Bolivia - Bananas, Butch, Bowlers, Boats....

Hi,

If you've stumbled across this blog while searching the Internet for photos of  rusty steam trains, this is your lucky day!  [I'm jotting down my experiences whilst living on the Falkland Islands with my wife, and this is a continuation of our report of a trip to Bolivia and Chile.  (The previous instalment is here - http://peterspenguinpost.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/tell-me-mr-bond-what-do-you-know-about.html ).]

But there is a lot more to Bolivia than some old trains.......

The end of the line....

These locomotives are in an abandoned "train cemetery" on the edge of Uyuni, in south-west Bolivia.  It had once been an important junction for passenger and freight trains - exporting valuable tin and silver via Chile and Argentina.  (My school Latin lessons are coming in handy - "argent" is silver in several languages.  The River Plate or Rio Plata, is from the Spanish for silver!).

Run into the desert

The railways were vital to the economy of the country, but tin is less valuable these days, and oil and gas are now the mainstays of this landlocked country.  The tin was often in the hands of a few "tin barons", a fantastically wealthy elite, who employed thousands in their mines, sometimes without pay!  They could control governments and did very little to drag Bolivia out of  the agrarian backwater it had been when the Spanish conquistadores arrived around 1540.  The  trains were to get the tin to the market, across deserts and mountain ranges, not to transform the country.

In need of some repair.

In nearby Pulacayo, there had been a massive silver mine, employing about 20,000 miners at its height.  We were told that the owner had also been the President of Bolivia in the 1920s, and only provided food and lodgings to the miners and their families - no wages!  The mine is worked out, and only a few miners remain, showing tourists around.

Butch Cassidy was here!

Some of the earliest trains to arrive in Bolivia remain here, including one robbed by the legendary Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  One of the carriages has bullet holes in it from their attack!

One of the earliest locos.

From Uyuni and Pulacayo, we continued east, through mountains and valleys that corrugate between the high Altiplano in the west and the sub-tropical lowlands of the east.  I'm not sure if corrugate is a verb, but it was as if the land had been scrunched up by some giant force, into thousands of undulations - about 3000 feet in height.  We saw a couple of cyclists, but these seemed dispiriting roads for cyclists.Up for 5 miles, down for 5;  up for 8 miles, down for 6, and so on.

Brown = Altiplano, Lt Green = lowlands, Dk green = central mountains. White = Salar de Uyuni, Blue = L Titicaca or Pacific.

Potosi is marked on the above map.  We had just crossed the huge salt flats, marked white.

Potosi - once the world's largest city

 After a few hours, we came to the city of Potosi at 13,240 feet (4090m), the biggest in the world in the 1600s..  It sat on the slopes of the Cerro Rico (Rich Hill) mountain, from which vast quantities of silver were extracted, destined mainly for the Spanish monarchy.  From about 1546, thousands of indigenous Indians were sent to Potosi as a tribute to the Spanish conquerors.  When the miner inevitably died or broke down, (usually after a few months) another family member had to be sent.  Eventually, the local supply of labour dried up, and thousand of slaves were imported from Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potos%C3%AD

Shop for miners - alcohol, detonators, matches, dynamite.....

 It's reckoned a third of all silver in Europe came from here, but eventually the silver ran out and the Spanish monarchy ran up huge debts fighting wars.  Even with all that "free" silver, they owed millions to German bankers.  Just as well lesson were learned, and history didn't repeat itself!

One of the many mine entrances.  The discolouration  is not from smoke!

 We took a guided tour of the outside of the mine - not brave enough to venture underground with our gifts of dynamite and strong alcohol to appease the spirits that protect the miners.  Catholicism may have arrived with the Spaniards, but most Bolivians stick to the ancient beliefs.  Near the mine entrance above, we noticed a strange smell and the blackened rocks.  Apparently, this was where llamas were ritually sacrificed, and their blood smeared over the entrance, to help ensure the safety of the workers.

Cathedral of St James

Elsewhere in the city, a few streets had architecture that would not be out of place in Andalusia.  And the churches were reminiscent of European buildings, except in a few details, like the rare carving of a local Indian, with her broad skirts.

Carving of local Indian

But we found hilly Potosi a struggle to walk round, so were happy to continue the journey to the much lower and more comfortable capital of Bolivia, Sucre.

