Would you like salt with that?
Trip Start
May 17, 2006
1
62
118
Trip End
May 2007
Uyuni, Bolivia
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
We started our day trip explorng the area with a visit to the train cemetary! The British bbought railways to Bolivia in 1890 and were responsible for running them until the Bolivians got fed up and took it over. From then on everything went wrong (salt on the lines, too much sun) and there is now only a very poor railway service in existance. All the old steam engines are now rusting on the salt flats providing a giant adventure playground for tourists to clamber over. Mr Ruch, you would have loved it!!
We then clambered into 4x4s and headed off onto the salt plains. It is an incrediably bizzare place - it doesn´t look or feel like anywhere else on earth. It almost felt like walking across very hard and crunchy snow but in 30 degree heat. We were shown how the salt is dug up and how it is processed and packaged, all by hand. We then headed off to an "island" that rises above the salt in the middle of the flats for lunch. The views out across the flats were fantastic.After that it was the time we had all been waiting for! We spent a couple of hours taking photos - take a look at the ones we have attached! It was so much fun. We watched the sun set and then headed for home.
