So after a less than hospitable welcome to Bolivia, we set off for Uyuni and the salt flats with a renewed spirit. We had left behind our tour leader and acquired a new one (yet to be assessed), although admitedly he was not the tour leader we were supposed to have as he was apparently stuck somewhere in Peru...or Bolivia...or Argentina...who knows where, but it wasn?t with us. So in stepped our surrogate leader to help us through the next few days and then we were reliably informed that our "real" tour leader would be catching up with us...watch this space..!

After a three hour bus journey and a seven hour train journey we arrived at our hotel in Uyuni, which from the outside looked fine, but inside we had the coldest room, probably because the walls were made of polystyrene and the roof of corregated iron (I kid you not, totally serious here...), so rather than getting undressed to get in bed it was a case of putting more clothes on and no chance of taking anything off to have a shower. In fact so odd was the whole set up that our toilet was actually positioned within the base of the shower - need I say more?!

But thankfully it was only one night and the next morning (after being told off by the horrible manager for ringing the doorbell too loudly to get back in through the front door?!) we left for our three day 4x4 trip through the salt flats. And the first day was absolutely amazing. The salt plains stretched for miles and miles, as far as you could see and further, and were just a brilliant white, it was hard to believe it wasn?t snow. The air temperature made it cold enough to be snow but the taste told you it was definitely salt! We stopped at a village in the middle of the salt flats where they mine the salt and made it into salt bricks for building etc. And then of course the bricks in situ as we visited a salt hotel, Playa Blanca. It?s no longer used as a hotel as apparently the first ones were built illegally, some sort of techinicality over the land and what is should be used for, but they still remain intact and you can see the bedrooms and dining room etc. I guess it is kind of what the ice hotels must look like in Finland or Iceland etc - pretty cool though.

As we drove along you could see some sort of pattern in the salt and when we got out to have a look it was big hexagonal shapes. Apparently this is formed by the rain when it falls, not quite sure how or why but when I am able to upload the photos you will see what I mean. We had lunch at an island, Pescadores, which was a very bizarre place, almost like an oasis in the desert, just looming up out of nowhere. It was covered in giant cacti and was the scene for some of our more amusing photos - doesnt take much to amuse a few travellers! It was also the place where I first tried llama. We had a llama steak for lunch and it was really tasty, a bit like beef really, but much better than the alpaca I had in Peru.

Our overnight stop was a village, and I use the term loosely, called San Juan. When we arrived the sun was still out so we were taken over to the cemetary, with some strange tombs full of mummies and bones and then into the smallest museum ever to read about the history of the place. Our accommodation was basic but fortunately had a lovely big fire in the dining area, so we positioned ourselves next to that for the night and didnt move until the desperation for the toilet became too much to ignore. A quick dash down the corridor and back was enough to send shivers throughuot your whole body and a good five minutes right in front of the fire was needed to thaw out on your return!

The night was cold but I managed some sleep. When we woke in the morning there was frost on the ground and a dripping tap inside the building had turned to ice (!) but no-one seemed to perturbed by the experience. The second day was full of stops, lots of jumping ni and out of the jeeps. There was a railway line, never did quite manage to understand the relevance but good for some more funny photos on the tracks (!); lagunas with wild flamingos (very impressive but bloomin freezing!); a desert, complete with a desert fox; mountain of seven colours; rocks shaped like trees and finally Laguna Colorado, the red lake.

That night we stayed near the lake in what can best be described as army barracks. When we arrived the place was freezing, just concrete floors and windows but with no curtains, so the cold just came straight in. When we asked about lighting a fire, for which there was clearly some sort of contraption, we were told we´d have to wait another hour and a half until 7pm. True to form the natives werent happy and after much complaint and commotion we got our fire early and all settled down to a happy chappy game of cards before dinner. But after dinner it got unbelievably cold and no amount of entertaining stories could keep away the invading thoughts of the night ahead. We all took our remaining clothes and heated them by the fire before we got in bed, although I managed to get my thermal top a bit too close and it melted - whoops!

Then we ended up sleeping two in a bed so we could double up on the blankets and use body heat for more warmth. But half way through the night I had a bit of a claustrophobic attack as I was rammed up against the wall and had to clamber out to the safety of another bed on my own. As we were so high up there was so little air which made it even harder to breathe and find oxygen, so it was a fairly restless night.

In the morning we realised just how cold it had been as my water had frozen in my water bottle even being inside the room with me and our drivers told us it had dropped below minus 20 degrees. It is so crazy that people actually live like this, with no floor coverings, nothing to keep the warmth in and no heating. They have the resources but they just dont use them.

So the final day was tough. For most of the day it was even cold in the truck so we sat in all our clothes in the sleeping bags! We stopped at some thermal geysers, which were pretty phenomenal. I had seen, and smelt, the geysers in Rotorua, New Zealand, but these were something else, so powerful and big. There were also some bubbling mud pools, which didnt smell any better, but looked impressive, like underground cauldrons! And then it was another day of many stops - another desert, thermal pools before breakfast, which some brave souls stripped and entered, but not me, I simply put on another layer before I left the jeep!. On further to Laguna Verde (a green lake), and the dramatic Volcan Licanabur at 5930m before completing the loop and heading back to Uyuni via the Valley of the Rocks.

But the journey back was far from straightforward. First of all one of the three jeeps had some sort of ventilation problem so we had to cram everyone into the remaining two jeeps while that one awaited help...then we got not one but two flat tyres! The first one wasnt too complicated as the driver simply changed it (although it wasnt just a flat tyre the thing was totally shredded and off the rim), but then the second one caused a few more complications as we had to flag down another jeep to get their spare! Then we had to drive in convoy back in case anyone else got a flat as the spare tyres were running a bit low!

When we eventually got back to Uyuni we managed to negociate ourselves a room in the nice part of the hotel, complete with electric fan heater, so I jumped into the very hot shower and then straight to bed to catch up on both warmth and sleep!