November 20, 2005
Day 53
We were in no rush today. We only had about five hour left, including all of the stops for the day, so we got to sleep late, eat breakfast, and throw the Frisbee around some more before taking off. I began to see why going all the way back to Uyuni in three days was a route that a lot of people chose, but I didn't mind the relaxed pace because I didn't have any deadlines.
Our first stop was at the Valle de Rocas, which, as the name implies, was just a valley with a bunch of rocks. Next, we drove to Villa Alota, a tiny town in the desert. It had a nice looking church and a few other buildings to look at, but the streets were empty. I wasn't sure if anyone actually lived there, or if was just a ghost town.
Next, we went to San Cristobal, which was only slightly more lively. There was a small market, but there wasn't much for sale there other than food. The town also had an empty soccer stadium and a church made completely out of stones. Most of the towns we stopped at had no electricity, running water, or entertainment other than the occasional soccer game. Needless to say, I wouldn't want to live in any of them.
We got back to Uyuni, which seemed like a sprawling metropolis after the previous towns we had stopped at, early in the afternoon. I decided that I wanted to go a bit north to Oruro next to relax for a few days before heading to Sajama National Park and Chile. The problem was that the only bus going to Oruro arrived at 3:00 AM. I don't particularly enjoy arriving in unfamiliar places by myself in the middle of the night, but I didn't have much of a choice, so I bought a ticket for tonight.
I still had a few hours to kill before my bus left, so I went to an Internet cafe to try and get some of my pictures uploaded. That was a really bad idea. Not only was it expensive, but the computer I used was horrible. I have to learn to check the computer's statistics before attempting to use it from now on. Sorry for the techno-speak, but a 200 Mhz processor and 64 MB of RAM are not sufficient to run Windows XP, Firefox, and a Java Applet for uploading photos. I wasted two hours on the Internet and crashed on the tour agency's couch until it was time to leave town.
The photo album for this entry is here.
