We arrived into Uyuni late at night and boy was it cold!! We headed straight for our hotel and after a quick shower, we all met up again for dinner in a nearby pizza restaurant. The pizza was pretty good, but the same cannot be said for Bolivian service! We don't think we've mentioned it yet, but service is just sooooooo slow, you can literally wait an hour for your food! Of course with a group of fifteen, most of the food arrives at the same time, but there were always one or two people waiting about 20 mins longer, sometimes just for their drink or starter! After a quick debriefing, we all had an early night, since we were beginning a three day, 4x4 excursion to the Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats), early the next morning.After a quickie breakfast, we all headed out to the main plaza to pile into our 4x4's. As we were an odd number, the two of us ended up sharing our car with Christina (our guide), and of course our driver, Omar. It was a beautiful day and we sat in the car having girly chats for a few hours until we reached our first stop - Colchani town. In Colchani we had a short guided tour of a salt processing factory, which was very interesting as everything was done manually. Our guide explained to us how the salt was farmed from the flats, dried out and then bagged, ready for export to other Bolivian cities and Chile. There were also many handicraft stalls selling the usual fare of scarves and jewellery, but this time they also had many ornaments carved out of salt! We popped into the world`s only salt hotel, where literally EVERYTHING was made out of salt. The building, the beds, the tables, the chairs, EVERYTHING was just glistening white! Next door, we briefly visited the salt museum, where they had amazing life-size models of llamas and birds - again all made out of salt!We continued on in the 4x4, until all of a sudden for miles around there was nothing but glistening white salt flat. On the horizon you could see the surrounding mountains, but other than that, everything was just a brilliant white colour, and as the sun was shining the light was bouncing off everything and the view was simply stunning. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flats, measuring 12,000 sq km, and the highest too at 3653m. It was once part of a prehistoric salt lake called Lago Minchin, which dried up to leave what we can see today. We got out for our second stop at Isla de los Pescados (FishIsland), a huge island slap bang in the middle of the salt flats, full of nothing but rocky outcrops and giant cacti! We all scrambled up to the top to get the best views of the surrounding landscape, and then had fun trying to find the largest cacti, which was apparently over 12 m in height. It was one of the most bizarre things we have seen, since the island was literally in the middle of nowhere, and bizarrely populated by the giant cacti! We came back down to the salt flats just in time for lunch, which was actually pretty good, and since it included llama, those who hadn't tried it at the last opportunity weren't really given much choice this time!! After lunch, we did what all tourists who come to the Salar do - we took stupid photos!! We're not sure what it is that encourages people do these things, since in the plazas and in front of churches etc everyone just smiles and takes normal pictures, but something about the never-ending stretch of white salt on the horizon made us get into the mood! We were there for a good hour taking shots of us jumping, pretending to hold each other up or blow each other away, and it was a good laugh trying to see who could get the most creative shots. This might explain all the pictures in the Salar de Uyuni photo album, which otherwise resembles some kind of cult ritual offering!! We are normal we promise!! We continued on for our first night's stop in San Juan town, where we stayed in simple accommodation in a very basic village. Outside, the fields were full of adorable llamas and we stayed outside having some wine from the local shop, until it got too cold and it was time for dinner! Although it was boiling during the daytime, the temperatures at night on the Salar can drop to below freezing pretty quickly, especially because you are at altitude. Dinner was prepared by our drivers, who were amazing, doubling up as cooks and guides too! Again food was basic, just Andean soup for starters and pasta with sauce for main course, but it was followed with tea and coffee, which we all enjoyed as we sat singing songs, while Ben played his guitar for us. We passed a few hours until we had exhausted Ben's repertoire, and then headed off to bed as we had another early start.That day we continued on into the desert, leaving the white of the salt flats behind us. We visited a few more small towns (mostly for toilet stops!!) and also what is known as the Salvador Dali desert. It was amazing just how much the landscape did resemble one of Dali's paintings, with bright blue sky, and then desert sand with weirdly shaped pieces of rock dotted around as far as the eye could see. We also paid a visit to the Valley of the Rocks, where again the landscape was littered with strange large outcrops of rock that had formed simply from weathering and erosion by the wind and rain. The most famous is the 'Tree Rock', which has been eroded to resemble a small tree trunk with a big bush of leaves on the top. We took some time to explore the area, climbing