Sucre 

Sucre is a World Heritage Site, and the buildings in the centre are all whitewashed, again giving a very Andalucian feel.  And being at "only" 9,000 feet above sea level (2750m), it was relatively easy to wander around the streets and squares.  The market, especially, was a sight for sore eyes, or for people who haven't seen  large number of vegetables for a few months!

Sucre fruit & veg market:  slightly better choice than we were used to in Stanley!  

Stallholder and fruit and baskets, Sucre

As I may have mentioned, Bolivia has hundreds of different types of potatoes - some for roasting, others for mashing, pureeing, baking, making chips, etc etc.  Many of these were for sale in their own section of the market.  In Stanley, we have recently seen 2 types of potato in the shops - big or small!

Some of the 500 potato varieties in Bolivia

There was also a large fruit section, with alleyways of nothing but banana stalls.  A far cry from our early experience in the Falklands when bananas were as plentiful as hens teeth....

Banana stall, in the banana section of Sucre market

So, it was a joy to see the beautiful and plentiful abundances in Bolivia.  Several people had told us that no-one need go hungry here, as the food is so cheap.  Certainly we always seemed to get lots of change when we bought bananas!

Fruit, fruit, fruit......mostly unknown to me!

The stylish streets were full of restaurants and bars, as the residents and visitors brought a cosmopolitan air to the city.  One of the earliest universities in South America was founded here in 1624, and there are many language schools in the town.

Whitewashed streets, Sucre

The Supreme Court and many lesser courts are also in Sucre, and the streets around the court area are filled with legal offices, open to the street.  Sometimes lawyers sit on the pavement with a typewriter on a desk, drawing up letters for clients.

"St Rita - LAWYER for impossible cases"!?

Sucre had been the capital of Bolivia (or Alto Peru, as it was known at independence in 1825), but had lost out to La Paz for most of the governmental functions in 1898, as the dwindling output from the silver mine at Potosi meant the region was no longer the powerhouse of the country.

And so, it retained its colonial architecture, and elegant buildings and plazas, without obtrusive industries or unsightly squalor that can be a feature elsewhere.

Clock Tower, Sucre

And, apart from 2 blots on the landscape, (both, apparently, built by the same man who built our unsightly modern hotel in Potosi), the city retains its charm and a feeling of affluence unusual for Bolivia.

Sucre square

At night, the well-lit streets are full of strolling residents and visitors.  The restaurants were plentiful and reasonably-priced, most with a good range of very drinkable Bolivian wine.  It was as good as most other wines I've tasted, but I don't think they produce enough to compete in the export market against  neighbouring Chile and Argentina.

Tour operator.

All too soon, we had to move on from seductive Sucre for the delights of La Paz, another 4,000 feet higher.  En route to the seat of government, we made a scheduled stop at the city of Cochabamba - a major agricultural centre.  On landing, we had to leave the plane, walk across the tarmac to the terminal, walk the length of the terminal and out another door back on to the apron again.

Presidential Guard of Honour relaxing

Outside the terminal were hundreds of soldiers and a huge band in ceremonial dress.   Looking like extras from a film of my youth - "The Alamo" - they were in fact a guard of honour for Argentina's President Christina de Kirchner, who had just concluded a deal with Bolivia's President Evo Morales about buying some of Bolivia's surplus oil and gas.....

Illyama, overlooking La Paz.

President Morales is a hero to many Bolivians.  The first President in Latin America of native Aymaran origin (rather than of European descent), he has implemented many changes to benefit the indigenous peoples - we saw new schools in almost every remote village we passed.  He is very much a man of the people, and has revived ancient cultural events.  After being sworn in as President, he attended an indigenous spiritual ceremony at the ancient complex of Tiwanaku, and was created Supreme Leader of the Aymara people.  Possibly a bit like David Cameron being anointed by a Druid at Stonehenge.

Presidetial palace, La Paz.

Bolivia has a Diversity flag of 35 differently-coloured squares, each colour representing a different ethnic minority.  And, compared to neighbouring countries where the indigenous populations were either virtually wiped out or suppressed, it is obvious to any visitors that the pre-Spanish cultures are alive and thriving in Bolivia.

