Last stop in Bolivia was a trip across the salt plains at Uyuni. The trip involved a landrover for three days towards the Chilean border, it is all cross country as there are no roads. There were six of us in the landrover us, Jack and Joe a couple from Bristol and Matt and Val from Cambridge. Jack grew up in the circus (that's right Stevie a proper carnie) and now earns his money as an elf. Joe was a new age traveller and former Freegan, which is someone who only eats free food. The other two were nice but not nearly interesting enough to get a mention here. Day 1 we drove to the salt flats themselves and passed a few hotels made of salt along the way. We never really got an explanation as to how it all works but the salt seems to form on the surface of some kind of lake in a solid covering of salt. We're sure there's a much more scientific explanation for it but the result is a huge white plain with no features whatsoever on it. Because there are no reference points you can take lots of crazy photos like people standing on the palm of your hand, someone balancing on a bottle of water etc. When we eventually get our photos on here you will see them. That night we stayed in a hotel made entirely of salt, including beds, tables walls etc. The second day we passed a series of lagoons with lots of flamingos in them. We also saw an active volcanoe, not up close but you could see puffs of smoke coming from the top of it. We passed one lagoon called the smelly lagoon due to the high sulphur content. I tried to get close to a flamingo for a photo and found myself sinking rapidly into some mud. All those hours spent watching Ray Mears Extreme Survival paid off and I managed to get out, although with very smelly shoes. That night we stayed in a hut next to Laguna Colorada, which is a red lagoon and hosts up to 2000 flamingos at a time. It was really cold here at night so we drank lots of rum to keep warm. Up at four in the morning the next day as this is the best time to see the geysers we were heading for. Everyone was still very jolly from the rum the night before although it was still freezing. The geysers were pretty spectacular and were spouting steam and spraying mud all over the place. My shoes had now hardened with a sulphorous crust and stopped smelling, I managed to steam clean them in a geyser but unfortunately this seemed to reawaken the smell. There were thermal springs near here where we went for an early morning dip. It was still early and absolutely freezing so some people chickened out of going into the water. The springs were almost too hot though, quite a strange experience to have your head freezing cold and the rest of your body roasting hot. We left the landrover at the Chilean border and caught a bus to San Pedro.

We intended to just pass through San Pedro and head straight to Argentina but there wasn't a bus for a few days so ended up having to stay. Didn't do a great deal here but did manage to lose another bank card when there was a power cut as we were using an ATM.

We did eventually get a bus to Salta in Argentina after a few days of lazing around in the sun. In Salta we went horse riding and ate a lot of meat. The horse riding was a new experience for me although Kate is an expert. They love mixed grills in Argentina which usually includes steak, black pudding, sausage, intestines and various kinds of offal. Argentina is a different world from Bolivia, the people look completely different, there are streetlights, shops, trees and its a lot more expensive. We didn't have much time in Argentina so pushed on with our longest bus journey yet of 18 hours.

We went with a fairly posh bus company so the journey was actually very comfortable and we managed to get a good nights sleep. Mendoza is a very nice city, every street is lined with an avenue of trees and they have an enormous park the same size as the city itself. There is a lot of wine produced around Mendoza so we hired a couple of bikes and decided to cycle around a few vinyards. We imagined that we would be cylcing down lovely country lanes passing the occasional mule carrying grapes and visiting lovely wineries in old stone buildings. It wasn't quite as idyllic as that as all the wineries are built along a very busy road. There were huge trucks thundering by all the time and the wineries were all in fairly industrial buildings. Still after a few free tasters and a bottle of wine in one of the nicer ones things started to look a bit rosier and the cycle home was a lot easier. After a few days in Mendoza we decided it was time to head back to Chile.

The bus journey over to Santiago went through some amazing scenery as it crossed the Andes. Lots of snow capped peaks on either side and I even saw a condor flying above the bus. We are not hanging around in Santiago as we have to come back here in two weeks to catch our flight to Australia. So another night bus is booked for tonight down to the lake district of Chile.