Uyuni

The city of Uyuni is located in the southwestern part of Bolivia (Latin America), it was founded in 1890.

This is a strategic transport hub, the crossing point of railways to the settlements of Calama, Villason, La Paz, Potosi.

The population is 10,460 (2012).

Most of the city residents are engaged in tourism: they work in hotels and restaurants, conduct excursions.

 

 

 

 

Climate: sharply continental, with large temperature changes during the day, with strong winds and frequent weather changes.

 

Travelers from all over the world are attracted by local attractions: the world's largest salt marsh Uyuni, the cemetery of steam locomotives, geysers and colonies of beautiful flamingos.

 

 

 

 

Salar Uyuni is located in the vicinity of the city of the same name, it is a dried salt lake in the southern part of the Altiplano valley.

 

The annual production of salt in this salt marsh is 25 thousand tons, and the reserve of table salt is 10 billion tons.

 

Local residents to attract tourists began to build original hotels (one of them is called "White Beach") from salt blocks, in which you can stay for the night on beds made of salt (coverage and blankets sewn by local needlewomen from alpaca wool). Lighting here will be the lights of candles.

 

In the rainy season, there are more tourists on the salt marsh - the sky and clouds are reflected in the water on the ground, and you can take the most spectacular photos.

 

The salt marsh is considered the brightest place on the planet, where astronauts test remote sensing devices on orbiting satellites.

 

 

 

 

Every year in November, for breeding on the salt marsh fly flamingos - Chilean (feather red and white), Andean (feather pink and white) and James flamingo (light pink plumage with red stripes on the neck and back).

 

 

 

 

The Locomotive Cemetery is an open-air museum three kilometers from the city of Uyuni. The cemetery contains the rusty remains of steam locomotives of the middle of the last century, for example, the locomotives of Garrat and Meyer, which were abandoned and useless after the reduction of mineral extraction in local mines.

 

Sol de Macana is a local valley of geysers, where the water rises to a height of 80 to 100 meters up. Other attractions include the extinct volcano of Tunupa and the Eduardo Avaros National Nature Reserve.