Local resident with ubiquitous mobile phone and bowler

However, exploring La Paz was not that comfortable, given the altitude and steep gradient on every street!  Added to that was the choked and choking traffic, comprising mainly of minibuses, and large, ancient 50-seaters, which seemed to have been donated by other countries, decades ago, as they updated their own transport options.  The city also sits in a valley, and the air is trapped by the high Andean peaks all around.   To escape the smog, we headed UP another 800 feet to Lake Titicaca, and the amazing site of Tiwanaku.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku

Carved heads in temple wall

Tiwanaku is a temple complex, and also the name of a people who inhabited the region before the Incas.  (Some people think the Incas took over Tiwanaku towns and buildings and claimed them as their own, and when the Spaniards arrived, the Incas got all the credit.  I couldn't possibly comment......)

Solid stone (one piece) steps

The buildings that have been excavated in the last 50 years or so, show an incredible skill at handling and dressing massive stone blocks.  And unlike Inca buildings, these were held together by metal ties for solidity. The walls are perfectly aligned and smooth and square for hundreds of metres.  Gateways are carved out of huge solid blocks of stone, which would cause problems to move today, never mind in a society without the wheel, or draught animals.

Giant figure with 2 left hands

There is so much of interest at Tiwanaku and about their culture, that I can only touch on it here.  One aspect that is still impressive is the output from the specially-designed fields.  These were raised and surrounded by water-filled ditches, which created a micro-climate in the arid region, so much so that a population of 100,000 was being fed at the peak of the city's power.   However, a long, 30-year drought around 1,000 years ago saw the water levels of Lake Titicaca drop and the shores recede from the city, by about 20 miles.

Bolivian, Diversity and La Paz flags.

Without food to feed its people, the society broke up and dispersed to more fertile areas to the south and west.  Around 1460, the Inca empire expanded into what is now Bolivia, and utilised many of the buildings as Sun Temples, only to find Europeans arriving, looking for gold, a few decades after them.

Open-air model village, L Titicaca

One of the few aspects of culture that continues unchanged is the traditional reed boats on Lake Titicaca.  Some of you may remember the Norwegian explorer, Thor Heyerdahl, attempting to show that cultures from South America and Egypt may have been connected, or at least, communicated ideas with each other, such is the advanced architecture and astronomy that is found in both regions.  With the Ra 2 expedition, he demonstrated that it was possible to cross the Atlantic in reed boats, and actually did this in one built by a Bolivian, who is still building these boats today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl

Dawn over the Andes from Sun Island

Using a slightly more modern hydrofoil, we continued on to Sun Island, which was a traffic-free haven in the lake.  Mules helped carry bags and water and beer up the steep slopes to simple hostels with stunning views - east to the Andes and the rising sun, and west towards Peru and the setting sun.  Easy to see why it was a sacred spot for more than one civilisation.

Reed boat 

The island is crossed by good paths, part of the network of roads built by the Incas to allow easy access to the outposts of their empire from their capital in Cuzco.  But this good network also assisted their speedy downfall, allowing the Spaniards to travel quickly throughout the empire on horses, which the Incas had never seen.  And by taking hostage and killing the Inca king, Atahualpa, the conquistadores imposed their will on a subjugated people.

Cordillera Real from Moon Island

So, it is all the more remarkable, that only in the last decade have the indigenous people re-asserted themselves and elected one of their own in Bolivia.

Across the Andes by frog plane

Travelling back across the Altiplano plateau and through the huge shanty town of El Alto, which surrounds La Paz airport, we could only marvel about the peoples who had lived for thousands of years at an altitude that our puny lungs could barely cope with.  During  a very long take-off through the thin air, we had time to glance down to La Paz in the valley, and over to the high Andes, as we crossed them into Chile, or, as Bolivians would say," Bolivia!".  Bolivia lost its coastal region to Chile in the War of the Pacific in 1898, including the worlds largest copper mine.  It still rankles.

Gardens in Vina del Mar, near Valparaiso

Central Chile was another contrast, with verdant vineyards, and balmy coastal resorts.  Santiago could have been in a Mediterranean country - good transport; great food and wine; ski-ing, and swimming in the ocean within 2 hours....

Easter Island resident

I might say more about Chile another time.  We intend to go back, if we can.  But we might not manage to return to Bolivia - one place that won't ever be confused with somewhere in Europe.

Santiago Cathedral.

Hasta la Vista

Peter

"Tell me, Mr Bond, what do you know about Bolivia?"

