Uyuni, Bolivia is really in the middle of nowhere. Surrounding the town is endless expense of deserts, themselves hemmed to one side by towering mountains that separates the area from the mountainous bulk of the country. From the window of the bus that comes down from the mountains, the town looks like a mirage, a clump of civilization surrounded by inhabitable nature. Indeed, the town abruptly ends at deserts, overlooking into complete nothingness.
It is not as if the town is well-endowed with anything. Water is so scarce that trees barely grow in the streets. The salt refining industry that used to sustain the town has died along with the railway that served it, leaving behind desolate monuments of post-industrial decay, with rusting metal machines and railway carriages dotting the landscape. Buildings here make no effort at aesthetic beauty, putting no paint or decorations on the bare brick surfaces.
Yet, people come to this town, foreigners and locals alike. Tens of thousands a year visit to see the Salar de Uyuni, the endless salt flats that expand to the edges of the town. The eerie pictures of greatest nothingness in the world has drawn remarkably many people, considering that there is little that can entertain the visitor beyond the nothingness. And locals, of course, came to make money off the tourists, opening up shops, restaurants, guesthouses, and whatever else services visitors might need.
The combination of the desolate environment and tourist boom make the town as eerie as the salt flats. Buildings literally emerge out of middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but dirt roads. Yet, their isolation in the midst of deserts (not to mention the freezing weather) does not deter people from coming out and doing what they need to do in any tourist location in the world, eating, taking pictures, buying souvenirs, and just having a emery time.
The very existence of Uyuni speaks of the power international tourism has on developing a regional economy. Uyuni, given its location, traditionally is not part of Bolivia's most inhabited or developed region. Yet, today, it has become perhaps the most visited part of the country, bringing the largest amount of foreign income per capita anywhere in the country. And this is all because of some random salt flats that became something that people from across the world want to see.
Of course, Uyuni is not the only place in the world where massive tourism has become the center piece of the local economy. Yet, there are few places in the world where tourism has literally made the town. In other places, towns and villages existed before mass tourism descended. The towns and villages just had to accommodate the flow of visitors, changing their economic landscape in the process. But Uyuni is different, it was never more than a little passage point for salt in the past. Town came with tourism.
The flourishing of Uyuni speaks volumes about just how urbanization can occur in places least suitable for urbanization, just because income can be earned. With modern logistical systems and technologies, all the historical limitations for creating towns, whether it be lack of Agricultural land nearby, lack of drinkable water, or just inhospitable climate for most people to live, can be readily resolved if there is money to do so. And with salt flats drawing so much money, it makes sense for Uyuni to invest in habitability.
As temporary and improbable as it seems, modern-day examples of urbanization no longer need to be confined to locales where traditional demands for urban living CN be immediately met. Cities can literally be created anywhere, anytime, as long as there is financial incentives for those cities to exist. Such reality means that the speed of human civilization will now move much faster, no longer needing to spread from existing population centers outward. Air drop a city and let it flourish. It is an exciting time.
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