Before heading to Salar de Uyuni we spent one night at Uyuni. There is not a lot here, it is just the main entry point to the salt flats. The town can be explored in a matter of minutes, with the clock tower being the focal point. Go one way you are at the train station, the other you hit a small church, where in between it is dotted with restaurants and bars (and quite a lot of stray dogs). That evening we sampled one of these restaurants where there was a chance to try llama pizza for the adventerous - it tastes alright! There are also many examples here of pictures taken at the salt flats to give people ideas and get their imagination working on what inventive photos they can take.

Just on the outskirts of Uyuni there is a train graveyard where we went en route to the salt flats the next day. Here there are many skeletons of decaying trains all stolen by the infamous Butch Cassidy. Apparently this fugitive's gun was never found and is supposed to be in this vicinity. If any speculator wants to go exploring, it is worth a million dollars to the lucky finder. We continued on in our 4x4's to the largest salt lake in the world, being 9000 square kilometres. It is a pretty incredible site of pure white as far as the eye can see. On closer inspection it is made up of small hexagon shapes where the salt has dried. Our first stop was at the 'eyes of the salt flats' where the lake bubbles to the surface. The water here is particularly rich in iron which is said to be good for arthritis. Even though below the surface is largely saturated by water, the upper layer of the lake is primarily a hard thick crust of salt.

Moving on we then went further out into the desertness and stopped for lunch. We were treated to a mini buffet which included llama. It's not my favourite meat but definitely edible (well obviously since I will eat almost anything)! Here we also got chance to show off our imagination and artisic skills with the camera. Due to there being nothing in sight there is no perspective on the true scale of objects, so it is possible to get some incomprehendable photos. An example of this is taking a photo where it looks as though a toy dinosaur is eating us. Unfortunately only compact cameras can take photos of this so we have to wait for our friends to upload the photos before we can put them on the blog. After this we made our way to Isla del Pescado which is basically an island full of cactuses. Some were absolutely huge an we learned that they only grow 1cm per year so they must be pretty ancient! We hiked to the the peak and various viewpoints to view yet more breathtaking vistas of the vast salar. To bring the end to an amazing day we watched the sunset (in the ever increasing cold) before making our way to our very cold salt hotel (yes a hotel made from salt!) for the night.

The next day after setting off, we shortly arrived in close proximity to the highest active volcano in the salt flats. It wasn't much longer then before we were in the heart of Reserva De Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, a large mountainous wildlife reserve. Here there are many lakes, where the first one we encompassed was an icy emerald green one. Although the sulphur smell is the first thing that will hit you, it is soon overpowered by the awe of all the flamingoes that you are surrounded by. Unfortunately it is not possible to go in the lake with them (as if I would be silly enough to jump into freezing waters - OK maybe), but it is more due to the poisionous arsenic that is within the water that only the flamingos can process which stopped me.

The next stop at Arbol de Piedra (stone tree) allowed the guys to be boys again and go off climbing. The tree (which is formed from sand getting blasted at it by the wind) is off limits, but all the other rock structures about are fair game. The highlight of this reserve must be the red lagoon which looks so surreal. On approaching it, it could be something from a horror film as it looks like a river of blood! Our hostel for the night was situated right next to the lagoon, so we went for a walk to get a closer look at the various species of flamingos. This turned out to be a mistake since it was briskily cold and a suprisingly long walk. Not to be outdone though I then decided to play football against our porters upon our return. As if the cold was not enough, at an altitude of 4000m+ it was stupidly breathtaking!

The final day of our 4x4 adventure started with a 4.30am wake up. It was that cold that they had to put heat under the fuel tank to get the vehicle started, and then the driver had to keep popping his head out the window since the windscreen wouldn't defrost. It was worth it though since we arrived at the geysers for sunrise. Internal heat from within the earth forces it's way out here, primarily as magma just below the ground, which causes the mud to boil. Its quite amazing to see bubbles shooting to the surface projecting the molten rock into the air, even if once again there are those eggy stenches of methane and sulphur.

Still frozen through to the bone, our next port of call was Sara's birthday (pancake breakfast) at the natural hot springs. The springs were very welcomed as I was starting to miss what it felt like having feeling in my limbs! Although there was intial shock of stripping down in the cold to then plunging in hot water, it was well worth the torture. Those who who were brave enough to do this reaped the benefits as it felt like the central heating had been turned back on; for those who didn't (sara!) it was definitely a school boy error.

We then proceeded to the aptly named blue lagoon which is very picteresque being surrounded by ice capped mountains. Before crossing the border into the Atacama, we had one last stop off at the equally beautiful green lagoon. If you're wondering why these lagoons vary in colour, its due to different algaes and how they react with the toxic water. Anyway this brought the end to Bolivia for us, and with Argentina and Chile a stone throw either way, we crossed the border to celebrate Sara's birthday in another country.

Xx