[Apologies to penguin lovers.  Although we are now back in the Falklands, this chapter of our life in the Southern Hemisphere is set in Bolivia, which we recently visited.  No penguins in Bolivia, but plenty of Vicuna and Viscacha.  Not seen one?  Read on....]

The title of this post is from the Bond film, "Quantum of Solace", which I borrowed from the well-stocked library in Stanley, after hearing some of it was set in Bolivia.  Like James Bond, I knew very little about the country, so thought it would be interesting to see how it was portrayed.  We've just returned from this fascinating and beautiful country......

Licancabur, border of Chile and Bolivia

Well, the Atacama Desert features a lot in the Bond film, but as we had just experienced this huge wilderness, we knew that it was in Chile, not Bolivia!   Maybe the location director needed some help?

Chilean/Bolivian border

We had spent 4 days in the desert (See - To Mars & Beyond post), and the next leg of our trip began with a short taxi ride to the edge of San Pedro de Atacama;  waiting in a long queue to have our passports stamped by Chilean Border police; and then onwards and upwards to the border on a very smooth, sealed, highway, the likes of which we were not to see again until we arrived back in Chile!

The Chilean-Bolivian border (the snowy ditch), with the Bolivian border post on the other side. 

Within about 20 minutes, we were at the rather insubstantial border - a line in the sand (or snow).  A 4x4 car   arrived at the other side of a small ditch (the border) , and Ricardo and Noel  introduced themselves as our driver and guide for the next stage of the trip.  Bags and passengers were handed over, and we were told to go into the hut and have the Bolivian border guards approve our entry into the country.

Bolivians!  With bottles of water for the effects of altitude.

The Bolivian border control is in a tiny building at 13,000 feet (4000 metres) above sea level, in the middle of a barren plateau, surrounded by volcanoes.  It was a lonely outpost compared to the bustling, cosmopolitan San Pedro we had just left, and it must have been an ordeal for the border guards living there.

Within minutes we were on our way, and spotting herds of vicuna loping across the plain.  Vicuna are valued for their fine wool, and are related to the Llama, guanaco and alpaca.  These camelids live at different levels in the mountains, each adapted to the different eco-systems that the altitude and tiny rainfall confer.

But apart from the odd vicuna, we saw very few signs of life that day.

The "road" was simply one of many parallel tracks ploughing across the gravel of the Altiplano.  Whereas, on the Chilean side of the Andes, we climbed from about 9,000 feet to 13,000 in less than 30 minutes, it was going to take us 3 days of gradual descent to get back down to that height, as we crossed this vast plateau.

Salty lagoons of various colours - green, white and red...

The mountains and salt plans are very rich in minerals.  Chile has a copper mine that has about 30% of the world's supply.  There were salt flats we would pass which contained about 40% of the world's Lithium - a vital component in high-tech industry.  Much of it is exported to China.

Colourful mineral-rich mountains

However, as Bolivia is land-locked (as a result of Chile grabbing its coast (and copper mine!) in the 1898 war), all its exports need to go through a neighbouring country.  Although we didn't realise it at the time, the road we were on had been "upgraded" to allow big trucks full of ore to speed back to Chile.  Once we passed the mines, however, the road reverted to a very rough mountain track used only by occasional tourists exploring this remote and rugged corner of Bolivia.

Fast ore truck.

100 years later, the Bolivians are still upset about losing their port, and a few times we saw the slogan - "The Malvinas for Argentina - the Pacific for Bolivia!".  It seems Bolivia and Argentina were very friendly, and neither liked Chile much!  We were to see more evidence of this before we left.

The gravel road ahead

So, for a couple of hours we sped across this barren landscape, dotted with boulders the size of houses that had been spewed out of erupting volcanoes, centuries ago.

Being overtaken on the Altiplano......

Seeing another vehicle was quite an event, and even though the "road" was about 5 miles wide, there was always the worry that an oncoming car might be using the same track as us!

The Altiplano is about 5 miles wide here, so lane discipline is not that crucial.  

After a couple of hours driving in straight line, we came upon the very remote outpost of Polques - a roadside restaurant for the truckers and tourists, a toilet, and a thermal pool.  What more could you want in a lunch-stop?

Thermal pool at 4,500 metres.

