After successfully getting through immigration at the hut on th mountain with no customs office I headed to our 4 x 4. On the bus ride there we got chatting to a couple Mel and Gusta (Australian & German) and it turned out they were in our 4 x 4 too. We were also joined by 3 Chilean girls )Paulette, Camila & Cata) who fortunatlely spoke Spanish and good English, very useful seeing as Miguel, our Bolivian driver, did not speak English. Anaide was originally put with a group of 5 French´friends but after some pleading was allowed in our 4 x 4 in exchange for 2 of our bags going in the other car. Before long the 7 of us hit the road and headed to the first laguna at approximately 4300m abov sea level.

Here we got our first glance of some flamingos, but also could take in the awesome mountain scenery for the first time. We spent the next few hours meandering our way between mountains across deserts taking in the different lakes (lagunas) as they appeared. The journey itself was also half the adventure as we tried to learn about Miguel and Bolivia. The whole day we also listened to just a single CD with Bolivian music on which is very different to the western stuff. Turns out windpipes are extremely popular and we heard a few Bolivian remixes of western songs which were quite bizarre

In the late morning we stopped off at the edge of a laguina with beautiful mountains in the background, Here we were told to jump out get on our swim gear and enjoy the pool fed by a hot spring. Fortunately, it was much warmer than the previous hot springs, which is just as well as the air got pretty chilly as the hailstorm passed!

We also hit the giddy height of 4960m in the afternoon as some of us started to feel the effects of the altitude and anything more than a brisk walk soon became hard work.

In the evening we stayed at a refugio tucked into one of the mountain sides. Here we were fed and watered and I sampled some of the local beers over a couple of games and quizzes before rather reluctantly agreeing to an early night with everyone else. It has to be the first time in south america I was in bed before 10pm that wasnt due to a hangover!

Next morning we were up and ready to leave at 8am and headed to the stone tree. This is the rock that is really narrow at the bottom and large at the top. It has been shaped by wind picking up sand and eroding away the base of the structure and now it makes for a pretty cool photo opportunity. After getting to know Miguel the previous day and leaving it a couple of hours I also put the rest of the group through the pain of listening to the music on my Ipod. I think they were relieved after an hour and a half when the battery ran out and the threat of the repeated Call Me Maybe song diminished.

Throughout the day we continued to stop off at cool places including a giant rock valley, more lagunas and even a stop off by a llama farm to see some of the critters up close. Towards the end of the day as we reached the town of Uyuni we stopped off at a train cemetery. Trains used to be used extensively in the area up to around 100 years ago, but after this they have become quite a rare sight and do not operate any more. As a result there is about 30 trains that have been abandonded and left to the elements over time. It was quite an eery setting. Once we had filled our memory cards to bursting with photos we reached Uyuni and checked into a hostel. We all went for food at 7.30pm through the tour and i tried llama for the first time, However, it arrived in sort of string format, rather than as a steak so deciding what it tasted like became a bit of a challenge. In the evening the Chileans, Anaide and I went out to the Extreme Fun Pub for a drink or two with 2 Chilean boys.

The pub lived up to its name as we started playing drinking games surrounded by salt chairs, and creative photos of shots on the salt flats. Before long we were rather intoxicated and being kicked out of the place at 1am. In Uyuni it was the last night of Carnival so of course it would have been rude to go to bed straight away so we headed to the local village hall where there was a bizarre fancy dress party reaching its climax. We stayed until 2am but then common sense got the better of us...after all we did have to get up at 4.30am to see the salt flats for sunrise.

Somehow the 4am start wasn´t as bad as i expected and after a little doze i awoke to find ourselves on the the Salar De Uyuni at 6am. We did see sunrise, but sadly the most spectacular skies occurred whilst we were still all in the car en route the flats. Nonetheless sunrise on the largest flat piece of land in the world was pretty cool. Its so flat and large that satellites use it to calibrate all of their equipment to take accurate measurements.

After sunrise we went inside to the salt hotel and enjoyed breakfast at a salt table, with salt seats. Attached to the dining area was a small museum showing some salt carvings but the best scenery was definately outside. It was time to get creative...

We spent the next 3 or 4 hours out on the salt flats experinenting with different camera angles and props as we tried to take some cool and strange photos, with weird perspectives. As there is nothing around it means that distance and perspective is difficult to judge. Fortunately, the trip to the extreme fun pub the night before turned out to qualify as research because I drew quite a bit of inspiration from some of the photos on the wall.

Eventually, it was time to move on and we saw the parts of the flats that covered in water. There was a bit of wind in the air though so the water itself wasn´t completely still and so the photos here were not quite as impressive. Our final stop on the tour was to a small market at the edge of town where you could buy traditional Bolivian clothes, before we returned to Uyuni and had lunch inside the tour agency. After we said our goodbyes to Miguel who had been a really good tour guide for us.

We freshened up in the hostel and then headed into town to take in the last day of carnival. It was also time to split up the group as Anaide returned to San Pedro and the Chilean girls caught the bus to Sucre. That evening Mel, Gusta and I rather stealthily made our way to the Extreme Fun Pub. We had to be stealthy because everyone in the street was armed with either water pistols, water baloons or spray foam and anyone in the vicintiy was considered fair game! After a slightly more low key affair we returned to the hostel around 1am. In the morning we got to the bus station for 8.30am and after a hot potato cake for breakfast we were on the road to Potosi. We had heard that the road was meant to be awful, so the prospect of the journey with a hangover was not that appealing. However, this information must be out of date because the road looked brand new and was in great condition so when we arrived in Potosi a few hours later the dozy journey had certainly gone some way to easing the pain of the hangover.