We got a train from Villazon (the bolivian border town) to Uyuni where I was meeting Beth and Sarah who travelled down from La Paz. My first train in 3 months!

It was quite comfortable actually, and warm despite the freezing temperatures outside. We arrived in Uyuni at 23.50 on Wednesday evening and Beth an Sarah were there to greet me on the platform :-)

We checked into a hostel and agreed to go on a salt flat tour the next morning as there is not much to do in uyuni and we are on a tight schedule! The two americans (lauren and heather) wanted to sleep in the next day so we said our goodbyes.

On thursday we woke up bright and early and found a tour company (Ripley tours) to take us on a 3 day tour of the salt flats. We were in a group of 6 with two israeli girls and an american guy who has been travelling for 15 months and had just come back from a salt flat tour but wanted to do it all again! We were told we were leaving at 11 but at half 12 when there was still no sign of our jeep and the tour agent kept telling us there was a problem with petrol we were slightly dubious as what we had let ourselves in for! Luckily everything else went smoothly and we finally got on the road at 1pm.

ur first stop was a train graveyard which was a very strange place and seems to be where trains were abandoned when they decided to not run the line anymore! we then went on to salar uyuni which is the biggest salt flat in the world and the highlight of the trip for me. Not only was it stunningly beautiful with the white landscape going on for miles and miles but also we had hours of fun making photos. As there is no sense of perspective in the white landscape u can make loads of crazy photos where it looks like people are popping out of pringles packs and standing on each others hands etc. Im sureu have all seen them!

We spent a while there and then moved onto Fish Island (names so because it looks like a fish from the sky!). It is covered in giant cactuses and we were able to do the walk up to the top in time for sunrise and got some great photos. we then drove on to our hostel which was on the salar. on the way we passed some people which were camping!! something i would never do in those freezing temperatures!

Our hostel was quite nice, all made out of salt, even the chairs! We had a lovely hot meal and then finished the night with cards and rum and coke :-) The next morning (friday) we were up early to continue our tour. We spent alot of time in the jeep but we went to an active volcano and two lagoons which had lots of flamingoes in them! We arrived at our hostel which was more baisic than the last but had a ncie fire. we again spent the evening playing cards and enjoying some wine!

The next morning our guide has told us to be up in order to leave at 6.30am to visit some geysers and hot springs. we were abit confused by this as most groups tend to leave earlier and have breakfast at the hot springs. However we were up on time ready for breakfast at 6am but at 7am there was still no sign of our guide! Eventully he appeared and said that we were in no rush and breakfast wud be in 30 minutes! We were annoyed as we had wanted to see the sunset at the geysers so instead we went out to laguna colarado to watch it which was right outside our hostel. is was still beautiful! We eventually left about 8 and got to the geysers at 9am.

There were a series of pools with bubbling thick grey mud which stunk of sulphur! We then went on to some thermal pools which we had been looking forward too.Beth, sarah and I didnt need any encourgement to get into our biccinis and jump into the 30C water! It was lovely and so nice compated to the cold we had experienced so far!

After a while there we went back towards Uyuni stopping for lunch on the way. our driver sped up after we said we wanted to get a bus to sucre at 7pm. he kept saying there were not any at weekends but luckily we didnt believe him as we just managed to get on one before it left at 7pm!

It was 6 hours to potosi and then another bus from there to Sucre. We arrived this morning at 5am and checked into a hostel to get some rest. We are now showered and refreshed and off to check out the sunday markets they have to see if we can get some bargains!