And so Wednesday was the start of the 4 day trip into the wilderness that is the salt flats of Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni.

Although this was my second time of doing it I had been really looking forward to it. We had fallen pretty lucky in that the 4 of us plus Frank and Laura were able to go in one jeep and we managed to get a discount on the price.

Whilst some of the trip was familiar to me from last time I had forgotten how unreal some of the scenery was, and also how gruelling the days can be with 430am starts, sub-zero temperatures and hours a day being bounced around in a cramped jeep!

The accomodation on night 1 and especially night 2 was basic in the extreme (read no flush on the toilets, no u-bend in the sink, paper thin matresses and having to cook in bedrooms with no heating!) but on night 3 we stayed in a salt hostel which was positively luxurious by those standards and even meant we could have a hot shower! The group we were travelling were really nice and had some interesting characters, and we had a good last night all sat round drinking wine, whisky and rum. I even managed to score us some home accomodation for when we are in New Zealand for when we are there with a couple who live there!

After countless 'Laguna Verde's', flamingos, salt piles, sulphur lakes (one of which I cleverly put my foot through!), geysers and hot springs during the 4 days, we were pleased to reach the final night and a game of keepy uppy with an empty coke bottle! Although both Becky and Riggers were feeling pretty ill on Friday night, which was hardly helped by the terrible 'band' which played whilst having tea, all was well again by Saturday morning and the final day of the trip was spent watching the sun rise over the flats and getting creative with perspective photos!

Although pretty hardcore at times, it was still a brilliant trip and a real experience; with amazing food cooked every day by our hilarious cook Modesta (who nicknamed me 'chico muy guapo' after helping her wash up on the Thursday night!), great fun in the truck trying to get us through the long days and getting to know new people!

Arriving into Uyuni at 2pm we managed to tag on to an impromptu, unscheduled bus to Tupiza arranged somehow by a group of other travellers-which was an absolute result given that our only option otherwise would have got us in at 2am. Although a 230pm departure Bolivian time turned into nearer 430pm in real terms we got on our way and headed to the worlds highest city to give my entire bag a much needed wash........!!!