uyuni

We headed south to a place called Uyuni. This place is about 3500 metres above sea level but the altitude issues were no longer a problem although it was damn cold. Uyuni itself is a small South American town with typical features; many churches, a plaza and an army garrison next to our hotel. No photos, por favor!

The reason for going to this non-descript place is the local Salt Flats. Salar de Uyuni (to give it its correct name) is with its 10,582 sq km of salt flats the world's largest. It is estimated to contain 10 billion tonnes of salt. The town of Uyuni grew up when mining these salts was a very profitable industry. A local railway cementry with a dozens of old steam engines standing idle underlines the amount of money that washed around these parts. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid regularly robbed banks in the area before they met their end in a nearby town. Today some 25,000 tonnes are extracted annually but judging by the techniques used, it is inefficient and outdated. For example, just carting of 20 unrefined tonnes of the stuff is worth $150 to the miners!

So we toured over this endless expanse of whiteness. Played football, explored an island inhabited by a billion cacti, saw a hotel constructed from salt! Anyone daring enough to see it without sunglasses would quickly go blind! It was an interesting place to see but beyond looking at salt, it wasn´t much else. The town was far more interesting as the local army garrison was busy each morning and evening marching about the town with their military band. No photos! Plus a bottle of rum is fantastically cheap!