This is...mi vida

Uyuni...A slept in a hotel made of Salt

Lucky for me the Japanese girls had arraigned to stay in the salt hotel before even arriving to Uyuni, which met I also got to stay there too. Im an idiot and didn't realize that, yes, the entire hotel is made of salt. This is not an impressive marvel of human accomplishment, more like a slapped together building made of salt bricks.

The salt when cut out of the ground has lines like trees that allow you to tell how old it is and yearly rainfall etc. making the cut salt squares resemble white and brown brinks. The hotel itself is only 15 years old and looks it, it is larger than necessary and has the capacity for water and electricity. However, a few years ago when the generator blew the hotel didn't have money for another one and now its no water and no electricity. The women how runs the place told me the tourists like it better this way and I had to agree. Id much rather say I survived hypothermia inducing conditions in a building of salt with no running water or electricity.

The motley crew of travelers staying at the hotel were me, the Japanese girls (who delighted me by their frequent giggling about things I couldn't understand), two English guys, two other American girls (who irritated me by giggling too much about everything the English guys said), a U.S. diplomat his French wife and their daughter who are currently living in La Paz. The other American girls are doing some three year religious based missionary program, one in Bolivia and the other is going to Chile.

By the end of dinner, which was surprisingly wonderful, I had conflicted with both of the girls. I commented to one of the girls, after she had said she had just finished her chemistry degree, that I would have made her go into pharmaceutical sales. Immediate silence at the table and then she replied, "Well, I guess that just depends on your morals and what you want to get out of life." The English guys agreed and so I became the money hungry girl with no morals. Haha.

My ego was recovered when the diplomat wondered aloud why the saltar was so ungodly cold and I, out of no where, replied that it must be because it was an open space and being white it didn't retain any heat from the sun. They weren't as struck by my genius the rest of the night, but I spent a good part of the evening with the diplomat, his wife and the English guys, while they chained smoked, talking about Bolivia and looking at the stars. The sunset and sunrise weren't nearly as impressive as the sky at night, I wasn't even aware that many stars existed. The sunrises and sunset were great and made me feel like I was in a Dali painting in the Antarctic.

The best sleep I got in the hotel was after sunrise because I was finally convinced I wasn't going to die, an albeit cold but peaceful death, in my sleep. I woke up to find the place packed with tourists.

The tourists ebbed and flowed until our driver came back to pick us up. My entertainment was writing in my journal, watching tourist pretend to do lines of coke for pictures and watching the Japaneses girls play a combination of hopscotch, rock/paper/scissors and tag with the little girl that lives at the hotel with her 1.5 year old brother, mother and grandmother who run the place.

The day before the girl showed us open pools of water in the salt flats. I found out that the entire saltar sits above water. This is the reason they are supposed to be moving the hotel, because its polluting the water. Luckily I didn't know this while I was in the hotel so I didn't have to pretend to feel guilty. Sure I'm glad its moving, but I'm even happier I got to stay there.

The highlight of the rest of my time in Uyuni was lunch with a bunch of foreigners and dinner at the Minuteman. A heated, warm pizza place owned by an American guy and his Bolivian wife. The best pizza Ive eaten in South America hands down and clean bathrooms with toilet paper and soap.

I was happy to get the hell out of Uyuni and off to Surce, even it if was an amazing experience.

entrada de Stacey @ 15:39