It really is a small world…randomly in the hostel in Potosi, we bumped into Becs (a girl Jodie used to work with 10years ago on good old Clacton pier). Becs and her boyfriend Terry were also heading to Uyuni to do the salt flat tour, so rather than going through the annoying process of choosing one of the 80 companies and reading the bad reviews of car crashes and drunk tour guides etc, we decided to go with their recommendation and book on the same tour as them with Andes Salt Expeditions.

Andes Salt Expeditions did not disappoint, Juan, our English speaking guide/professional photographer/games master/quiz master was excellent. After picking up our supplies, Me, Lewis, Becs, Terry, 2 German girls, Roberto our driver and Juan set off to the extraordinary salares on our 3 day jeep tour. First stop was the train cemetery which gave us time to play on some rusty locomotives. We then drove across the salt flats visiting various land marks, salt pyramids, salt eyes. The salt flats looked incredible, and the pictures do not do it justice. You have to be there to appreciate how it looks, it really is amazing, so bright, white and huge. Very technical terms there! After stopping for a llama "BBQ" lunch we took some time to create some funny pics. With some inspiration from Juan (clearly he has done this before) the salt flats create an optical illusion. Juan blindfolded us all to play a game where you had to walk straight 50 metres towards a log on the salt flats. For some reason, this simple task was near impossible with Lewis first strolling off in a semi-circle to the left, and the German girl actually doing 2 full circles on herself. This was incredibly funny to watch. We could have spent hours doing this…but instead we headed off to Incahuasi (Fish Island - as it shaped like a fish). During the drive here Lewis had the great idea of blind folding our driver to see if he was any better than us at going in a straight line. To be fair he was better, although as we started to veer off track, we thought it best to remove the blindfold. Fish Island is actually the top of the remains of an ancient volcano, which was submerged when the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, roughly 40,000 years ago. It consists of gigantic cacti and provides 360degree views of the salt flats. After a long day on the salt flat we headed to our first nights' accommodation, the salt hotel….where yes you've guessed it, everything is made of salt. Day 2 - after an early rise we headed to some lagoons to see flamingos, the stone tree, and some other sites. After a long day driving we headed to our next nights' accommodation - it was freezing…..with 5 blankets and both of us in a single bed, we managed to get some sleep for our 5am wake up call to go to the nearby geysers…..nicely followed by the natural hot springs. It was absolutely freezing so we had to force ourselves to quickly undress and jump into the 40 degree heat pools. It was rather surreal to be sitting there in our swim stuff while others on the outside wrapped up in their coats and hats. After only one little mishap with a flat tyre, we headed back to Uyuni after a great 3 day trip.

Next stop, heading to La Paz for more adventures

xxxxxxx