Hey everybody here is the entry for the 3 days we spent at the salt lake and going round the south of Bolivia seeing all the different lagunas, springs, volcanoes and wildlife. We began the tour on monday and headed out towards the salt lake at 11ish. Got in the 4WD and met the rest of the group, there were 7 of us in total all girls. From Uyuni we drove to a small museum and shop that had huge salt sculptures in it of all sorts of things, including a horse and an armadillo. We drove out into the salt lake, it was like being in snow, all you could see all around was white and a perfect blue sky it was amazing. We stopped at a small mining area where the salt was dug up into little mounds ready to be exported away and sold. We drove on further to an island in the salt lake called Isla de los Pescadores (fish island). It was covered in huge cacti. Had lunch here, had llama, quinoa (a type of corn) and salad. Then went on a wander around the island. Our guide was useless and didnt do any guiding he just drove so we left him and tagged along to another group with an english guide and followed them around the island. After the isalnd we carried on drivng across the salt lake and came to one bit where it was covered in water, it was about 10cm deep and all around you could just see this water it was so strange cos it felt like we should have been on a boat but we were actually in a jeep. Drove to the egde of the lake and then along a dirt track to the village of Atahulpa. Where we stayed the night in a salt hotel which was made entirely (almost) of salt. The walls, floors, tables, chairs, and beds were all made of salt blocks. Only the doors (wooden) and the ceiling (thatched) were not salt. Had tea which was soup, and then chiken and chips, it was so funny cos we didnt have any salt for the chips, so someone asked the cook for some, she came back with a little plate with some on, it looked as though it had just been picked up off the floor. Later on the children from the village came into the hotel and did a little perfomance for us playing the panpipes and drums and singing. The hotel only has an electricity supply from 7 til 9 in the evening so after tea we went straight to bed as the lights had gone out and we only had a few candles. The next day we got up at 5.45 and had cornflakes and milk for breakfast wow, have missed cereal and milk. Left the hotel and drove across barren desert and salt flats. Stopped to take photos of an active volcano that is on the Bolivia, Chile border and had smoke coming out the top. Drove quite a bit further on dusty and very bumpy tracks until we came to a lake. It was quite a small lake but it had flamingoes living in it and it had perfect reflections of the hills behind in the water and was really peaceful. Drove onto another lake where we stopped for lunch the water here was really rich in minerals and smelt of sulphur. There were more flamingoes living here and again beautiful reflections of the surrounding snow capped mountains. Anna also had her first wee not in a toilet it was in a little ditch, since this she has done a few more in similar places and has now mastered the art of squatting. Drove on across the really barren land there was nothing around just sand and rocks, stopped at Arbol de Piedra (Stone Tree) and some surrounding rock formations, that are quite often seen on postcards. From here we drove on, to Laguna Colarado which is a red lake due to the algae and minerals in the water. We stopped here for a while and just sat by the side of the lake watching the flamingoes it was so peaceful and beautiful and the whole area was so calm and quiet. We then drove onto our hotel for the night which was very basic. We were all together in a 7 person dorm and again only had electricity for a couple of hours in the evening. Had tea and then we all went to bed at about half 8, I was feeling the altitude a bit and had a headache, we were staying at 4300m, so it was fairly high, went to bed laid down went straight to sleep and felt fine in the morning. Except for the fact that it was only 4.30 and we had to be up. Drove in the dark to the Sol de Manana Geyser basin. There was one geyser that was shooting steam out of the ground and up about 100m, it was really powerful and loud and the steam was really hot. Next to this were hundreds of little pits in the ground with molten rock and dust in, they were bubbling away and some were throwing out molten rock a few meters into the air. Safety is not quite the same here as in England, if anything as amazing as this exisited in England you would not be allowed within about 50m of it. We were allowed to walk right up to it and jump in had we really wanted to. Anna got hit by one piece of molten rock that flew out but luckily it landed in her hair and just clumped it together a bit and didnt actually burn her. From the geysers we drove to Salar de Chalviri, a huge beautiful lake surounded by mountains, which had a hot spring at the edge called Termas de Polques. Got changed which was a bit of a faff with nothing to hide behind and went for a bathe in it, it was really hot and so had to get in gradually cos it felt like it was burning. After about 20mins we got out and had breakfast and then drove to Laguna Verde which is supposed to be a green lake, it wasnt really that dfferent to most of the others we had seen, it was really pretty and had lovely reflections of the surrounding hills but wasnt paticulaly green. We also passed the Rocas de Dali which are random weird shaped rocks in the middle of nowhere and apparently look like a Salvador Dali painting. This was the most southern point we went to and was basically the Bolivia, Chile border. From here we went back on ourselves a little way and then over a mountain pass thats just over 5000m high, the highest we have both ever been and will go on this trip. Drove lots and lots without stopping because we had a long way to go to get back to Uyuni that day. Stopped after a few hours for lunch and our guide told us to walk for 20 mins and then come back for lunch. We were in the middle of nowhere, so someone in the group asked him where we should walk, he waved his arm aroud and said wherever, basically meaning it wasnt his problem and we had to ocupy ourselves, so we wandered towards some llamas and got quite close to them which was cool. We were then 5 mins late back for lunch and we all got shouted at he said we didnt have time to waste an mustnt be late again. After lunch we drove a long way along a dusty road and stopped at Valles de Rocas which had some interesting and spooky looking rock fomations that seemed to be a bit precariously balanced. From here we drove to a small town called San Cristobal where we had a quick wander round and brought some snacks from the market, then drove about another hour back to Uyuni where we said goobye to the group and finished the tour. These 3 days were definetily one of the hightlights so far and probably our second favouite thing that we have done after the IncaTrek. We had a great group that were all really friendly and sweet and this more than made up for the idiot of a guide that we had who was rude, grumpy and unenthusiatic. The scenery and sights we saw were amazing though so different to anything in England, and some you couldnt even imagine were on this planet