Crossing the Salt Flats, or Salar de Uyuni, in Boliva has to be one of the most amazing things in teh world to do!

Our entry into Boliva went quite well. We drove to several lakes, all completely freezing, even with the saun beating down on you. Laguna Verde, Laguna Blanca and a dip in some thermal pool before lunch. We then headed to Laguna Colorada, where we stayed in the worst hostel in the world for the night. It got to minus 12 that night, and the hostel has no heating, seeing as we were in the middle of the desert! It didn{t help that we were all suffering with the start of altitude sickness.

We survived the first night and drove onto more Lagunas, saw flamingoes and volcaoes, finally coming to our next hostel-with hot water! A better night as we were starting to get used to the altitude (the highest point on the trip being 6000m).

On the last day we crossed the salt flats proper. The whiteness of the place amazes you. There was nothing to see in any direction apart from salt. We stopped at a little rock island to walk around and take funny pictures. Lunch was by a hotel made compeltely out of salt blocks. We then drove on to Uyuni, the town where we finally reached civilisation. All in all the trip was amazing-only running utof petrol twice, and blowing one tyre. We drove past the scene of a crash that had happened last week. Two drivers has been drunk and fallen asleep at the wheel of thier 4 by 4{s. They hit each other head on. Five people in all were killed. All that remained at the site was black smoke-not a pretty site. Thaank god we survived!