Salar de Uyuni

I am like a big, white blanket spread out under the warm sun. I am so flat you can see for miles and miles. When it rains, something magical happens. I turn into a giant mirror for the sky. The clouds and the sun can see themselves smiling down at me. Can you guess what I am. I am the Salar de Uyuni in a country called Bolivia. I am the biggest salt flat in the whole wide world.

My story began a long, long time ago. Thousands and thousands of years ago, starting around 40,000 years ago, I was not a salt flat. I was a giant lake filled with water. The sun shone down on me every day, making me feel very warm. Slowly, slowly, over a very long time, the water went up, up, up into the sky. After all the water was gone, it left behind all its crunchy, white salt. And that is how I was born.

Today, I am a happy place where people come to play. Friends and families visit me from all over the world. They drive across my flat, white ground and take silly pictures that look like magic. It looks like they are walking on clouds. People who live nearby come to gather my salt to make their food taste good. I also have a secret treasure deep inside me. It is called lithium, and it helps power things like toys and phones.

I love being a special place where you can feel like you are walking in the sky. When you look at me, I am a sparkly, white floor that goes on forever. I am here to remind you how beautiful and amazing our Earth is. I am a giant mirror for everyone to enjoy.