We made friends with an Aussie couple (Dan and Gita) and a Scottish ranga (Craig) and we were all heading in the same direction and decided to travel together. We caught a mini bus/collectivo out of Villa Tunari and took a land speed record breaking trip back to Cochabamba. We had heard a flight from here to our next stop, Sucre, was only $20 so we looked into that when we arrived and turns out it was $40 for a 25 minute flight. We weren't sure if that was breaking the budget too much but when we inquired about the bus to Sucre; 12 hours.... easy choice.

The flight the following morning had us fly up and over more mountains than I have ever seen. Knowing that we could have been winding through them for 12 hours instead of a 25 minute flight made us pretty happy with our choice. Although leaving my passport in the seat pocket of the plane and not realising it until we were about to leave the airport scared the crap out of me. Not to worry though, I got it back with little drama but still a stupid thing to do!

Waiting for us in Sucre was our on/off travel buddies, Lauren and Brendan. We met up with them and enjoyed two days of checking out Sucre's sights and drinking wine. There's not a real lot to do in Sucre but it has a nice main square and a good Italian restuarant with a view of the town and surrounding valleys where we enjoyed a few wines at sunset with the seven of us. Taking the flight was also a good choice because it was the first time we'd looked at our passports in a long time and turns out we had outstayed our visas. A little worried we'd have to pay a fine we headed to the Immigration office but fortunately with a quick thump of the stamp, it was an easy and quick process to get it extended and without fines.

Loz and Brendan had already been to the Salt Flats which was our next stop so we left them in Sucre and headed off on a 9 hours bus trip through a beautiful mountain region. This bus trip itself was OK but it was made into 9 hours of hell by 12 Israelies. One of them boarded the bus with a lit cigarette in her mouth and refused to put it out when Kate asked her to. They sang out loud for an hour straight, were generally loud and obnoxious and continued to smoke cigarettes whilst we were driving. They opened their window but that just blew the smoke back into the bus rather than out. Apparently Lonely Planet (guide book) are putting a warning in their new edition to be wary of Israelies travelling in groups calling them a "nuesance" and this was just one of many times we've seen why.

We arrived into the town of Uyuni, where the Salt Flats are, found somewhere to stay and organised a tour for the next morning. 11 o'clock the next day we met our guide and another Korean couple who were joining us on the tour. The 7 of us boarded the jeep and headed off on our one day tour. Our first stop, we thought would be a waste of time as our guide only spoke Spanish and all we could make out was that we were going to see some cactus'. We've seen cactus' for the last 6 months on this trip so what makes these any more special? We drove out into the middle of nowhere and saw on a hill, the biggest cactus' we've seen and hundreds of them. They were between 10-15m tall and have been growing for over 1,000 years (apparently).

Next stop was a train graveyard which again we wondered why the hell we were going there but went along with it anyway. It had heaps of old engines and train compartments that looked like they were long past their hayday and all together they looked pretty cool. We played around the old heaps like little children discovering a new playground. We were a little concerned though when our guide actually climbed into the hood of the 4WD and started banging away at something. It did little for our confidence to trek out into the desert with no other way back...

After a short drive in themiddle of nowhere we came to a "town" that was as desolate as any you could imagine, like a tornado had passed through the day before. We grabbed lunch here and were shown the process of preparing the salt for sale to be used at the dinner table. Happily departing there we finally rode out onto the Salt Flats where we had an endless view of Earth to Heaven blended into one. Before we went all the way out to check out the Flats we stopped in the middle at the Salt Hotel which is made entirely of salt, including the beds and furniture. We stopped off here for a short rest and a couple of beers to get ready for the Flats.

Prepped and ready we jumped back in the car and headed out and it felt like we were driving on nothing with the reflection. In the rainy season a small layer of water is left on top of the salt, making the amazing reflections and a seamingly endless sky. We pulled up a long way from anyone else and were all alone and ready to get the picture of all pictures! Funnily enough, this is actually really hard to do due to a number of reasons. Firstly the sun is in your eyes, you need to get really low for the perspective shots to work and lastly.....Kate has zero patience and would crack the s***s. So....we did our best and the results weren't too bad. Google it if you want to see the good ones. We spent a long time out here taking photos and just staring in awe at the amazing sight of it all.

We retreated back to the Salt Hotel thereafter to wait a couple of hours until sunset. We found out the Hotel sold wine and so we enjoyed a few bottles together and had a good laugh. As the sun started setting we were feeling merry and we headed back out into nowhere. It was a similar sight with the reflection but this time the sunset just made it that much more beautiful. We again played around with photos and just looked in stunned silence at the unbelievable Salt Flats. Craig, feeling a little free after a couple of drinks decided the best photo would be taken naked... Haha It was an awesome photo! The rest of us though kept our clothes on

as the temperature dropped fast and it got really cold out there!

Happy with our photos, but sad to leave the Flats, we jumped back in the car and headed home. On the drive back though, Dan chucked on an Ipod in the front and turned it up and the whole way home we had a dance party and sing-a-long! We had a lot of fun.... maybe the Korean couple who were looking scared didn't though... sorry!

It was just another of Bolivia's incredible sights and we are so glad that we made the effort to get out there to see it. It is a definate for anyone travelling in the area!!!