Iquique is one of Chile's best beach resorts. It turned out to be a great place to relax for a few days, lazing around by the sea. We were expecting a small out-back town with dusty streets, but when we arrived we found that Iquique is a rich, sophisticated city with glitzy casinos and residents with wealthy swagger. It was eye-opening to see such prosperity after our time in Bolivia. The Bolivian farmers living hand to mouth were a world away from these care...

We crossed the border and arrived in country number five; Chile. Our first stop was the very chilled-out town of San Pedro de Atacama - an oasis in the desert. This place is dry ... very dry. In fact, the Atacama desert is the driest desert on earth. There are some areas that have no recorded rainfall! Basically, it never rains and unsurprisingly the landscape around San Pedro is very harsh with no vegetation and obviously very hot, just dry sandy rocks for ...

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat. It really is massive - over 12,000 square kilometres. Standing in the middle of this hostile environment, with nothing but blinding white salt all around us, was as close as we'll get to standing on an another planet. The white salt was so bright under the Andean sun, it was impossible to look at it without our sunglasses. The surface is perfectly flat as far as the horizon, except for a few rocky "islands" cov...

As soon as we arrived in Sucre it felt different to all other Bolivian towns we'd been too. Most Bolivian towns are dusty, desolate places with an air of desperation, but Sucre actually felt sophisticated - almost European. All buildings are whitewashed and must be repainted every year. This maintains the towns clean, elegant appearance. We headed to the main plaza and got sweetly harassed by a young shoe-shine boy of about 8 and a girl of about the same age...

Mines are inhospitable, dangerous places, so entering Potosi's active silver mine was a terrifying prospect - with no safety regulations, tourists visit at their own risk. The mountain is called Cerro Rico, "Rich Hill" but would be better described as "Hell Hole". We entered through one of 400 tunnels and stooped and crawled up to 3km into the heart of the hill, with the very real threat of being trapped, buried or crushed at the forefront of our minds. The mi...