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Salar Uyuni
Bolivia
Bec2004-09-17 11:34:52
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Juliaca
Juliaca was established as a watering station for steam locomotives on the edge of the salar, half way between the town of Uyuni and the Chilean border, on the line joining the mining city of Potosi to the Chilean port of Antafagosta on the Pacific ocean.
The town is slowly dying now that trains drawn by diesel locomotives go right through without stopping.
We were glad to get here for Doro had promised that a woman acquaintance of his would prepare an "asado" (grilled beef) for our lunch.
Doro's lady friend prepared lunch as he had said but it was only a watery soup and mediocre spaghetti.
She did not want to be photographed nor did she feel like talking to us even though she did speak some Spanish in addition to her native Quechua.
After lunch we drove closer to the endless salar where I spotted this lone shepherd with his flock of sheep.
Jubica
The Colque Hotel offers this great view over the small village of Jubica on the edge of a large peninsula that extends into the Salar Uyuni. The salar covers about 12 000 square kilometres at an altitude of 3560 meters. It is relatively young in geological terms and the salt layer seldom exceeds 6 to 8 meters thick. It is a remnant of the huge Andean Minchin sea that extended from the Chilean border south well into Peru in the north 40 000 years ago. This inland sea dried up leaving behind the Titicaca, Uru Uru and Popoo lakes as well as the Coipasa and Uyuni salars.
The Colque Hotel was well built by people who knew something about the hotel business but now, it is very poorly managed by the local people who took over when the original owners left.
Actually, I can't really say that it was managed, the term "occupied" would be more appropriate. It had no staff other than a old Quechua woman who sold beer. Doro and the other drivers could use the kitchen but they
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See photographs from:
Bolivia Gallery
