second time in the restaurant's buffet. This evening the chef produced pumpkin and corn soup, followed by a mushroom and apricot ceviche, tomato and onion ensalada, gratin of marrow, demisec tomatoes. Warm dishes included a creamy mushroom risotto, aubergine milanesa, cabbage, banana crisps, sweet potato in orange and cinnamon. That only left room for a raspberry mousse and a small chocolate brownie before we rolled fatly into a taxi and were deposited at the (largely empty) station.

Farewell Luna Salada