Arrival in Uyuni was early and we had a couple of hours to kill before starting our trip. We grabbed an omelette each and a drink then met Adam & Katie. Katie was quick to point out that Adam wasn't feeling to clever and like Ben had been suffering with a bad stomach too (this made Ben feel slightly better that he had some company in the bad bowel department). So we packed plenty of toilet roll and immodium for the 3-day trip and set-off with our driver (Felipe) and cook (Carlos who was only 20) in our 4x4.

We spent around 2 hours messing around on the salt flats taking photo's of each other and as a group, it was almost a competition to see who could come up with the most creative photo (see the photo album). The salt flats are a huge area which was once underwater (linked to the sea, so it was saltwater) and the water has since evaporated, leaving miles upon miles of gleaming white salt, which is incredibly bright on the eyes without sunglasses!

We ate lunch at the Cactus Island which is in the middle of the salt flats and where there were hundreds of Cactus' that were up to 12 metres tall and 900 years old. Whilst wandering around, Carlos cooked us Llama with potatoes and vegetables. The six of us sat around our own little table and the food was yummy.

A few hours driving south and we finally said goodbye to the 12,000km⊃2; salt flat and arrived at what appeared to be a large hill on the edge if the salt flat and on the other side was desert. We went into a cave and there was a small cemetery with bones and skulls in small tombs that had been dug out, it was very dark and creepy as you needed your torch to see anything. Then we went into the next cave where we were expecting pretty much the same thing, but to our surprise it was an amazing dried out coral inside the cave which showed that the whole salt flat had been under water thousands of years ago and had huge coral reefs which had now died. So we were basically walking inside a coral reef (which I've never even heard of anywhere that you can do this, it was fascinating). The video shows us inside this.

We then spent the night in a concrete hut with one small communal area with a wooden table and benches, 3 twin rooms and a shower room. Hot showers were not available for long so there was a scramble to get in there first (which we won).

On the second day, we were back in our Toyota Landcruiser and on the road where we saw around 10 volcanoes (some active, some not) as we drove through the Andes. We had a little competition to pass the time in the jeep which was who could spot the biggest "twister"! There were loads of these around (5 metres high) which were sand and dust spinning around. We saw a few lagoons (a red one, a blue one and a green one). Most of these had hundreds, or some thousands of pink flamingo's.

Our second night was very basic. We were in a 6 bed dorm, very cosy. We had no shower and had to share 2 toilets between 24 people (3 other dorms). Carlos cooked us a lovely soup, then a sausage casserole with chips whilst the 6 of us played "cheat" then "s**thead".

On the third day, we started early (4am) with a trip in the dark to some geysers which are boiling hot bubbling baths from the volcanoes. Lisa, Adam, Timo & Susan got in one of the thermal springs close by for a quick dip and then made fun of Ben & Katie who refused to get in, stating they thought it was too dirty. Then we had brekky in the middle of the valley (see pictures). On our way back to Uyuni we went past a huge dead coral reef which must have been a few miles long and an area where there were huge rock formations made out of lava from one of the volcanoes erupting. The Bolivians believe that some of the rock formations represent faces or animals (maybe just a coincidence?). We got some photos of the famous Tree Rock and Timo (bit of an expert climber) showed Ben how to climb (what Ben thought were some difficult rock formations) and then had a long 4 hour drive north back to Uyuni where annoyingly we were catching a train south at 10pm to Tupiza.