The thin air hit Polly hard as she flew over Bolivia's famous salt flats. Below her was an endless white desert of salt. It was so big and flat that she couldn't see where the land ended and the sky began. During the rainy season, this strange place becomes the world's largest mirror, but now it looked like a frozen white ocean.
"Be careful, little parrot!" someone called from below. "The altitude here will make you tired if you're not used to it!"
Polly flew down slowly because her wings had to work harder in the thin air. She was 3,656 meters above sea level. She landed on top of a Toyota truck that carried tourists across this amazing landscape. The driver was a man in his fifties with a baseball cap and sunglasses.
"I'm Joaquín," he said in English with a Spanish accent. "I've been driving here for thirty years, and I've never seen a parrot in this place. You must be lost or very brave."
"I hope I'm brave," Polly replied, trying to catch her breath. "But I wasn't ready for how hard it is to breathe here."
Joaquín laughed. "Even the big condors have trouble here sometimes. But you came at an interesting time, my friend. Tomorrow the harvest begins."
"Harvest?" Polly was confused. "What can grow in this empty place?"
"We don't grow anything—we gather salt," he explained. "My village has done this for many generations. But this year might be different."
In the distance, Polly saw big machines moving across the salt flats like metal insects.
"Those are lithium miners," Joaquín said quietly. "They say there's valuable lithium under our salt desert. Enough to make batteries for every electric car in the world. My daughter Elena thinks we should accept the mining because it means jobs and money. But our traditional ways..."
He stopped talking and looked sad. Polly understood his problem—the fight between old traditions and modern progress.
"Will you show me the salt harvest?" she asked. "I want to understand."
Joaquín smiled. "Yes, of course. But first you need to get used to the altitude. And maybe you can help me talk to Elena. Some things are worth more than all the lithium in the world."
