Uyuni

While Uyuni is the name of a town, for people lucky enough to travel to this part of the world, it is so much more. It is a small city of 30,000 that lives from some agriculture, mining salt, and also the tourism that passes through this small town for one main attraction and one lesser one. They are the Uyuni Salt Flats and the Train Cemetery.

Salt Flats

The Uyuni Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni in Spanish) are the largest in the world, and harken back to its geological processes. Over time glaciation and melt have marked this part of the world, and the salt flats are the leftover dried out beds of vast high-altitude paleolakes that left behind a thick salt crust that jeeps can drive on, and people can walk on. Travel conditions in this part of the world are harsh, with dry salty winds occasionally kicking up, and, if you keep very still, a landscape so desolate and quiet that there is almost nothing to hear. Immense blue skies touch down at the edges of the geometric surfaces of the salt flats, and many a traveler has been known to take advantage of the forced perspective photos you can capture on film (or digital media). It is a truly unforgettable journey to travel through this piece of southwestern Bolivia.

Train Cemetery

Just as the salty winds off the salar are not optimal conditions for people to live, they have also taken a toll on the more than 100 abandoned and oxidized train cars and locomotives located in what is commonly called the train graveyard (Cementerio de Trenes) located a few km outside of Uyuni. Many of them date back to the early 20th century and were imported from Britain. These sometimes skeletal structures seem to defy time and seem like they could sit there forever. They’re good for a quick stop and photo op on your way off the salar on the trip back to Uyuni.