Ok so we have finally arrived in Bolivia....

We took a night bus from Salta to the border town, La Quiaca in Argentina. We had booked some comfortable executive seats and so I thought it would be a good idea to put my pyjama´s on for the ride and change and shower when we arrived. Most bus stations we have been to provide showers and you always see other people freshening up so i thought i would join them. When we arrived at 7.30am in the morning everything was shut and there was no sign of showers!!! Not even a cafe for us to have breakfast and the whole town seemed to be asleep. So there i was in my striped nightie, stevie nicks hair and Mark´s tracksuit pants! Looking a treat. Given we had nothing to occupy our time here we figured it was best to cross the border and keep moving. We caught a taxi to the bridge and walked over. The Bolivian side had only just opened and we were now a further hour behind. Mark managed to show both our passports and clear us through immigration whilst I paraded my nightie to the locals. Thankfully my attire seemed bang on trend and they greeted us willingly!

The Bolivian border town, Villazon is best to be moved through quickly. We changed some money and headed to the bus station. We had wanted to catch the train to Uyuni but were pretty sure it didn´t leave until 3pm. The bus station was frantically busy and we were acosted from the outset. I went to hide in a corner and let Mark deal with the chaos. It turned out a bus was leaving at 8am and would take 4 hours. We figured it was best to take this rather than wait for the train.

Our bus was a noticeable downgrade from the coaches of Argentina. First impressions of Bolivia were pretty grim but I knew to expect this in Villazon. The drive out of Villazon wasn´t exactly scenic and I wondered when it would improve. Our first stop was Tupiza which was 2 hours in. It looked quite small and its most notable mention is that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed there. We didn´t stay here long and Uyuni was only 2 hours to go.
About 30mins in I noticed a sign saying ¨Uyuni - 200km¨. Given we were driving about 50km p/h this had me concerned! Picturing a shower and feed by midday was becoming less likely. In the end we asked around and it turns out we were arriving at 4pm!! s***, another 5.5hrs on this crammed bus bringing the grand total from Salta to over 17hours travelling...in my nightie!
The scenery at least picked up and we saw some amazing landscape from dizzying heights. The road was basic dirt and gravel with little space for two vehicles but somehow it all worked out. There were moments of ¨s***, don´t look down!¨ and ¨Are our tyres over the edge at the moment?!¨ but silent prayers seemed to help. Trying not to notice the roadside graves part way down the hills also helped.

After many hours on the bus the need for a toilet stop presented itself. Given we were smack bang in the middle of nowhere the likelihood of a toilet block with bells and whistles was slim. In the end we dropped some passenger off and the rest of us followed suit with the conductor yelling ¨Baño Naturales!¨. For the boys this was easy as they lined up next to the bus but for us girls we needed a well placed shrub to keep us modest. I congregated with a group of Israeli girls and thankfully we could laugh about us mooning the Bolivian countryside. There is no more effective icebreaker than sharing in the mutual humiliation of squatting. The bond was now sealed! I think companies should use it in their induction days instead of name games!

Eventually we began to see the town of Uyuni. By this stage we were very sweaty, smelly, tired and hungry! We had looked at hotels before we arrived but decided we would wander the town when we got there for the best deal. This plan changed on arrival and we flagged a taxi to a nice hotel! First impressions of Uyuni weren´t great and I am sure I remember muttering, ¨this place looks like hell on earth!¨

Hotel Toñito offered comfort in the form of hot showers and a private room. It also had a well reviewed pizza restaurant run and owned by an American. I didn´t hold out much hope for American pizza but was pleasantly surprised. Once we were presentable Mark and I shot down there in a flash. A large pizza couldn´t come quickly enough...nor could the wine.The owner, Chris was very friendly and chatted away with us while we stuffed our faces.

The next day Kate and Jane arrived from La Paz. They had done a gruelling trip down from Bogota, Columbia via Lima, Peru and then the night bus from La Paz. They looked and felt like us 24 hours earlier. We shuffled them into our room for showers before breakfast.

We then decided to change hotels and look for a tour operator to the Salt Flats. We found a hotel just 2 blocks down that cost 3 pounds each! The cheapest so far. Admittedly, it was just a bed in a room and had no towels or toilet paper but we managed to get those together! We checked in quickly and went to visit a few vendors for the salt flats. They seemed to offer the same thing give or take so after 3 sales pitches we were bored and booked one. They all show you evaluation sheets completed by other travellers and these are what you need to rely on the most I guess. We booked for the next day.

Mark, Jane and I went shopping after this and bought the latest fashion in Alpaca woollies for the trip. I bought a poncho and beanie and Mark a big fleece lined jacket.

Surprise, surprise we went back to Minuteman Pizza for more at dinner and it was nice to have the girls with us again! We were looking forward to our 3 day 4WD trip!