Refreshed, we continued, climbing at one point to over 5,000 metres (16,400 feet), where we found Sol de Manana (Morning Sun) - a geothermal field full of boiling mud pools and smelly sulphurous geysers.  We didn't linger long, even though it was probably one of the most amazing geothermal sites we'd seen, including some in New Zealand and Iceland!  But the combination of the foul air and the lack of oxygen meant we needed to get lower soon.

Boiling mud

Not a place to loiter

Within an hour, we descended another 1,000 metres, and caught sight of the famous Colorado Lagoon, coloured deep red, as the name suggests. (My Spanish was slowly improving!).

Laguna Colorado - Red Lagoon

The colour is caused by the mix of minerals that get washed into the lagoon.  None of the lagoons we saw had any outlets, so the concentration of minerals has been building up over thousands of years.

Pink flamingoes in the Red Lagoon

Despite the strange colour, the lagoon also attracted flamingoes, so some creatures must be able to survive at these heights.  However, we could see why NASA chose this region as a proving ground for its Mars explorer vehicle, "Curiousity".    

After about another 4 hours of driving, we arrived at our stop for the night - the isolated hamlet of Villa Mar.

Grapefruit juice, Orange juice, or Oxygen for breakfast at 4km asl!

The hotel had only recently been built - offering a stopping place for visitors, and also earning some cash for the locals, who were mainly subsistence farmers.  Its name meant "Cave of the Condor" in English, and it had a couple of unusual bedrooms built in to a natural rockface.  In an attempt to take the chill off the room, however, the bottled gas heaters had caused a bit of condensation, so we had to move to a more conventional room, and leave the cave to the Condors. 

The rabbit-like Viscacha, enjoying the morning sun.

We dined on traditional spicy quinoa soup, and stewed llama with pureed potatoes.  In this region, llama are the equivalent of sheep or cattle in most countries - ubiquitous, and used for food and clothing, plus a pack animal.  Quinoa was enjoying a surge in export demand, and farmers were being encouraged to plant more of it.  As we descended the Altiplano, we saw more and more fields cleared of rocks and planted with the nutritious crop - one of the few to grow at this altitude.

Bolivian icons - Volcano and llamas

The next morning, we awoke just in time to see the sun appear over the mountains.  In fact, despite it always being overcast in Chile during our visit, we were not to see another cloud for the next fortnight while in Bolivia!  However, the stream outside had frozen overnight, reminding us of the altitude.

After some "huevos revueltos"  (scrambled eggs - although the waitress may have understood my mime more easily than my Spanish...), we headed down the road again.  Our destination that night was to be on the edge of a huge salt flat.  But first, some more Altiplano scenery, more lagoons, and many more flamingos!

Near the Hotel de Flamencos!

Jame's Flamingo - one of 3 species here.

We also saw Andean and Chilean flamingos, which have different coloured legs, making it a bit easier to identify them!

Our driver, Ricardo, claimed to have driven in this area about 200 times, over 10 years.  But this was the first time he'd seen flamingos in this particular lagoon.  We were lucky.  We had only diverted here to use the toilets at the Hotel de Flamencos, another very remote outpost.

Reluctantly leaving these lovely, leggy birds, we continued east, eventually coming to the main Bolivia-Chile railway line.  Trains still run on this track, although I think passengers are rarely carried.   If you want to know more about how the railways were built, mainly by British engineers and mining  companies 100  years ago, I can recommend "Ghost Train through the Andes: a search for my grandfather", by Michael Jacobs.  It's also an excellent insight into the culture of Bolivia and the fairly recent (up to 2005) political events.

The Chile-Bolivia main line.  No manned level crossings here!

After looking both ways to make sure no trains were coming, we drove alongside the railway for about 15 miles, across what we thought was a big salt flat.  But we were to discover it was the size of an olive compared to the pizza-sized salt flat we would see tomorrow!  We were staying at another San Pedro - San Pedro de Quemez (St Peter the "Burned", so-called after the village was torched by marauding Chileans.  Neighbours, eh?!).

Identity tags for the llama

The hotel was built of the plentiful local stone, which also provided the material for many corrals, full of llamas for the night.

On close inspection, many of the llamas had colourful knitted attachments round their head.  These were to help identify the owners of the llamas, as they are mostly free-ranging.  Luckily, they seemed peaceful and didn't demonstrate their famous habit of spitting.....

