Salar-1st day

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Our group ended up being Tiff, myself, an Italian guy, a French guy, a Japanese girl, and an older German woman. We were also accompanied by a male driver/guide and a female cook. We all got along well. The first stop was the train graveyard. After that we visited the the salt mines and then drove out onto the Salar. The best time to visit the Salar is in April, right after the rains start so that the water sits on the salt and reflects the sky. We stopped at the salt hotel which looks like a crappy adobe hotel except its made of salt. We drove into nothingness for another hour or so until we came up to an island filled will 1000 year old cacti. Ate fried llama for lunch. We spent the afternoon driving across the salar to the Cave of the Universe and then continued on to our hostel for the night. We stayed with another tour group of mostly French girls.
Talked development with the Italian guy who was working unhappily with the Corporacion Italiana in Paraguay. His viewpoint, at least regarding the Italian development program, was that the investment in development is done exclusively to expand donor country markets, ie give money to build roads so you can sell more Fiats. I agree to an extent. That night the dueña brought out 12 beers and left them there if we should want any. Later the guide of the other group and our cook stayed up and got hammered in their room and then stuck us with the bill for the missing beers in the morning.

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