Your Daily Awesome

For the “when in Bolivia” file…

A hotel constructed entirely of salt bricks in the southwestern region of the country.

The 4,085 square-mile (10,580 square-kilometer) region is the world’s largest salt desert. The desert was once a lake 40,000 years ago, and it is now a hot spot for adventure tourism.

The blindingly white flats stretch as far as the eye can see, except for a few raised mounds of salt. Despite its barren appearance, the desert hosts cacti and rare hummingbirds, and three species of flamingos stop over each year to breed.

Until the recent tourist boom, the only inhabitants of the chilly, harsh region were salt miners, who still extract 25,000 tons of salt annually from the 10 billion tons available.

Closer to home, it recalls the dilapidated grandeur of Utah’s Saltair, just west of SLC in our own salt desert.

Saltair was an enormous tourist attraction a hundred years ago, with a roller coaster and ballroom on the resort grounds. After a few fires and wind storms, as well as decreased tourism to the Salt Lake, the rococo palace was left for dead on the side of the interstate, partially submerged in salt water from 1984-95. Whent he lake started to recede, Saltair was reopened to the public. Now it’s basically just a tiny giftshop in a gargantuan abandoned palace, but it does have the haunting air of modern ruins, which mingles with the kitsch of faux-exotic excess from the late 19th century.

Bolivian salt hotel via Bldgblog