The bus from La Paz which our jeep tour companions Sebastian & Audrey were on was late arriving in Tupiza. We got away at 7.30am. After clearing the town, it was a dirt track that progressively got worse and went higher. Some of our friends have already done this tour and will understand the difficulty of trying to put into words the everchanging landscape and the remote existence of tiny villages. The Southern Altiplano of Bolivia is a very remote area. There may be a constant flow of 4WD vehicles full of tourists but if you breakdown, run out of fuel, fall ill or get lost then the surrounding landscape is unforgiving - you are a long way from modern day facilities. The scenery changes from lush green to barren dusty hills to scrub to snow capped mountains to desert and so on. Every now and then you come across habitations, adobe buildings with grass rooves. How they feed themselves is a mystery, they have plenty of meat available (Llama steaks) but nothing is being cultivated and there is no corner shop. The surprising thing is the amount of football pitches there are in the middle of nowhere. One of which did have a game in play, it seemed that everyone for miles around was present to make up two teams and spectators. The pitches are however just dirt, sand or gravel, no grass for sliding tackles! After several stops to admire the scenery or get close to llamas and vicunas we stopped for lunch in a quiet village in the back of beyond. A room was made available for our driver / guide Nicholas and our cook Flora to serve a meagre offering to us. Nicholas & Flora are married and also in tow on tour was their 3-year old son Kevin (who has been on these tours with them since the age of 3 months). It's not very comforting when on the 1st day of 4 your driver jacks up the front end and starts to take a wheel off and tinkering! Nothing to worry about we were told, a new wheel bearing was fitted yesterday and just needed some adjustment. Late afternoon we visited the deserted ruins of San Antonio de Lipez. Now a ghost town in the Andes landscape at an elevation of 4758m (15,610ft) It's located on one of the highest mountain roads of Bolivia. This town had 150,000 inhabitants, what drew them to this remote spot - silver, lead and quartz. The sun went down and Nicholas tore along the gravel roads to minimize the driving in the dark. At 7.30pm we arrived in Pena Barroza, a sizable place - it had a shop! Now you would think our accommodation would have been pre-arranged but where we were supposed to stay was full. We drove up and down dark narrow streets in search of a bed for the night. Then Nicholas made a phone call and we headed to the far end of town. What just looked like any other building was actually a hostel. The vehicles are driven into a locked gated courtyard to ensure the fuel cans on the roof aren't stolen. Another poor meal at 8.45pm (instant mash and limp burgers). Time for bed, up early again tomorrow. We had paid extra for a private room and our own bathroom. It was cold, cold water only so we didn't bother to use to shower. At 4217 metres (close to 14, 000 feet), we felt okay on arrival but as the night went on our heads started pounding. We popped some pills and hunkered down in our sleeping bags - freezing cold here and no heating.