SAS Data Analytic Development

Chapter 6Robustness

More coca, please.

Off-roading at 16,000 feet across the Bolivian Altiplano (high plane), your head is literally in the clouds. Mine was also figuratively in the clouds as I munched on a Diamox and coca candy cocktail, trying to stave off altitude sickness while taking in the extraterrestrial landscape.

While my head wasn't prepared for the three-day trek through the heavens, my guides fortunately had thought of everything. Those old black-and-white photos of “Okies” escaping the Dust Bowl, setting out with high hopes and humble means on Route 66 for a new life in California, their Model Ts overburdened, all their earthly wares tied haphazardly to anything that would hold a rope—our two Land Cruisers looked no different as we departed from Uyuni, Bolivia, overflowing with bags and backpacks, and crowned with tires and tarps. The only discernible difference was that we were driving into our Dust Bowl.

Carving trails into the famed Salar de Uyuni (at more than 4,000 square miles, the largest salt flats in the world), we raced across in blinding sunlight that reflected off the brilliant white landscape. You touched the brim on your polarized sunglasses every couple minutes just to prove to yourself they were still in place despite the necessity to squint. I had trekked to Badwater Basin, Death Valley, to visit the California salt flats and lowest point in North America—yet Bolivian brine was like nothing I had ever seen. You can succumb to sunburn in minutes ...