The R&R Big Adventure

‘A Vast Expanse of Nothingness’

The town of Uyuni really took off during the late 1800s when the silver mining industry expanded nearby, and boozers and brothels were needed for the miners. When that industry collapsed in the 1940s, the trains that had been brought over from the British were left to slowly decay outside of town, and became part of the tourist trail for visitors to this region. We visited it yesterday morning after our arrival, and the start of our two day tour. It looked like leftover props from a ‘Mad Max’ film. Interesting to note that the people who couldn’t wait to climb over the abandoned locomotives, and take photos, were nearly all male – and a couple of lesbians. Nearby some enterprising young artists had created a small park of iconic screen characters made of scrap metal, which was fun to see. From there we stopped off at the obligatory local handicraft shops and saw traditional salt producing techniques in action, before the highlight of the tour, which was driving onto the salt flats of Uyuni. The scale of the terrain is hard to grasp – it is a vast area covering 12,000 sq km. It can be seen from space, and is apparently used by NASA to triangulate satellite locations. The blinding white salt reflects UV so well that clouds dissipate above it. We saw this phenomenon both days – a ring of cloud that surrounded the flats in the far distance, but with no clouds directly above it. The (for all intents) infinite horizon, coupled with no buildings or vegetation on the flats, means perspective tricks can be played on the brain; our guide suggested various poses which we built on using R’s Eeyore, a toy llama and can of Pringles. Re the photos on Instagram – no alcohol was involved in the making of those shoots!

Our driver set up a picnic table and chairs so we could have lunch on the flats – miles from anyone else. A surreal experience. We then travelled on to one of the islands in the flats formed by a volcano many millennia ago. It was covered in cactii that were several metres tall and at least 300 years old. The few flowers that had appeared on many of them only bloom for a few days a year to enable pollination; we were lucky to see them. For our final part of the day’s itinerary we drove to a spot where we had a great view of the impending sunset. We were one of the first to arrive, and got a great spot. Soon though, a fleet of 4x4s could be seen getting bigger in the distance, before eventually pulling up next to us. It was like a scene from ‘Succession’, except instead of disgorging a family of scheming media moguls, it was other European tourists here to see the sunset as well. Each driver (as ours had done) duly set up a trestle table and chairs, with crudités and wine for the occupants to enjoy the occasion. The sunset was a magnificent sight, especially the last rays of light reflecting off the ring of cloud I mentioned earlier. It was only marred slightly by a car a few down from ours playing ABBA at high volume, and its guests singing and dancing along. Clearly they had started on their wine much earlier.

As we drove to our salt hotel, on the edge of the flats, we saw the clouds ahead of us come alive with lightning strikes. Fortunately the storm moved away from us. In answer to an obvious question as to how a building can be built of salt bricks without dissolving with the first rains – the bricks include layers of sediment as well as salt, and the foundations are made of traditional stone to stop any water creeping up during the rains (which only last a few weeks in December / January). Even the base of our bed and side tables were made from salt bricks.

Today the tour continued with a visit to a dormant volcano by the edge of the flats, an hour’s drive from the hotel. We then went on a walk along the mossy plains at the base of the volcano, the salt flats beyond appearing like a sea shore to this land. Hundreds of llamas were grazing on this land, we walked for over an hour along the ‘shore’ spotting these, and the flocks of flamingos feeding off the algae and small insects in the shallow waters. We caught sight of two llamas attempting to mate, before a third, and then a fourth joined in. You don’t see that on teatime Attenborough.

After another picnic lunch by the flats, we decided to skip the last part of the tour (a salt monument…) and headed back – another hour across the flats – to our next hotel in Uyuni. A walk into town this afternoon confirmed this is a one horse town – lots of dusty streets and unfinished houses (apparently no tax is paid on your house if it is a building site). We saw a street market which had stall after stall selling the same industrial size bags of corn snacks, and flower stalls getting bouquets ready for the Day of The Dead. A pick up truck pulled over and lots of traditionally dressed Bolivian women gathered round, jostling to buy the best fresh legs of llama being sold off the back of it.

I didn’t try guinea pig in Peru, but we thought we should at least try llama here. We walked into town to a recommended restaurant and had a traditional dish of llama and vegetables (like chewy beef, if you are wondering). I won’t be seeking it out in London. We walked through a mini dust storm on the way back, as the wind was whipping up the dust that lay on every street. Our next stop tomorrow is Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia according to Bolivians. It is a historical city famous for its whitewashed buildings – and hopefully a lot less dusty than here.