Potosi
We arrived in the bus station and tried to book our ticket for the next day, however the buses to Uyuni went from a different place so we couldn't arrange anything. We got a taxi to our hostel but went to a sister hostel so then had to walk to the right one. The one we were in was really crappy though which was a shame that we were there for new years. We walked into town and went into a cafe and got llama steak with red wine sauce which was very good. We went out later to look for somewhere to eat/drink for new years, we headed to a pub recommended by lonely planet, but it was shut. We walked around to look for somewhere else to eat but everywhere was shut apart from one place. We went in and asked for a menu but he said no, only chicken. So we said OK, sat down and got chicken, which was crappy, we also ordered two beers which never came, it was terrible. We then looked for a bar but everywhere was shut so got a bottle of fizz from a street stall and went back to the hotel, we opened it and it tasted like vinegar. We ended up falling asleep before midnight as there was no one apart from a few French people in our hotel.
The next day we checked out and asked for a taxi ordering to the station, the woman at the hotel said she couldn't because it was new year, but she just couldn't be bothered. We got a taxi to the station which was shut, so we asked a few bus drivers which practically ignored us so were properly stuck not able to get to where we wanted.
Luckily there was a group of Brazilians also going to Uyuni who were also stuck and wanted to get a few people together to rent a minibus. After about an hour and a half of them speaking to people we managed to get a bus where we all piled in, it felt like a miracle that we managed to get something.
It was really cramped and was a 6 hour drive but we were glad we were on the bus. After about an hour we pulled over and the driver started messing with the engine, next thing we know we all had to get off and the bus turned around and drove back to Potosi leaving us at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.
We were here for about an hour before one of the Brazzillians came back with another minibus and kindly let us get on. It with them as there was only 8 seats and some people were left behind. The drivers ate a carrier bag full of coca leaves on the journey, shoving them in their mouths every 10 seconds. The bus journey was long, about 5 hours but we were so happy to be getting where we were going. When we finally arrived to uyuni the drivers were arguing over the price for a while but After the Brazzillians shouted at them for a bit it was OK so we carried on to find a hotel.