So we had left Argentina for good and crossed over to Chile for the last time also. We crossed from Salta to San Pedro via a spectactular pass that literally left you breathless, at 4200 mts high, would probably leave anyone breathless. San Pedro, at first, looked a dump and a s***hole, but on further investigation the very small town, although basic, was very friendly with a very indigenous feel about it. The resturants were very cool, having fires literally in the middle of the room and open roofs that opened up into the night sky. We stayed here for one purpose and that was to book a 3 day trip across the the Bolivian border, through the famous salt flats of Salar de Uyuni. This we did within the first day and so our stay in San Pedro was brief. In the morning we caught the bus, with about 8 others, and made our way to the Bolivian border. Here we had breakfast and were split into 2 x groups of 6 as the rest of the journey were in 4WD jeeps. We also met our driver, Juan, who turned out to be quite a character. Our group of 6 consisted of myself and Donna, Lee and Delia (who we had met at Mendoza) and Dan and Sasha (another english couple), nice to see we were mingling with different countries and cultures. The next 3 days must be in the top 5 highlights of our trip to date. The first day saw us see the beautiful lakes of Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanco, the belching geysers at Sol de Manana, the bizarre Dali rocks (apparently famous in one of Dali's paintings) and also had a splash in the Aguas Termals Chalvin, 30C thermal pools at approx 4200 mts. The thermals were warm while you were in them but when you came out it was freezing, big mistake. The whole of the first days drive was at approx 4000 - 4500 mts reaching a max height of 5000mts. Here I found I'm not too good with altitude so suffered a headache and slight sickness for the full day. The end of the days journey took us to Laguna Colarado, where the pink flamingos blended in really well with the red deposits in the lake. Here we spent our first night at a mere 4200mts. Funny enough, it was really cold up here and the digs were the most basic we had stopped in. No running water, showers and 2 stinky bogs that had to be shared by 12 people. To flush you had to fill a cold bucket with freezing water from a barrell and pour into the toilet, first time in my life Trusthouse forte looked appealing. It turned out OK given the circumstances and it was an early start for the next day so didn't have to put up with it too long. Day 2 saw us driving along much the same altitude so the headache didn't subside, even after some coca tea. It didn't matter though as the views were spectactular. Again, we passed some more lakes, more flamingos and even had lunch by an active volcano. The second night was spent in a Salt Hotel, all the bricks were made of slat and it was luxury compared to the night before, and best of all we had hot showers, hurrah. After the aforementioned hot shower, we changed into fresh clothes and sat down to a hot meal. The little town we stayed even provided a little Bolivian show for us after dinner, comprising of about 10 small boys (steady, not that sort of entertainment, sicko!!!) who played those Andean flutes and a few drums, together with a little girl who danced around aimlessly. Have to admit they were s***, but they tugged on your heartstrings so it was hands in you pockets for the collection before you could say 'aren't they supposed to play together and in tune'. After a good nights sleep some of us decided to get up for the sunrise at the beginning of the salt lake, which was nice, still had a headache though. Then it was off to the highlight of the 3 day trip, the Salar de Uyuni. Now this was astounding, beautiful, spectactular and amazing all rolled into one. The immense salt flats cover a bigger area than the UK and are just flat and white, and I mean white. It sounds like it should be boring but it was far from it, it was fantastic, a memory that will stay with us for a very long time. We spent a good 4 hours on the salt flats (visiting fish island and another Salt Hotel on route) and could have probably spent another 4 hours, but Juan had other ideas. To finish our 3 day tour Juan took us to his salt processing plant at the back of his house. This sounded impressive until you saw it. It was actually part of his house and his whole family were the workforce, a very humbling experience as the proccess's were from the dark ages and you realised how hard people still work in some parts of the world and they all have a happy smiles on their face. After lunch at Juans we were off to Uyuni, a fantastic 3 days. We had already booked a nice hostel in Uyuni so good old Juan dropped us off there and we showered, got fed and then got absolutely hammered in the hotel resturant. Although, we had been in Bolivia for 3 days we hadn't really seen much civilisation or towns for that matter,whilst on our excursion. This was our first experience of Bolivian prices and, bloody hell, its cheap here. It all started off civilised with dinner and wine, saying farewell to Dan and Sasha, as they were off to Argentina, but then Dan noticed how cheap the spirits were and the measures you got. So it was cocktails, rum and cokes, whiskies, beers, and well anything alcoholic, until the bar ran out and then it was off to Lee and Delia's room until, well can't remember why it stopped but luckily it did. The next day we were off to Sucre via Bolivian transport, this is where Donna found out that drinking and Bolivian transport don't mix.