"For sale. One careful owner.  Low mileage"

After another hearty breakfast, now accompanied by coca tea to help alleviate the effects of altitude, we set off to the Salar de Uyuni - the biggest salt flats in the world.  (Note that coca leaf tea is legal and healthy.  Other derivatives of the coca plant might not be.  I can't comment, not being a Coca-Cola addict!)

Petrified Cacti, Salar de Uyuni

On the edge of the flats, a local had discovered some caves about 8 years ago.  Excavating them himself, they contained a warren of ancient graves, full of mummified bodies in the foetal position.  The air is extremely dry here, and there was very little decay.  Even some cacti were fossilised.   Some of the rocks were covered in what looked like coral.  In fact, it was fossilised coral: still clinging to the rocks that used to be on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, now over 12,000 feet (3.8km) above sea level!
http://www.uyuni-bolivia.travel/salar-de-uyuni-guide

About half the size of Wales.  Visible from space.  

Leaving the caves to their owner and his mummies, we headed north across the huge expanse of the Salar.  (Spookily, my school Latin lessons of decades ago popped into my head as we drove across the endless white plain, and I was able to explain to our Bolivian hosts how salt had been so valuable in Roman times, that the soldiers were paid in it, hence our word "salary".  They were dumbstruck by this factoid.  Either that, or were concentrating on finding a landmark to navigate by).

Looking for the toilets...

Soon, we left the surrounding hills behind, and had a 360 degree panorama - totally white up to the horizon, then totally blue above.  The hard crust of salt, the remains of an ancient lake the size of Gambia, glistened like countless diamonds as it crunched under our tyres.  We stopped to stretch our legs and taste the salt.  Salty.  Enough salt to keep all the fish and chips shops supplied for a million years.  (Probably an underestimate.   We will probably run out of fish long before we consume all the salt here.)

After about an hour's drive, some low hills - islands - appeared on the horizon.  We stopped at one, Incahuasi, which was a nature reserve, holding many ancient cacti, as well as being a pre-Spanish sacred site.

The oldest and biggest cacti, about 900 years old.

The local Aymara Indians (here long before the Spanish and the Incas arrived) have a legend which describes how the salt flat was created.  All the characters are famous volcanoes in Bolivia.  One volcano which dominates the Salar - Tunupa - took the form of a beautiful princess.   Two gods / mountains fought over her, and after their armies reached stalemate, they engaged in single combat.  The Great god, Illyama (a mountain that dominates La Paz), intervened and separated them; they shook hands, then Huayna stabbed Saraja in the back as he turned away.  As he lay dying, Saraja swung his sling and fired his sharpest rock at Huayna.  The rock hit so hard, it decapitated him.   Miraculously, Sajara survived, and Tunupa had his baby.   However, the child died at a few weeks old.  Tunupa was grief-stricken, and her breast milk flowed unchecked - creating the vast white lake of  Salar de Tunupa or Uyuni.  (c. 4,000 square miles - slightly smaller than the Falkland Islands.)

Most bikers travel in convoy to avoid getting lost

A salt crystal

A local bus takes a shortcut across the flats

Hexagonal patterns emerge, as the moisture evaporates..

Salt is collected by hand, then packed and distributed by local co-operatives.

That night, we stayed at a hotel at the edge of the Salar.  The only local building material is salt, and this is cut into large blocks to form the walls and floors.  Smaller blocks are carved into tables and chairs.  Only the toilets and showers are built of conventional, waterproof,  materials!

Salt Hotel - table, chairs, floor, walls - all made of salt. Don't spill your soup  here!

Bedside table and walls -  all made of salt.

We've stayed at an Ice Hotel in Sweden, and this was almost as cold: just above freezing.  Although the beds had electric blankets, we were now getting used to "dressing for dinner"  - putting on some more layers!

Where steam trains come to die - Uyuni

Next morning, after watching the sun illuminate the volcano, Tunupa, about 40 miles away across the salt flat, we travelled the short distance to the town of Uyuni, where we hope to see some decaying trains in the Train Cemetery.

Nice to see some well-travelled Manchester United fans have been here....

We had now crossed the massive salt flats - Salar de Uyuni - and were heading east.  We would find more old trains, including one attacked by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; and one of the world's biggest silver mines.   Not to mention, the remains of ancient civilisations and cities, the exploration of which left us breathless! 

More soon.

Peter