The Train Cemetery

"Such is life"

"Such is life", reads the graffitied message on the rusting engine. This seems quite apt, especially here in Bolivia. Dreams of a modern railway network at the core of an industrial and tecnological revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries were never materialised. Now, just outside of Uyuni lie a great line of disused carriages and engines. It stands as a constant reminder of the failure to bring riches and stability to one of Latin America's poorest and most long suffering countries. The majority of Bolivia's exports continue to be primary goods with no added value - metals, minerals and agricultural produce. Despite what it signifies, the trains do at least make a fantastic playground and an incredible sight as they stand, rusting away and slowly sinking into the desert sand.

We walked along to the train cemetery in the afternoon, long after the morning's tourists jeeps had disappeared over the Salt Flats. There was only ourselves and a few local children and families clambering over the engines and carriages.

Many of the engines were probably manufactured in the UK. No doubt we did a lot better out of it than Bolivia.

The railway is hardly used today - five trains a week, mainly filled with tourists. There is also the odd van-sized goods train, like this one - goodness knows what its purpose is or what the original railway engineers would have made of it. It seems pitiful as it rattles past the old, majestic engines lying abandoned in the desert.