After picking up our fellow travellers two things became obvious - I had been combined with another company - Estrellas de Sur and that I was the only native English speaker. After the border crossing - the easiest so far - we had breakfast and divided into to cars. I was with 4 Frenchies - Anihi, David, Sophie and Julie - all lovely people but I was doomed to listen to a lot of French for the next three days. Luckily Anihi was French/Chilean so acted as translated for us for the whole trip.

First stop was Laguna Blanca with amazing reflections then Laguna Verde which turn green in front of our eyes as the wind picked up. Next was the Desierto de Dali with strange rocks looking like a Dali painting.

After this we visted some hot springs but none of us decided to indulge.

After this things started to go wrong - Julie came down with altitude sickness on our way to the geysers - cold, pins and needles in hands and feet, dizziness and turning yellow Wili our driver said we needed to get to lower altitude quickly from the 4850m of the geysers. We skirted the Laguna Colorado and its flamingos before heading to Villa Mar and a lower hostel for the night. Our driver and the hostel owner were very caring and Julie did start to feel better at lower altitude, Wili explained the next days new route and how we would see very similar things but just not so high. Anticipating a cold night we all got out our sleeping bags to go under our bedding only to discard them during the night.

Day two bought pre-inca aintings, an Inca village, Copa del Mundo rock (and viscacha sighting captured by me), Los Italianos Perditos rock formations, Mystic Laguna - a snake seen on the walk out - very exciting! Next was a long journey towards our salt hotel stopping in San Augustin for icecream. The salt hitel was a pleasant surprise - I got a private room and rm 6.30 a really hot shower. A good evening meal with wine and an early night ready for our 4.30 start to the Salar de Uyuni.

Next morning we headed onto the salt flats for sunrise then visited Isla Incahuasi before breakfast. After this we stopped in the salt flats for the obilatory funny photos - during which Wili dug up salt crystals - some for us and some for him to sell. Anihi and Davd got the chance to ride onto of the car as we crossed the salt flats. Quick visit to the first salt hotel - now and museum before leaving the salt flats and lunch.

Next was our last stop on the tour - el cemeterio de los trenes where trains were abandoned from the mining industry in the early 20th century. Our tour drew to a close and time to say goodbye to the Frenchies and our wonderful driver, Wili who hasd introduced us to Bolivian heavy metal, been friendly and sober and a really safe driver -all we could ask for.

I met up with Jan from the other car and we proceeded to the bus terminal to catch the 3pm bus to Potosi. Driving and walking through Uyuni I was glad I wasn;t staying - it had a very sad and rundown feel.

The bus was more "local" tan anything I had been on before and the driver liked his speed as we heading to Potosi. Quick taxi journey to the hostel and a quick meal before bed