over the rocks, taking pictures of the snow-capped mountains in the distance and generally just soaking up the strange atmosphere that the whole thing created. That night we slept in another small town, again in simple accommodation, with rather similar food to the night before!! Nonetheless, we passed the time chatting around the table again, and were even treated to tea/coffee and chocolate chip biscuits before dinner!! That night we shared a room with Hannah and Pippa, and since none of us could sleep, we spent a good hour or so just having yet another girly gossip!! It seemed we were in the mood for that kind of conversation, since we spent the many long hours between stops, having girly chats with Christina in our 4x4 too!!The next day we continued on and took in the sights of the Laguna Colorada (ColouredLake), and Laguna Verde (GreenLake). Both were equally stunning in their own ways, and the water was beautiful as it reflected the sunshine and the surrounding mountains. Laguna Colorada really was a beautiful deep terracotta red colour, and Laguna Verde was almost aquamarine. Both lakes gained their colour from the different types of algae that lived in their waters, which was then stirred up by marine life or birds, causing the coloured appearance. There were also thousands of flamingos (apparently three different species, according to our guide) living around Laguna Colorada and as they flew about, they created flashes of pink against the red backdrop of the lake. The setting of both the lakes was breath-taking and we were both so taken aback by just how varied and beautiful the Bolivian landscape is. On our last morning we were up VERY early to go to Sol de Manana, the site of sulphurous volcanic geysers. It was pitch black when we left and everyone was tired, but when we arrived and stood with our arms in the fumes of the geysers taking pictures, we were soon warmed up and awoken by the smell of the sulphur!! We continued on to some nearby natural thermal baths, where Rakhee took a dip in the 30 degree water, but Marisha had forgotten her bikini and so opted for dipping her feet in instead! It was amazing just how warm the thermal baths were, but you could definitely feel the cold again as soon as you got out!! That morning we had breakfast next to the baths and were treated to scrambled eggs and cake!! It was definitely a good reward for having been up so early!! As it was our last day, a large part of it was spent in the 4x4 heading back to Uyuni, although we did pass the other bank of Laguna Colorada on the way, which impressed us all over again with its striking colour and flamingos. On the way back into Uyuni, we stopped briefly at the TrainCemetery, where all the trains the British had put into use during their occupation of Bolivia, were now just rusting and collecting dust. It was quite strange that all the trains had ended up here, but it was hardly a highlight of our three day excursion!!As we were leaving Uyuni that night, we only had one hotel room between all 15 of us!! Since none of us had showered for three days (we told you it was basic accomodation!), we had to pull numbers out of a hat to see who would go first and luckily Marisha pulled out number 1 so we were first in the shower!!!After a leisurely lunch with the girls and some internet time, it was time to eat yet again!!We all headed out to another pizza restaurant and reminisced over our time on the Salt Flats.That night we were taking a train to Oruro and then an early morning bus onto La Paz, where our tour was due to end.Our 4x4 drivers were supposed to pick us up and drop us at the train station, but after waiting almost 45 minutes for them, it was clear they weren't turning up!We all strapped our backpacks onto our backs and had to walk in the cold night air to the train station.It was our first time on the train since we had arrived in South America and it made a nice change from the millions of buses we had become accustomed to!As we settled onto the train, it became apparent that not all of the seats reclined fully, and two people would have to sit on the seats at the end of the carriage, where the seats didn't recline at all - not an exciting prospect for a 10 hour train ride!!To make things fair, Christina put all the pair's names into a hat and we drew again, just as we had done for the showers.In the end, Kristin and Olaf who had been sitting in the back two seats, didn't even get to move, after Olaf drew the back seats from the hat!!After everyone had shifted about seats and gotten comfortable again, a French couple got onto the train and said that Kristin and Olaf were in their seats.Christina checked the tickets again, and lo and behold, after all of the fussing, we hadn't even reserved the two bad back seats!!! It was somewhat entertaining for all of us, but we think Kristin and Olaf were just glad to finally get reclining seats!!!The train ride was bumpy, but we all managed a little sleep, before arriving into Oruro in the early hours of the morning.There, we transferred in taxis to the bus station, where we pretty much hopped straight onto a bus bound for La Paz.This time we were treated to a medical sales woman trying to sell us aloe vera based products, lots more old ladies selling food and drink, and another song from a little boy - much better than the last one though!!The bus ride was only a few hours and we soon found ourselves pulling into the bus station in La Paz?