The train graveyard.

I woke up and despite applying loads of nivea and chap stick I was peeling like a King Edward. I will spend the next week peeling dead skin from my body. Breakfast, pack, taxi, bus, check-in, security, wait for boarding. It has become routine. A short flight later and I land in the desert. I got my taxi to drop me at the bus station. It's Saturday, no seats until Monday so I am holed up for the weekend. Got some beer, English prices, in one of the cheapest countries in South America, hmmm.

Uyuni was founded in 1890 as a trading post, the town has a population of 10,460 and sits at an elevation of 3,700 m (12,139 ft) above sea level. Now famous as a tourist base for the salt flats, we will hopefully return to this in a later post. It also has an antique train cemetery which I decided to visit. It took about 45 minutes to walk through the dust. In the past the town served as a distribution hub for trains carrying minerals on their way to the Pacific Ocean ports. The train lines were built by British engineers at the end of the 19th century for Antofagasta (1888-1892). It was constantly sabotaged by the local people who saw it as an unwelcome intrusion into their lives.

The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly due to the mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned thereby producing the train cemetery. There are talks to build a museum out of the cemetery, I think they should, it would stop the budding banksys desecrating them (info thanks to wikipedia!).

Walking walk back through the heat there were many dogs around, some resting in the shade and some scavenging for food. Some dogs just don't realise how well off they are. Got to my hotel room and found the historic first ever Ireland win over the New Zealand All Blacks on the internet. Decided to watch that instead of the Wales match...