After a non-eventful trip to Tupiza we walked to our hostel at 4:00am by the light of the full moon. We made a plan to meet at the Tupiza tours headquarters to finalise the arrangements of out 4 day tour at midday after a well deserved rest. We met our English-speaking guide, Archie and he went through our itinerary for trip. We went for an Almeurzo lunch which is a set meal of a soup, a main dish, a dessert and a drink with Ted and Sarah afterwards to get to know each other a bit better and then headed off to the horse stable for a 3hour horse-riding tour we had booked with the same company as our Jeep trip.

We were each equipped with leg straps, hats and obviously horses and headed off into the wilderness of Tupiza. Tupiza is basically in the middle of a desert but not a sand, snake, cactus kind of desert most people immediately imagine but rather a desert of brown sand and red mountains. and the wind over the years has eroded the mountains to form the strangest shapes. The surroundings could not have bee more suited for a horse ride - we all felt like we were riding in the wild west. As time went by we became more adventurous with our horses and had spurts of trotting and cantering along the way.

We rose early the next day to get packed, have breakfast and get loaded onto our Jeep by 9:00am. We were introduced by Archie our guide to our Spanish speaking driver, Hugo. With the six of us in the car and the luggage, spare tyres and gas and food for the next 4 days on top of the car we were off into the Attacama desert. Over the next 3 days we road tripped through the ever changing terrains, from red mountains, to llama infested flat lands to a volcano rich national park. We were spoilt with views from every angle of huge volcanoes whose peaks were painted in reds, oranges, pinks and whites as a result of the rich mineral content. The many lagoons we stopped at were also altered by the minerals to cause one of them to be a deep turquoise colour, another to be a blood red colour and another which had the smell of rotten eggs from the sulphur. We were also spoilt with amazing wildlife such as llamas, Guanacos, Flamingoes and foxes

Other highlights along the way were the natural hot springs on our second day. One minute we were dressed in layers of fleece jerseys and the next we were in our costumes soaking in the hot natural water overlooking the desert. That same day we were taken to a geyser area which none of us were expecting to be as fascinating. At first glance there were streams of steam billowing from the ground and we thought 'ok-thats cool' but on leaving the car the smell of sulphur hit us and on approaching the holes from which the smoke was emanating we saw cauldrons of bubbling grey and red mud, like a witches brew. The bubbles in the top of the mud burst continuously and when we got too close the remnants of the bubbles' mud were smeared on our clothes.

Throughout the trip we were spoilt with food that was amazing in taste and abundance. It just never stopped coming. We were greeted every morning by breads and spreads, fruit, cereals and yoghurt, cakes and pancakes accompanied of course with tea, hot chocolate or coffee. We were always given a mid morning snack of biscuits and drinking milks or yoghurts. Our lunch was always had on the road and prepared by our ever impressive guide, Archie - chicken salads, warm chicken with pasta and veggies, veggie stews and rice. We usually arrived at our nights' accommodations in the afternoon and were fed up with an afternoon tea and biscuits session followed shortly with a 2 course dinner meal.

On our first night we helped Ted and Sarah plan their one month in South Africa they have planned in December/January. We went through the Southern Africa Lonely planet which was very interesting to read. We recommended routes for them to do and restaurants and places for them to visit. They were very grateful but we actually quite enjoyed doing it after so many people have done the same for us over the last few weeks of travelling. On our second and third nights we played Euker, a card game they play in Colorado that was very similar to Klabius. We played in teams of two over bottles of wine that we had bought before the trip. Drinking at high altitudes is a highly recommended activity to all!!! On our last night of the trip we stayed in a n unusual hotel. The bricks, tables and chairs were made up completely of salt and the crunching floor under our feet was slat as well. The stake for the loosing team of Euker was to touch the wall of salt with their tongues. Jeff and Sarah lost and each had intimate moments with the wall in our room. Dont think it would have actually been done if there hadn't been wine and beer involved.

The stars in the middle of nowhere were truly breathtaking. We bundled up in our warmest clothes and stood, heads up for as long as our bare fingers could handle it but it was worth every cold breath.

On our last morning of the tour we were up and about before the sun was. Our guide wanted us to get to the salt flats of Uyuni to watch the sunrise and it was worth the groans when the alarm went off. It felt like we the only people in the world - the colours were spectacular on looking in the east and even looking away was amazing as we were in the middle of the vastest salt flat in the world. We were taken to a floating island before we tucked into breakfast. This island used to be completely submerged in water thousands of years ago and we could see the coral like growths all over the hilly landmass. We spent an hour walking up and down the island taking in the views of the cacti growing the island against the never-ending salt flats.

Archie has been doing these tours for 6 years so when it came down to the al important 'funny picture' taking session he was great to have around. He knew al the right angles to manipulate the perceptions to get the most effective photos. These cant be explained so here is when you all have to go look at the pictures. The best one, which we unfortunately couldn't load on the blog was a video of the 4 of us marching in and out of a pringles box like little mini-people.

On the way to the final stop in Uyuni we drove past an area of the flat that was being harvested for salt distribution. Everything is dine manually - shovelling the salt in mounds for drying out, loading the sand into trucks and into bags for distribution. Archie dropped Jeff and I at the central bus street and helped us organise tickets to la Paz for that night and we said our goodbyes to Ted and Sarah who were heading back into Tupiza with Archie and Hugo. We couldn't have asked for a better group of people to travel with on a trip where we were all together all hours of the day and our tour group was exceptional. A definite highlight of South America!