Dakar Rally Uyuni

The motorcycle and quadratrack components (not trucks and 4WDs) of the 2014 of the so-called "Dakar" Rally will be passing through southwestern Bolivia in the second week of January.

From the website <http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2014/us/route.html> it looks as though they will come north from Salta, Argentina, on 12 January, presumably pass through Tupiza, to overnight in Uyuni. On 13 January they will go across the Salar and cross the border into Chile.

Getting the "Dakar" to come through Bolivia (even if only bikes and quads) has been heavily hyped. There is said to have been an effort to improve facilities along the route.

Even so, as well as the usual tourist flow, all the petrol-heads in Bolivia will swarm down on Uyuni and the surrounding areas, so congestion seems likely. Perhaps other posters who have been there recently can comment.
Anyway if you like to have your appreciation of stark and beautiful landscapes enhanced by the snarl of engines, here's your chance ...

worth noting that all accommodations where booked up many months ago and you normal tours wont be running. Also the train schedule has trained slightly for those days.

By coincidence, last night we had the freshly appointed general manager of a soon-to-be-finished luxury hotel in Colchani in our restaurant. He told us this hotel is due to be finished before New year's eve and will hold 2000 (!!!) beds. The investors claim that the 6 million dollars they have invested in the hotel will be returned in profit in the 2 days of the Dakar rally, as the place is already booked full for those days!

Yesterday's La Razón had an article on a festival to be held on the hotel's grounds with 10 bands and 10 DJs during the Dakar rally.

So add the gazillions of empty beercans and Listo bottles and thousands of liters of urine of the party folk being dumped into the Salar, to the noise and destruction caused by the speed freaks of the rally itself, to the soon to be erected lithium factories and the future does look bright for the Salar and its surroundings...

Edited by: Peter_1972

not sure how they work out how 6 millions dollars profit could be returned in two days even at 100% capacity.

6000000 / 2000 = 3000 per person , so thats 1500usd per night or if 3 nights 1000usd per night not including costs. Of course they will make profit on food and drinks but I still cant see it myself.

#3:
Well, that manager said that, not me, tunabagel :)

Still, he also mentioned some oil sheik and a certain powerful Argentinian woman (who I won't mention by name so as to not get mr. manager in trouble for blabbermouthing - you never know how word gets around :) ) and her family coming over, both of them with an 150+ entourage.

I shouldn't think that that sort of people live on a continental breakfast and a pizza and two paceñas at night :) so while no doubt that these investors exaggerate a little as that's what investors do to get their investments back I suppose, it still won't be too far of the mark.

But then again, I run a two-bit restaurant in La Paz, so what do I know of making money :)

"At least" 118806 tourists are expected to descend on Uyuni for the Dakar, according to official sources. Such precision in the numbers - I wish the rest of our statistics were that good! And Our Leader is angling to have the whole Rally - including 4WDs and lorries - come through Bolivia, and more parts of Bolivia, in 2015.
Perhaps I should relocate to Mali. :-)