This unusual blog is one where unfortunately our brilliant photos don't quite match up to our story. The unique salt flats, colourful Laguna Colorado, vast Atacama Desert, powerful geysers and tranquil hot springs were as beautiful as they look, if not more. Unfortunately this spectacular, out-of-this-world scenery was tainted by our misguided and irresponsible driver, as seems to be a common trend in this area.

The best way to explore this vast and varied landscape is by a four-wheel-drive tour. Having heard many horror stories of tired, reckless and even drunk drivers, dodgy vehicles and dangerous roads, we decided to do a little research before booking with a company, and not let cost influence our decision. We asked around, read up on Trip Advisor and spoke directly to several different agencies, eventually choosing Quechan Collections - a friendly family company, second rated on Trip Advisor and recommended directly to us by fellow travellers. It seems, however, that Uyuni tours are simply a matter of luck and a good driver one day can be a terrible driver the next. Apparently our luck needed testing, and we are feeling significantly luckier now our tour is finished and we are in Argentina...

We've written this chronologically to give the trip the best wrap possible, because it really was beautiful and shouldn't be completely tainted by bad experience.

We joined up with Sarah and Ruth from Austria, and our very easy-going, friendly Spanish speaking guide Miguel in Uyuni. The tour started with a trip out to the Cementerio de Trenes. Here we spent hours climbing all around this interesting, if tetanus infested, rusty old coal train dump, made obsolete after the end of Bolivia's silver mining boom. The contrast between the blue sky, sparse dusty desert and cool rusting trains set the bar high for the rest of our tour. We continued on past quinua fields and cacti gardens out to Bolivia's arguably most famous attraction - the Salar de Uyuni, aka the Salt Flats. Although most of the area was inaccessible due to seasonal flooding, we still managed to spend over five hours taking fun, ridiculous photos in this unique, picturesque setting. Miguel's clever photo ideas, playing with the flat, white, symmetrical planes, seemed as never ending as the Salar itself. As the sun began to set, and the shallow water cast off perfect reflections, we felt like the tour couldn't get any better...

The following day we began our drive south of Uyuni towards the Atacama Desert, via salt lagoons, dormant volcanoes and fascinating valleys of sandstone formations. Not long into the day an oncoming car, trying to avoid the dust stirred up by a passing truck, ended up on our side of the road... Miguel only had seconds to react and narrowly avoided a head on collision. We still hit though, and bounced uncontrollably up onto the road embankment. Luckily we all walked away uninjured, except for a minor concussion and a swollen knee suffered by the other car's passengers. The cars were another story. Ours was barely driveable with two popped tyres and a smashed side window, and the other was a total write-off. Considering the road condition, speed was definitely a factor, although even as we sat stranded in the middle of nowhere waiting for a solution, the cars full of tourists continued to hoon past.

Within a few hours our company had another Land Cruiser for us and we decided, considering our driver wasn't completely at fault and actually handled the situation pretty well, to continue. The rest of the tour involved a lot of bumpy gravel roads, which lost their appeal somewhat after the accident... The amazing landscapes were worth it though and we spotted an impressive amount of wild desert fauna including flamingos, vicunas, andean geese and even a rhea (Bolivia's equivalent of our emu). Our second night's accommodation was at around 4300 meters above sea level, allowing the glass of vino with dinner to have an impressively calming effect on us all. We also ran into friends from Uyuni and Rurrenabaque here and the night was surprisingly social, although we kept our days' adventures quiet so as not to taint our company's reputation...

For sunrise we explored the steaming geysers and boiling mud pools in the Eduardo Avaroa National Andean Fauna Reserve. This together with a good soak in some beautifully natural hot springs was a brilliant start to our final day. From here the drive to the border of Chile was honestly other-worldly. With vast, rolling red mountains under a deep blue sky we easily imagined ourselves to be driving in Curiosity around Mars... Before too long we were wishing Sarah and Ruth all the best at the border where most of the other tourists jumped off, and began our quiet drive back to Uyuni.

Probably still a bit shaken up by the crash, and possibly too confident with our relaxed mood, Miguel became a little nonchalant from here on. After stopping at an absolutely beautiful oasis filled with llamas and exotic birds, we noticed Miguel enjoying the scenery and the sun with the help of a sneaky beer with a few of the other guides. Although not impressed, we decided one beer wasn't too bad and kept quiet as we climbed back into the car.

Soon afterwards, we noticed another car ahead of us lose control and eventually pull over. Miguel stopped to see what was up and another car from behind followed suit. Neither of the other vehicles had other tourists, obviously having off-loaded them all at the Chilean border. We were told very patronisingly to 'take a photo' as Miguel joined the others behind the first car. Slightly confused by the uninteresting and unexplained photo-stop we wandered over to see what the story was. We were shocked when one of Miguel's friends aggressively started yelling 'what's your problem?' and shooed us back to our car. Timidly furious that they were obviously drinking (and considering the aggressive attitude and the country we were in, we suspected harder substances may have also been involved), we marched closer and Miguel guiltily scurried back to our car. We had no other option than to get back in with Miguel. We were in the middle of nowhere, there was no way they were going to let us drive and the only other people around were in a much worse state than our guide. We bit back our anger in fear of antagonising Miguel and instead held our breath for the remaining two hours of the journey, not taking our eyes off the road.

Miguel made no attempt to justify his behaviour, or to apologise. We felt vulnerable and furious at the unsafe position he had put us in. Worse, we were irate that he had treated us like we were naive idiots! After arriving back safely in Uyuni we told Miguel, in front of his family, how uncomfortable his drinking made us feel but he and his family simply feigned sudden interest in their own hands. We boarded a bus to Argentina only hours later and unfortunately this was our last impression of Bolivia. Reflectively, Miguel's behaviour was not unlike many single, young men anywhere in the world - a victim to peer pressure, boredom, restlessness and poor decision making. Unfortunately, the fear and hurt we felt as a result of these poor decisions, combined with the previous days' accident, cast an angry, grey shadow over the rest of this otherwise incredible experience. But it always could have been worse and for that we are grateful. Plus it has made for a dramatic spice-up in our blogs J