Today we drive to Uyuni, from where we will start our tour of the altiplano and the salt flats. We have a slow morning. We will only leave at 10 AM so after breakfast we go out and pick up some lunch for the drive to Uyuni. We are ready to go just before 10 AM, but the bus was late. Around 25 minutes late, the bus shows up, we load the bags on the roof and pile in.
The drive is uneventful, but we do pass some stunning scenery. One of the more amusing aspects was watching the driver pick up other passengers even though we had chartered the bus. There was a cockpit like area at the front of the bus and he would stuff so many additional passengers in there it was surprising that he could even drive. At one point we lost track of how many he stuffed in there. We did feel bad that they were packed in like sardines, but the driver was making extra money on the side even though we had booked out the whole bus. We had lunch on the bus as we went. We stopped in a small village (about 5 houses) for a break. The toilets were so bad that we just went outside somewhere.
We got to Uyuni just after 4 PM. It is a funny little town. It was only really founded 1889 and they built these wide streets as they expected that the town would grow to be as big as Buenos Aries. Well, they have quite a way to go.
We had to change room - our room did not have a lock when you were inside the room. We had a bit of a struggle explaining why we wanted a room that could lock, but in the end we got a new room. We then headed out to see the train graveyard.
It was a two kilometer cold windy walk along filthy train tracks to get there, but it was worth it. Hundreds of train cars and engines have been driven off into the desert to just rust. Some are very old and some are surprisingly new. It is a boy's heaven and a parent's nightmare. There is so much to play with and also so much to hurt yourself with. We had a good time.
We climbed up and around many of the old steam engines and cars. We pushed some of the old wheels along the tracks. We banged metal against the old tanker cars and made quite a racket. As you can see from this photo, this engine is in need of a good experienced mechanic - urgently!!!
There was not much to do back in town other than go to one of the few restaurants for dinner. It was not bad, but service was slow. Only three people in the whole place serving about 50 people.