135 kilometres to Uyuni.
Salar de Uyuni
When I arrived in Uyuni the bus was met by operators hawking their tours. I signed up with Sandra Travels, and set out on Sunday morning with seven tourists and our monolingual driver Juan. One of the peculiar things about early morning was that there were little fires in the middle of some intersections. I figured out that the people who cleaned the streets were sweeping all the rubbish into piles and burning it.
First we went to the train cemetery, then onto the salt flats to the village of Colchani.
First we went to the train cemetery, then onto the salt flats to the village of Colchani.
Colchani is a small desiccated village just outside the national park. The big attraction is this market where tourists can buy Andean crafts (and some touristy crap mixed in with it.) I would have bought more there but I was aware of how much new stuff I'd already packed into my bags.
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Salar de Uyuni in relation to the Pacific Ocean and
the Amazon basin. This Google Earth shot shows just how big it is. The red dot is Uyuni. |
These hollow terra cotta blocks
are the basic material for new
construction in Bolivia.
Aside: Never in 50 days in South America did anyone ask to see my yellow fever vaccination card (which had been quite expensive.) However Bolivians are real bugs about wanting to see passports. In Uyuni I went to a bank and got some cash from their machine. As in other countries, the bills were the largest possible demonination, and it's hard to break those. So I went into the bank to get change and, sure enough, had to produce my passport. Before we entered the Salar de Uyuni park, Juan had to get a sheet filled out with all our names, ages, occupations, nationalities and, of course, passport numbers. I have mine memorised now.
Another travel tip: Don't take 100$US bills to South America. They're so widely counterfeited that most people won't take them. Some series of 50$US bills are also unacceptable. Also any bill that is torn may be refused.
Another travel tip: Don't take 100$US bills to South America. They're so widely counterfeited that most people won't take them. Some series of 50$US bills are also unacceptable. Also any bill that is torn may be refused.
Next: onto the salt, visits to a volcano and to Isla Incahuasi