玻利维亚盐沼

As I stepped out of the Toyota Land Cruiser, it felt like walking on shattered glass. Spinning around, all I could see was a white void stretching to the horizon, a surreal, almost lunar landscape. It struck me that this might be the closest the planet has to complete, timeless nothingness; from pre-Incan peoples to the present day, humanity has made almost no impression on this endless expanse of white.

当我从那辆丰田陆地巡洋舰上下来的时候，感觉像是踩在了一片碎玻璃上。四下环顾，我只能说是一望无际的白色，那种超现实的感觉，就好像是到了月球上。我突然意识到，这里或许是这个星球上最接近永恒虚无的地方；从古印加时代到今天，人类文明对这一片无穷无尽的白色空间几乎没有造成一点影响。

Covering some 4,000 square miles at an altitude of 3,650m, the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world’s largest salt flat. It has long been a popular destination for backpackers, who come and stay in the handful of basic hotels around its perimeter and make day-trip excursions out into the salty desert. Now, though, travellers can stay right in the middle of the mesmerising emptiness, camping out in a shiny Airstream caravan.

大约占地4000平方英里，海拔3650米，玻利维亚的乌尤尼盐沼（Salar de Uyuni）是世界上最大的盐滩。这里一直都是背包客们的热门旅行目的地，他们住在盐沼周边的那些设施简陋的旅馆里，然后到盐沼里来个一日游。不过现在，旅行者们还能深入这迷人的虚无世界中心，在一辆擦得锃亮的清风房车（Airstream）中露营。

The trips have been created by Darius Morgan, a local tour operator and hotelier who has imported three 25ft-long Airstream Safari caravans from the US so that guests can view the bizarre landscape in glorious solitude. “Now you can pay for the indulgence of being completely alone – you feel as if you actually own time and space, he told me when I flew down from La Paz earlier this month to be his first guest.

这一行程的创办者是达利斯·摩根（Darius Morgan），一位当地的旅行社和旅店老板，他从美国进口了三辆25英尺长的清风房车，游客们便能躲在这一方奢华的小空间里观赏那奇异的自然景观了。“现在你可以花钱买个清净——你会觉得整个时空都是你一个人的。上个月初当我从拉巴斯（La Paz）飞过去成为他的首位客人时，他就这么跟我说道。

The hour-long flight landed at the recently opened airstrip outside the unattractive mining town of Uyuni. A driver and guide were waiting and we set off in the Land Cruiser, quickly passing through the town of Colchani, a cluster of adobe houses where most of the salt gatherers who work in the desert live. Geological studies have found the salt is up to 120m deep in places; in total the Salar contains an estimated 10bn tonnes, of which 25,000 tonnes are extracted annually.

经过一个小时的飞行之后，飞机降落在一条新建成的跑道上，位于默默无闻的乌尤尼小镇外围。一位司机、一位导游，以及一辆陆地巡洋舰已经在等着我了。汽车飞快地穿过Colchani小镇那一排排土坯房，那里住在许多在盐沼里工作的采盐工人。地质考察发现，盐沼里的盐深达120米，大约一百亿吨，而每年的开采量约为25000吨。

We drove out on to the surface of the salt pan – flat but cracked into a billion naturally occurring hexagon shapes. Its appearance can change dramatically: in dry conditions the surface can look like snow or ice while at night it glows with reflected moonlight; when wet it takes on the appearance of a colossal mirror fringed by distant, snow-capped peaks.

我们的汽车开到了盐田之上——平坦，但分裂为无数个天然形成的六边形。它的外形会发生戏剧性的变化：天气干燥的时候，它的表面上看上像是雪或者冰，并且到了晚上还会反射出幽幽的月光；而气候湿润之时，它看上去就像一面无边际的巨大镜子，又或是白雪覆盖的山顶。

After two hours’ driving, we made our first stop at Incahuasi, the remains of a volcanic cone that now looks like a small rocky island rising out from the salt, about 45 miles west of Colchani. The Salar was formed some 30,000 years ago by the drying up of a vast prehistoric lake, Lago Minchin, and Incahuasi’s rocks show traces of seashells and coral. Its slopes are dotted with thousand-year-old cacti, and as I climbed up among them with my guide Iván Blanco we began to pant in the thinning air. The view from the summit, 100 or so metres above the surface of the salt sea, is astounding. “Look around, said Blanco. “I’d venture to say that this is the last truly virgin spot on Earth.

两个小时的车程之后，我们抵达本次行程的第一站仙人掌岛（Incahuasi），这是火山爆发的遗迹，如今看上去就像是这片盐海里升起的一座石头小岛，位于Colchani以西45英里。盐沼大约是三万年前由于一个巨大的史前湖泊明清湖（Lago Minchin）干涸而形成，因此在仙人掌岛上的岩石里，还依稀可见贝壳和珊瑚的痕迹。岩石坡上点缀着千年仙人掌，当我跟着向导伊万·布兰科（Iván Blanco）爬上去时，由于空气稀薄而气喘吁吁。从最高点——比盐海的“海平面大约高100米的地方望出去，那景致相当震撼。“往四周看看。布兰科说，“我敢说这里是整个地球上最大面积的处女地。

It’s easy to see his point but, nevertheless, the island is a stopping point for most tours of the Salar and can get busy with day-trippers, so we pressed on farther into the wilderness. We drove north for another hour, to the camp where Morgan and his Airstream were waiting for us.

他的意思显而易见，然而仙人掌岛是绝大部分盐沼旅行的停靠站，挤满了一日游的旅客，因此我们还要向荒野深入继续前进。我们又向北行驶了一个小时，在那里，摩根和他的清风房车正在等着我们。

“This is the loneliest spot of the salty desert – and it is all here just for you, said Morgan, as we prepared to eat a dinner of juicy roast llama steak, served with some decent Bolivian red wine from the southern region of Tarija, under an umbrella in the middle of the desert.

