We didn't fall off the side of the mountain - although it was a close one. We held our breath for the first half an hour of the bus journey to Uyuni, as the driver negotiated hairpin bends on the edge of the mountain and insisted on overtaking in ridiculous places. We sort of got used to it after a while and were more troubled by the severe over-crowing of the bus and the women who were almost sat in my lap for the entire journey. It wasn't that bad however, as we became the children's entertainment (and cushions). We arrived in Uyuni at 1AM (only 45 minutes late, it must be a record) and it was sooo cold. Being so high up coupled with the minus temperatures didn't help the breathing situation but I quite liked it as it reminded me of a Christmas night - the floor was gleaming, not from frost but salt! We hadn't booked a hostel but knew the HI was open 24hrs so we went there and knocked on the door, and knocked again and again. Thought we might freeze to death but in the end a lovely (English speaking) lady let us in. We took a 4x4 to the Salar de Uyuni for the day and were completely shocked by the scale of the place. It's a 4,085 square miles salt flat located 3660m above sea level. It contains 10 billion tons of salt as well as many "islands". We spent the day exploring the flats, which are blindingly white and look like either snow or white sand. We visited a hotel made entirely of salt blocks and small springs from the ground. We also visited an island which was covered in cacti - massive ones! We climbed to the top of this island and all we could see for miles and miles was whiteness dotted with mountains. We've never seen anything like it, it was hard to imagine what it would be like before we went there but even harder to describe! You'll have to look at the pictures to see what I mean! We're about to take another bus heading to La Paz, it's only 12 hours this time - phew! Although I wouldn't place any bets on that - the general consensus of travellers in Bolivia is: don't trust anyone! Although that's not meant in a derogatory way, it's just that people tend to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth!