The so-called "Salt Flats" tour is often a highlight of people's trips to Bolivia and to South America. I'd have to agree- it was 3 days of stunning scenery; the kind that makes you say 'WOW' on a regular basis. The Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flat) is just one of the amazing things you see on the trip as the tour is of South-West Bolivia and therefore you see a really beautiful part of the country, including lakes, flamingos, rock formations, mountains, desert like landscapes and snow-capped volcanoes. Some of the tour is quite close along the Chilean border so some of what you see is actually in Chile or on the border.

Day 1- We got ready to leave and had a quick breakfast, trying not to think about how cold it was at 7.30 and how it would only be much colder on the tour! We set off from San Pedro with the other 10 people and went straight to Chilean immigration which seemed to take a very long time and we got even colder waiting around in the queue. It was then about an hour or so drive to the entrance point to Bolivia. Once there we had a late breakfast and everyone was glad of a hot drink, as it was pretty cold at 4,400m! We then went to Bolivian immigration which was a really small building in the middle of nowhere and our luggage was loaded onto the jeeps. Our group was divided into 2 so there were 6 of us plus driver in each jeep. We had a good group with our driver, Johnny, Anna and I, and two lovely couples- Australian couple Glen and Lynette and a French couple, Michel and Evelyne. You can guess who got the job of translating….yes, me, which of course I didn't mind :-) I translated what was said into English and French so that the others would understand and be able to ask questions, etc. The jeep was more spacious than I had imagined and was comfortable for the driving across various landscapes and terrain. The other thing that pleasantly surprised me was that there were toilets (sometimes ecological ones) along the way, which was good as I for some reason had not expecting there to be any! Also it wasn't busy at most of our stops (usually maximum of 4 jeeps) and you could really enjoy the quiet and tranquillity and the beautiful surroundings…..

I guess we set off at about midday and our first stop was "Laguna Blanca" - so-called white lake as it appears white in colour due to being frozen most of the time. Our first lake of the trip (there were many!) and it was beautiful. We had time for a wander and to take photos before continuing on- this was the norm on the trip, whenever we arrived somewhere we had a set amount of walking around and taking pictures. The next stop was "Laguna Verde", as it is blue-green in colour. Behind the lake rises the cone of Volcano Licancabur and it goes without saying that it was beautiful! Following the 2 lake stops we continued driving and visited the 'termas de Polques' a hot spring pool. You could go in the water though none of our group did, instead we just enjoyed the scenery. After this we stopped at the geysers at 4,800m, which I think is the highest altitude stop of the trip. We continued onto our accommodation, arriving later than planned I think just before 4pm. We had a late lunch of salad, mashed potato and frankfurter sausages, then it was tea time with crackers and tea or coffee. Can't remember what altitude we were at but it was probably around 4,200m- I wasn't feeling too bad from it but not great either. At 7pm dinner was served and despite only having had lunch at 4 most of us could eat, although some people were feeling the effects of the altitude. It was really cold once the sun went down and we started putting on even more layers. Each group from the jeeps shared a dorm; at about 8pm people started going to bed as it seemed it would be the warmest place to be, though I am not sure you could really call it warm! Luckily I could hire a sleeping bag and Anna had one so that helped us be a bit warmer. I was glad I had bought thermal leggings in La Paz and with at least 5 layers on my top half I was cold but not too cold, but I guess we had come as prepared as we could be!