“这是盐沼里最孤寂的地方——而这里的一切都是为你准备的。摩根说道，那时我们正坐在盐沼中央的一顶遮阳伞下，心满意足地享用汁水十足的烤美洲驼肉，配以来自南部塔里哈地区（Tarija）的地道玻利维亚红酒。

The van sleeps two (with the option of a third traveller on a sofa-bed) and was kitted out with everything I might need: a toilet, toiletries, a shower with hot water, a heater, a comfortable queen-size bed with electric blankets, an iPod dock and a fully stocked minibar. It is towed behind a 4x4 (either alone or in convoy with the two other Airstreams if there is a group of friends). It is followed by the “teardrop, a smaller supporting wagon that carries a kitchen and other necessities, which vanishes after dinner, taking chef, driver and guide off to stay in the nearest village at the edge of the salt pan, and leaving the guest with just a radio and satellite phone in case of emergency.

车厢可以睡两人（还可以为第三位旅行者配一张沙发床），并配有我可能会用到的所有的东西：马桶、洗漱用品、带有热水的淋寓暖气、一张铺有电热毯的温暖大床、一个iPod底座和一个琳琅满目的迷你吧台。它被挂在一辆四驱车头后面（可以选择一辆车，如果是一群朋友的话，另外两辆清风房车也可以一起出动）。其后还拖有一个小小的“泪珠车厢，用于安置厨房和其他一些必需品，在晚餐之后便会撤走。可爱的厨师、司机还有向导就住在盐沼边最近的村子里，如果发生紧急情况，客人们可以通过无线电和卫星电话与他们联系。

The next morning, from the comfort of my warm bed, I witnessed an orange dawn lighting up one of the most extraordinary landscapes I have ever seen. Soon after, the ever-courteous chef, Isaac Quispe, knocked on the door, bringing freshly squeezed orange and pineapple juices and sweet papayas served alongside fresh coffee, all produce coming from Bolivia’s western Amazon basin. He left quickly, telling me: “The idea is to leave the traveller completely alone, so you can enjoy the experience the way you want. So, please, excuse me.

第二天早上，我还躺在温暖的被窝里，就目睹了从未见过的橘色晨光穿破那美妙的地平线。过了一小会儿，那位永远彬彬有礼的厨师艾萨克·柯斯贝（Isaac Quispe）便带着鲜榨橙汁、凤梨汁、甜木瓜以及咖啡来敲我的房门了，所有的这些食材都产自玻利维亚西部的亚马逊流域。他很快离开，走前嘱咐我：“我们的概念就是要让旅行者享受独处，所以您在这里可以用任何自己想要的方式度过。好，享受您的旅行吧，打扰了。

But there are benefits beyond solitude. Having a mobile base makes it easier to explore the area – cycling or trekking across remote parts of the salt flats, visiting local communities or climbing the volcanoes at its edges.

除了体验静寂之外，你还可以有别的乐子。有一辆交通工具会让你在这里的探险变得更容易一些——骑自行车或者徒步穿越这片荒芜的盐滩区域，拜访当地部落，又或者攀登盐沼边上的火山。

Later, we drove north to the tiny villages of Jirira and Coqueza in the shadow of Thunupa, the extinct volcano that looms over the salt pan.

之后，我们开往北部，拜访了耸立在盐滩另一头的死火山苏奴帕（Thunupa）脚下的小村落Jirira和Coqueza。

“For us, the salt flats are almost sacred, said Do?a Lupe, an Aymaran elder wearing a bowler hat and pleated skirt, who owns a humble but comfortable eight-room hotel made of salt bricks in Jirira. “We would like more people to be able to feel that.

“对于我们来说，这片盐滩是神圣的。一位戴着圆顶礼帽，穿着褶皱衬衫的艾马拉族的长者卢佩太太（Do?a Lupe）这么说道，她在Jirira经营着一个简朴但不失舒适的小旅馆，这幢有着18个房间的建筑由盐砖建成。“我们希望有更多的人能到这里来感受和体验。我们在荒凉的街道上边走边看，殖民时期的教堂和藜麦种植园让我们赞叹不已，然后又花了一个下午的时间去攀爬有着800年历史的红色岩石建成的艾马拉堡垒，探访印加古墓，还跟保存完好的木乃伊们打了个招呼。时常有去往盐沼歇脚的粉色火烈鸟、美洲驼、羊驼还有小羊驼与我们擦身而过。

We wandered through the deserted streets and admired the colonial churches and quinoa plantations, then moved on to spend the afternoon trekking to 800-year-old Aymaran fortresses made of red rock, and visiting chullpas, pre-Incan tombs, where I was greeted by well-preserved mummies. We were passed by low-flying pink flamingos who come to the Salar to breed, and saw llamas, alpacas, and vicu?as.

那是我在盐沼度过的第二个晚上，在烛光映照下，我们就着红色的落日喝起酒来。通过望远镜，在南半球古老的夜空能看到土星那漂亮的黄色光环。我突然意识到我一开始其实犯了个错误：所谓的“虚无，实则丰富至极。

That night, my second on the salt, we drank aperitifs by candlelight as the sunset turned the ground red. Then, using a telescope, we admired the yellow rings of Saturn in one of the southern hemisphere’s most pristine skies. And I realised my initial impression had been mistaken: what looks like a vast “nothingness is full of rich experiences.

安德烈·斯奇巴尼（Andres Schipani）是《金融时报》驻安第斯山脉特约记者。

Andres Schipani is the FT’s Andes correspondent