Day 3. Lakes, deserts, rock formations, mountains, volcanos, lava fields and salt flats. And loads more flamingos.

For me personally I think Day 3 was the most stunning from a landscape point of view. Racing across open desert leaving clouds of dust in our wake, clambering around on rock and lava formations, crossing the first of the salt flats, the list goes on. Absolutely incredible.

Day 3 was also when our jeep really began to feel the strain, there was a fair bit of waiting around whilst the 4 drivers (another group of two jeeps were close by) tinkered around under the bonnet. Luckily they managed to get it going each time.

At one point we killed the time by building a shrine to Pachamama (Mother Earth), making wishes (for the car to start), and then chucking rocks until we knocked it over. I don't think the original Inca tradition included the final part of the ritual.

As we were now on the edge of the main event, the Salar de Uyuni (the world's biggest salt flats), the hostel we spent the night in was built of rock salt bricks and the floor covered in crushed rock salt. The effect did not quite match that of the ice hotels in Scandinavia, but it wasn't a bad attempt. And although we were still sharing rooms, this hostel at least had the luxury of a shower - and a hot one at that. But yes, one shower for the whole place. We felt like kings ha ha.