Date: 13th and 14th November 2006

Russ: Even though there was 8 of us in our apartment in La Paz hotel, we all managed to over sleep the morning we were leaving to head to the next town on the tour which was Uyuni. Thankfully Joe managed to wake up, so we all started rushing about like loons to get ready haha as we were up so late, shame that Me, Steve and Felix were supposed to pack bags on Doris :). We left about 6.45 for a really long drive to Uyuni which is famous for its salt flats.

We stopped for lunch about one in the middle of the desert which was schorching hot! and of all the timing just as we were setting up for lunch this 4x4 comes racing over the desert, driving like a prat and then suddenly he turned really sharply and the car flipped and went smashing into the ground. We went running over to the car to check the people were ok, the car was a complete right off but the 2 guys inside were ok apart from a bit of shock which was very lucky considering what had just happened, the roof of the 4x4 was had completely caved in! It scared all of us as he was racing around so fast and the sound of it flipping was horrible!(1 of the idiots wasnt even wearing a seatbelt). Their mates arrived in another car and before they even checked to see if they were ok one of them grabs a video camera and starts filming haha, he even interviewed matt, wonder if hes on dutch telly now :).

After that excitement we arrived at Uynui at about half four, which in my opinion is a really weird town and gave me the bloody chills(reminds me of actually being in Resident Evil and the creepy town in the film 'children of the corn'). We had to stay in a different hotel the first night as the there was a Dutch reality t.v show filming in area (and it was 1 of there cars that had crashed).

The first night we checked out the local market in the area, where alot of us brought bandanas for the next day on the salt flats as the sun is so harsh out there as it reflects off the white plains. That night we all went to Minuteman Pizza joint which is at 3670 metres above sea level, was really good and cheap pizzas. It also has rooms attached which is where we were supposed to be staying but were for the second and third nights. Everyone had an early night as we had to be up in morning and there is not that much to do in this town anyway. The rooms in this first hotel were ok but were quite stuffy as it was fairly hot in the days here. There was only a few toilets on the floor so was a bit of a mission in the middle of the night especially for some people including matt and mel who were suffering with bolivia belly - its definalty the water gives you such bad stomachs so painful!!

The next day we got up at 9.00 today and moved all our stuff to the other hotel at the Pizza place, thankfully only 10 mins down road, as our bags weigh a tonne. At 10.00 we met outside to start our tour on the Salt Flats, There was Me, Ness, Matt, Mel, Felix and Debbie in one 4x4. There was 3 cars with us and the others in 2 other cars who were staying overnight on flats, we couldnt be assed to that since it was more expensive and we basically did what they did anyway but without the nights stay on the flats.

Our first stop was at a Train graveyard were there were loads of old rusty trains (even ones originally robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, sweet). We saw these people that were doing a TV quiz show and they asked a few of us to help find an object in their picture but none of us managed to find it. Our next stop was a town on the edge of flats called Colchani, there was a museum and shops which sold items and furniture made of salt haha, I brought an ash tray and some dice as was cool something different. In the museum there were big statues made of salt of alpacas and snow men and the actual musuem was made of salt too which was really effective and cool to see. One of the groups in 4x4 were really delayed to this town because as they were driving along the windscreen on car smashed which was quite scary - but thats south america haha!

After that we finally made it to Salt Flats which are great and huge, it is over 12000 square miles so these are the biggest in the world. We stopped at a place along the flats do take perspective photos, we were here a while getting lots of different and effective shots, we got us coming out of a pringles tube, mel and debbs standing on a teddys head, mel coming out of a malibu bottle etc, was great fun and could of spent all day doing these photos. We had a good drive along the salt flats which was really cool just driving across lots of salt and all you can see is white all around until the whitness meets the blue sky was co cool to see and unbelivable to think how big it actually is.

Our next stop was lunch which took us a while to get to since we got shafted with the crap car, it went really slow as if it had no fuel but apparently it did and every now and again our driver jumped out of the car and into engine to try sort out the problem, but it didnt work was still really slow, another guide had to come find us as we had taken so long. Finally we got to the lunch stop which was at the base of a volcano, was really cool, and from where we eating we had a really good view of the volcano crater which was colourful. There was a mummie at top of volcano but since we were running out of time, decided to leave it and head off(we had already seen about 100 mummies since being in South America anyway). At this stop there were lots of alpacas nearby, mel was off taking lots of pics of them, (Mel: I walked into their field and went close to them to get some cool pics, there was even a white one with gingery coloured patches on, yay one like me so I got lots of pics of him, he was my favourite haha).

After lunch we stopped at Fish Island (named this because when you are a little distance away the island looks like a crocodile). The island has loads of cactuses on it and does look really good and strange in the middle of the flats. We then stopped to watch the sunset which was amazing, got some really great photos.

Our last stop was the salt hotel, which is exactly what it sounds like :), shame though as the place was shut so could only get a glimpse of salt furniture through the window but was good to see, and it was really effective looking made completely our of salt. On our way back another car broke down so we had 10 people squashed in our car haha, but managed to get back about nine ish to our hotel, we stayed in pizza place drinking and talking for a while, while Matt and Brad stayed up till 4 in the morning chatting and Brad is actually louder than Matt. Dont think they were actually that loud but place is designed badly so seating area is in between rooms. We heard in the morning that some woman complained about noise so she was given room free for the night haha.

Next day we were hungover especially Matt haha, Matt and mel went for wander around town, stopped at Cafe and looked at a few shops, but there really is not that much in town. Heard later from Matt and others that Matt and Mel went in to internet place which was really slow (but dont have that much choice in small towns) and that katie told a couple of people from our tour that place was slow and the owner started shouting and pointing at her going nuts and accusing her of making people leave, Matt then stood up for Katie and made sure they all left the place haha.

Matt and Mel then returned to hotel for siesta before heading out again with me(i was awake now), Ness and Brad, we checked out another market where all the local ladies were wearing their bowler hats and trying to sell you lots of different stuff, before heading back to hotel via cafe and drink :).

That night we ate at Minuteman again(really was that nice), Matt and Mel relaxed around hotel before heading to bed while Myself and a few others, determined to find some sort of nightlife went wandering around town and actually found a bar(which was dead like everything else in town) but they sold booze so we were an easy sale haha. We played darts and drank alot more before finally returning to hotel at a time that ill be damned if i can remember :).

Although the town of Uyuni was very small and quite eery, the salt flats were just amazing to see and drive around on, was a cool experience to see such a different landscape was such a cool place!