Wheres the salt

Thursday 24th April

There is only one reason to come to Unuyi, and it is not to see the train cemetary (thanks Lonely Planet). It is to see the salt flats. These are the largest slat deposits in the world, and are something to see. It is basically a large white plain that stretches as far as the horizon.

Before we got out there on our tour we actually had a small amount of free time in the town. So I had a quick look around after breakfast (again quite good thanks to the American influence). There was a market with everything for sale and it turned out we were practically staying on an army base - we could see all the soldiers drilling - but there was little else to see. Although I missed out on the sight of the women in the market eating directly out of a goats head, which one of the girls saw and nearly threw up.

Anyway then we went out to the salt flats. First we saw the processing factory which is pretty much a sweat shop, followed by the mines, which are just guys pouring water on the salt rock to soften it, before shovelling it up. Then we drove 80km to the island in the middle of the salt where we had lunch (yes there were pass the salt jokes) and did a bit of exploring for the day.

Everyone else also tried to take those false perpective pictures with various props to make it look like they were drinking giant bottles of wine etc. These are supposed to work because the scenery is so uniform, but you could do it in a white room. I didn´t see the point, so took pictures of the people taking the pictures, a sort of behind the scenes look at special effects.

After that we visited a hotel made out of salt, which isn´t as exciting as it sounds (although it sold Twix bars which was exciting) and then we took some sunset photos while it got cold again. Then it was back to our hotel where it was time for more pizza. And a cake and card for Colin our driver, as it was his birthday.