Our small dirty bus departed late but it turned out to be the first and last bus to leave Potosi for 9 hours. After 20 minutes we reached a blockade that was being established but which because of our timing we were able to walk across and change to a different bus that headed 6 hours south west to the remote town of Uyuni. We were so pleased that this was our last Third World public bus and as ever it was full of adventure!! The very bumpy and cramped journey was again full of spectacular scenery, making its way across the high Andean altiplano past high mountains.
Uyuni is a bland town situated in the desert and is completely flat and very dusty, with wide roads and shabby buildings. After a surprisingly nice dinner of pizza and pasta we went to our hotel for a cold night's sleep. At 3,660m altitude, Uyuni completely freezes at night as any heat escapes out of the atmosphere because of it's situation in the desert. We were promised a heater which turned out to be a gas cylinder that made our eyes burn so we had to turn it off! They came to reclaim it after an hour anyway! After a poor night's sleep, we awoke the following morning extremely cold and grouchy both proclaiming 'get me to Chile!'.
After breakfast (fresh bread for the first time in weeks... hooorah!) we joined our 3 day tour of the Bolivian salt flats, recommended as one of the highlights in Bolivia. We chose a company called Andes Salt Expeditions who provided a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser, guide, driver and cook for our expedition. We drove out of the town and made a first stop at the train 'cemetery' where there were many rusting, abandoned trai
n wrecks, some which had been allegedly destroyed and looted by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We then visited the Cooperative Rosario, a small plant for extracting the salt from the flats, before driving onto the Salt Flats (Salar De Uyuni). The Salt Flats is a desert made entirely of salt that cover 12,000 square kilometres, created by the retreat of an ancient ocean. 
The flats contain estimated 64 billion tonnes of salt and are an amazing bright white that stretch as far as the eye can see. We stopped to take some photos on mounds of salt that had been collected before heading for a llama barbeque lunch at a 'Salt Hotel' (literally a hotel made entirely of salt blocks). This hotel is now disused and serves only as a museum. 
After lunch we were able to take some very funny pictures owing to the total lack of perspective in the desert. We took photos showing us standing on coke bottles, holding a crowd in the palm of our hands and sitting up against our guidebooks! Bi insisted on getting a picture squishing Ash with her foot, if just to set the standard for life going forwards! 
In the afternoon we visited Isla De Pescado (Fish Island) in the middle of the flats, a hilly outpost surrounded by a flat, white sea of hexagonal salt tiles. The Island is populated by cacti that grow up to 10 metres high. We climbed to the top of the island and had a marvellous panorama of the entire salt flats. 
We then headed another 2 hours across to the sides of the flats to spend the night in the Salt Hotel, which to our delight turned out to be a few degrees warmer than our previous deep-freeze hotel, albeit the base of our bed was made from salt blocks!
We then headed another 2 hours across to the sides of the flats to spend the night in the Salt Hotel, which to our delight turned out to be a few degrees warmer than our previous deep-freeze hotel, albeit the base of our bed was made from salt blocks!On Thursday we were up at 6am and spent most of the day in the 4x4. The other members of our group were very glad Ash plugged in his iPod as we were able to avoid another 8 hours of Bolivian pan-pipe music! 
During the day we visited the Red Lagoon (Laguna Colorada), and passed through the Siloli Desert. In the afternoon we saw the famous 'Rock Tree' that inspired Salvador Dali. That night was particularly memorable... we stayed in an extremely basic 6-bed concrete cabin situated at 4,300m. 
Inside the temperature measured a balmy -1oC whilst outside the temperature plummeted to -20oC. We rugged up to the hilt in all the clothes we had packed for our whole trip... Bi wore 2 hats, gloves, a buff, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 long sleeved shirts and 2 jumpers! We climbed into our sleeping bags, lobbed blankets over the top and hid under for a very poor night's sleep.... we have never been so happy to be woken up at 5am to get the hell out of somewhere!
We boarded the 4x4 and made our way to 5,000m (the highest we have ever been) to visit the 'Sol de Manana', a geyser basin covered with steaming, bubbling mud pots and fumaroles. The area is a hive of volcanic activity and smelt strongly of sulphur. We stopped for breakfast outside but it was so cold we decided to abandon it and get back in the vehicle! After visiting another lagoon, coloured green from asbestos and magnesium, we made our way to the Bolivian/Chilean border and descended 2,000m to the comparatively hot San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. We are so 
happy to be back in a more developed country! It's amazing that you can simply cross a border and experience such a difference in infrastructure, people and general living standards. We had a fabulous, hugely earned 3 course almuerzo (lunch) although we cringed at the much higher prices having lived so cheaply for the past 2.5 months! We spent the afternoon wandering the small town, booking tours and buses, and planning our final few weeks in South America. We have decided to head back into Argentina to visit Salta and travel down to Mendoza to drink great wine and eat huge steaks (well, for Ash!) before heading back across the Andes into Santiago for our flight to Easter Island on June 15th.
During the day we visited the Red Lagoon (Laguna Colorada), and passed through the Siloli Desert. In the afternoon we saw the famous 'Rock Tree' that inspired Salvador Dali. That night was particularly memorable... we stayed in an extremely basic 6-bed concrete cabin situated at 4,300m. 
Inside the temperature measured a balmy -1oC whilst outside the temperature plummeted to -20oC. We rugged up to the hilt in all the clothes we had packed for our whole trip... Bi wore 2 hats, gloves, a buff, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 long sleeved shirts and 2 jumpers! We climbed into our sleeping bags, lobbed blankets over the top and hid under for a very poor night's sleep.... we have never been so happy to be woken up at 5am to get the hell out of somewhere!
We boarded the 4x4 and made our way to 5,000m (the highest we have ever been) to visit the 'Sol de Manana', a geyser basin covered with steaming, bubbling mud pots and fumaroles. The area is a hive of volcanic activity and smelt strongly of sulphur. We stopped for breakfast outside but it was so cold we decided to abandon it and get back in the vehicle! After visiting another lagoon, coloured green from asbestos and magnesium, we made our way to the Bolivian/Chilean border and descended 2,000m to the comparatively hot San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. We are so 
happy to be back in a more developed country! It's amazing that you can simply cross a border and experience such a difference in infrastructure, people and general living standards. We had a fabulous, hugely earned 3 course almuerzo (lunch) although we cringed at the much higher prices having lived so cheaply for the past 2.5 months! We spent the afternoon wandering the small town, booking tours and buses, and planning our final few weeks in South America. We have decided to head back into Argentina to visit Salta and travel down to Mendoza to drink great wine and eat huge steaks (well, for Ash!) before heading back across the Andes into Santiago for our flight to Easter Island on June 15th.
