Hello everyone.

Apologies for the massive delay in updates. We have had rather a busy time and are our now back tracking somewhat to keep this lovely little blog of ours up to date. But i shall start from the salt flats where we last left off.

Day 31

The salt flats adventure begins. This morning 3 rather battered looking jeeps turned up at our door where we all stood bleary eyed from our early start. We piled in, sticking to our usual group formation with the younger demographic sticking together plus Max, our fantastic 60 something NZ friend. (We think he preferred us anyway!) We were soon out of town and driving towards what appeared to be a very empty horizon. Just outside of town we stopped at what has become known as the train graveyard due to the large numbers of rusting trains and carriages left there. Then we were off across the salt flats. Soon we were surrounded by nothing but white and blue sky. This was an incredible sight and we all wanted to get out as soon as possible and start taking some of the famous salt flat photos where someone appears to one someone elses shouldering etc etc. However we had to sit tight as we were on our way to a cactus covered island, a strange oasis in the middle of this desolate whiteness. This island allowed an amazing panoramic view of what had once been a huge lake as well as providing a welcome break with lunch cooked for 16 (incredibly) on two tiny gas stoves by a very sweet Bolivian lady in her typical Bolivian bowler hat. After this and after i had managed to prise Tom way from his football game we all had a lot of fun taking stupid photos due to the strange proportions you can achieve with a solely white background. The groups favourite turned out to be one of me in the foreground pressing a tiny Tom in the background down with my thumb. Very funny but hopefully not entirely true. Well not too much! We then set out off again to reach the edge of the salt flats and cross into the desert. It was certainly strange to witness two such different landscapes directly next door to one another. A tiring day meant we were all ready to settle into our hotel...But, the building at which we arrived was not strictly a hotel. In fact the whole thing was made out of salt. This may sound like the rather romantic and beautiful ice hotel famous in the Northern hemispehere. But it was most certainly not romantic although it was interesting. It signalled our first experience of dorm living and unluckily for Tom this meant him sharing with a room of girls, as we made up the younger demographic meaning that none of the ´adults´ as they became known liked to share with us. Even better was that we had beds made out of salt! On top of this we rolled out of arctic sleeping bags which we had hired due to the warnings of below minus 20 degrees celsius at night. You may think this sounds awful but actually we had a lot of fun as it was rather like camping and as long as you had about 6 layers on when the sun went down you were okay. Of course, we did achieve an inner warmth with the Rum we brought with us for the evening! Even better was the large speaker that we found which we hooked up to Tom´s ipod. Safe to say this led to some very bad and amusing dancing from certain members of the group. No names! (Video to follow!)

When the cold got a bit too much it was time for bed so we all trooped to our salt beds, in our salt room, with the salt gravel floor, in the hotel made of salt.

Day 32

This morning we woke almost hellishly early but thankfully to a beautiful sunrise over the desert. It must be said that most of the day was only really spent in the jeeps, bumping along over desert and rocks. You would think this was awful but actually the scenery was amazing and this was the only way to travel. We saw huge dunes, rocky mountiins, a famous rock shaped like a tree, amazing lagoons coloured pink and another one green. And most amazingly this is one of the best places in the World to see wild flamingoes who are extremely bright pink due to the algae growing on these high altitude lagoons.

That night was to be our coldest we were forewarned. We were staying in a hut with even larger dorms but the temperature was due to get down to minus 25. This meant we huddled into bed very early and attempted to shiver our way to sleep.

Day 33

This morning we set off through the desert once more and spent our final morning in Bolivia bumping our way to the border. Just before we got there we stopped for a short while at an amazing hot spring surrounded by desert. Tom and i were reluctant at first but then decided to go for it. Luckily, it was amazingly hot, clear and relaxing so we made a good choice. Upon reaching the border we said goodbye to our drivers and cooks and crossed over. I will continue this day in the next blog.