Day 16 - Uyuni Train

The train for the most part was decent. I thought that riding in the cheaper seats, something horrible for a tall man to do, may get me the same interaction that I got on the bus ride from La Paz to Oruro. But there was no such thing. Half of the cart was full of either smelly hippies with nasty beaver tail dread locks or plane-jane tourists who seemed sweet. I couldn’t detect from their horrible Spanish where the smelly hippies were from exactly but their dog pack attitude made me dismiss them all together two hours into the trip. I was stupid enough to suggest a seat exchange with an older Bolivian man so that one of the smelly hippies could sit with his friends. What I got in return was a very boring old round man who lacked a certain sincerity. His leg and wing span on his small oval body made me clutch the edge of window and only arm rest. Near the end of the trip while he slept I had to get a little physical and work my way into my side of the seat. This morning I wake up in Uyuni with a loud lo-fi radio sounds coming from some of the rooms. The maid likes to play the tunes real high. I have also discovered by my 5:30am wake up call that there is a marching band or military base very very very close by. I’m sure thats its because of these alarming wake up calls that I may make my stay in Uyuni shorter then I thought. The amount of Lithium in the salt flats doesn’t seem to be general knowledge. I’m finding it discouraging that I, a foreigner, am educating them on its potential. Maybe I haven’t spoken to the right person. Yesterday on the train the man that sat next to me asked randomly if Japan was close to Canada. I tried to explain the distance and by the time he understood where exactly Japan was, we were ten minutes into our geography lesson. I didn’t mind explaining this to him – it just seemed that after he found out the distance, he couldn’t have cared less what I was saying to him. People who talk for the sake of talking to pass the time is frustrating. Behind me there was a lovely Bolivian family of four who's daughter enjoyed screaming at the top of her lungs. Surprisingly enough it didn’t bother me a bit – I just smiled and thought about how much I want to have babies. Today I am going to try and get some meetings with the municipality of Uyuni to see what the future holds for this small potential mining town. Tomorrow I plan on visiting the salt flats on a one day tour to see its visual potential for a possible documentary on the Lithium reserves. My gut tells me that the story I want to tell is in Potosi and that’s my next stop. My feeling is that Uyuni and its Lithium potential is something that still needs time to ferment and develop. But I will still conduct my research and get to the bottom of where the local and federal government stands on mining 70% of the worlds Lithium reserves.

Note: Waited 30 minutes for the picture to upload - no dice. No pictures till Sunday when I get to Potosi.