Captivity: Held Against Our Will on the 4th Day and Night

On the morning of our fourth day, there were rumors floating around that the transportation sector and most other businesses in the city of Uyuni were on strike. This meant all access in and out of the city was blocked and most businesses were closed. As you can gather this was a large concern to us, considering our excursion was supposed to end in Uyuni .

From what we were able to understand, the main demand was for a paved road stretching from Uyuni to Potosi.

When the rumors were no longer rumors and seemed to become the truth, the drivers and guides of all the tours (8 jeeps) gathered and decided it was best to travel as a group and to stop in the town of Calchaci. This town is on the border of the salt flats and is only 20km from Uyuni.

Upon arrival into the town, we were ¨greeted¨ by the head of the strike committee. This sentence has a few points which need elaborating. Firstly, ¨greeted¨ really means surrounding our jeep convoy, writing down all the license plate numbers and threatening to slash our tires and stone us if we tried to leave. Secondly, for a town with solely 2 phones that reached beyond the town's limits (which we were not permitted to use), no cell service and no internet, they were very organized and in touch with ¨central command¨ regarding the situation. Thirdly, the strike had spread from Uyuni across the province covering from Potosi to Oruro.
We were told that we could not travel on the road and that in order to leave, our drivers needed to stand in support of the strike movement. All this took place before noon.

Around 12:30, an update came that the government was meeting with the representatives of the strike committee at 5pm. Around 6pm, we would get an answer as to whether we could leave or not.

The afternoon was relatively pleasant considering we were being held against our will. We were permitted to walk around the town and there was even a local vs. gringo football match. It also wasn't freezing cold since the sun was out.

At 6pm, there was still no update. (We later found out the meeting hadn't even begun). At 7:45pm, our guides and drivers decided we should mount the vehicles and drive to the checkpoint where we would try and pressure them to release us. This unsuccessful attempt lasted two hours. It got really cold in the jeep so we went out and stood with the townspeople around their protest fire. While there, we witnessed roll call being taken to check that the members of the community who were supposed to be present, were.

After our attempted release failed, we returned to the part of town we had being waiting in and stayed there in the salt accommodations overnight. This meant we had to sleep through another night in the cold.
In the morning, we were woken up by Raoul saying that we were leaving. Either they let us through or we drive through anyways. Luckily, we were let through. Even luckier, we weren't stopped on our way to or into Uyuni. The best part, we got to the bus station in time to make the bus to Sucre and therefore didn't have to risk being stuck in Uyuni if the strike resumed. At that point, things were open all over the city. There were two rumors, the first that the strike was over, the second that the protestors granted a 24 hour gap so people could get around.

This experience was truly an authentic Bolivian adventure. At no point were any of us nervous for our safety. None the less it was scary being in a foreign country where we had no connection to the outside world. This is a reality of traveling in Bolivia, one that you read multiple warnings of in the travel books but don't think it will actually happen to you. I hope it doesn't.

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