Well we arrived in Uyuni after an overnight 12 hour bus! The bus itself wasnt bad but the journey was hurrendous! The roads were fine for 5hours and then the last 7 or so were so so so bumpy! Ot was pretty difficult to get any sleep at all!
So we arrived into Uyuni on hardly any sleep and it was FREEZING! Omg! I felt so so cold! And it was about 7:30am so there was no1 about.. We all just got dumped off the bus into the middle of a town which look deserted! We wandered around and found our hostel eventually! (I was moaning a lot by this point) and we went into be told we would have to wait in the 'lounge area' for three hours! BRILLIANT! So anyway I put half my bag of clothes on and we waited!
We went to then book our Salt Flats tour which was why we were in this freezing place anyway!! We found the company and booked it all fine. Then we just had to get some money! We tried every single ATM in the town and not one of them would give us cash!! All you could see was travellers wandering from bank to bank trying to get money! It was a nightmare!! This went on for about an hour and a half until some clever Irish (i know right shocker!) worked out that you had to ask for like 520 or 480 not 500! Pain in the arse!! So we got money and were all set ready to go to the Salt Flats! The Salt Flats by the way are the equlivilant of 1.8 million football pitches big! I actually think that might be as big if not bigger than England!!

Day 1

We were meant to leave Uyuni at 10:30am but in true Bolivian style we left at 11:40.. Nice one! We were in a jeep with two South Africans and two Welsh people.. Who were all really nice! The South Africans were HILARIOUS! They actually said 'Yarr' haha!
So off we went driving across the Desert towards the Slat Flats! I'll add it wasnt cold at this point..
First stop was this Train Cemetery.. Yep thats right. Train Cemetery! Haha! There were old rusty trains there which had swings and see saws attached too- very weird.. Didnt really see the point of it been there!
The next stop was MUCH better! It was on the Salt Flats and you could have photos taken etc! It was sooo cool, because they look never ending theres no concept of size so we had some pretty cool photos taken! The group leader- Carlos- made us as a group do this jumping one thou and everyone obviously put their camera in and he ha to take one on each persons camera twice because he normally messed up the first..There were about 13 people in total- a hell of a lot of jumping! I was knackered!!

We then moved on and went and seen some lagoons etc which was cool and this Volcano which was alright- not going to lie it wasnt anything spectacular! We then went to the hostel we would be staying in that night! Ohhhh wow was that hard work! So we arrive to this little village thing where majority of the 'houses' dont have windows, most of us (especially the girls) were a bit tense at this stage as to what we would be staying in! We pulled up at this one place and it looked full with other groups.. And sure enough it was! In fact the next three places we tried were all full! They hadnt made a reservation!! We couldnt believe it! They do this tour everyday and they dont have a fixed reservation! So anyway we FINALLY found a hostel which to be honest was quite nice and we had dinner and went to bed at 9pm as they are a bit military and stingy with their elecriticity! Haha! The company had given us sleeping bags, which were INCREDIBLE! Llama lined and all fluffy! They kept me soooo warm!! :-)

Day 2

Day two started okay.. We set off to go see some lagoons and more volcanos! The views were incredible! We also got to see the red flamingos!! In fact the only problem with day two was the weather.. Sure it was bright blue skies etc.. But it was FREEZING! We were climbing altitude again (i really hate alititude now) and it was just getting colder and colder.. I wasnt happy! We went cactus island which was pretty cool, there were obviousky millions of catcus' and they were the biggest in the world! They told us how to differientate between male and female catcus', because you've always needed to know! The female by the way has two bits sticking out (go figure) and the male is straight up! Ha! (predictable!) ha!! We then went to have lunch and we are sat in the blistering wind, perched on a rock trying to eat chicken, potatoes and veg! (All went cold within 30seconds!) I was impressed with the food thou and enjoying it until... A bird s*** on me! It was so so close to my plate it was unreal and it went all over my trousers and coat! I know its meant to be lucky and all that but i would rather have bypassed the luck! Ha! And i couldnt even buy a lottery ticket!! Gutted!! Ha!

Once we started to go towards the hostel i was freezing and it was only getting colder! We were 4,700m above sea level! The joys! It could drop to as low as -25 at night!! Anyway we again drove into a village thong and we were looking at the hostels available and we really were worried! Some were half finished! I think even the guys panicked a bit! Ha! We couldnt believe it but the same thing happened as the first night! They hadnt made a reservation!! I was NOT happy!! I was fully prepared to sleep in the jeep rather than some of these hostels! Anyway they found us one in the end which had a fire so it slightly improved my mood! Carlos then brought us wine with dinner! Which greatly improved my mood! And then he did something which i could have kissed him for! He brought us hot water bottles!! It was as close to heaven as you could get in those conditions! Again with the military Bolivians in charge the lights were off at 9:30pm again so i was tucked up in my sleeping bag and (no im not joking here) 7 blankets and two layers of clothing on!! Ready to attempt to sleep! We had heard horror stories about when people wake up after this night because of the altitude they struggle to breathe and you find yourself panting and panicking! I was REALLY looking forward to that when i woke up!!

Day 3

Luckily the altitude didnt affect us the way it had affected others, (thats how long ive been stuck at altitude!), but unluckily we were woken at 5AM! We all thought it was to go see some amazing sunrise so i wasnt too grumpy because normally they are incredible.. But NO.. It wasnt to see the sunrise.. It was to go see some steaming rockface and mud bath place which STUNK of rotten eggs! Like seriously as bad as when you set them off at school and the teachers wouldnt let you leave the classroom! Errggghhh! It was f***ing FREEZING! Must have been minus 17 at least! I was so so cold and i had four layers on!! The steam that came out the ground was about 85-90 degrees and it stunk but we still all touched it because we were THAT cold! And then there was the mud.. Ohh dear.. I suppose if i had been warmer i might have liked it marginly more (i doubt that much more).. The mud was at approx 240 degrees and was bubbling like mad.. If it hant have stunk so bad i would have probably killed myself by jumping in tk warm up!! So yeah, we got up at 5am to see bubbling mud and steam.. BRILLIANT! And i paid for this...? We then moved on to better things.. Breakfast! It was about minus 5 now and they told us after we'd eaten (cold pancakes and luke warm water) that we could go into the Hot Springs! Wow! Ive never not wanted to do anything less in my life! I couldnt even have taken my coat off, let alone the other 3 layers i was wearing beneath that!! The Welsh couple felt excatly the same as me and so did about 30-40 other people from different tour companies! The South Arifcans went in though.. Yeahh they really looked like they enjoyed it! NOT! It was temped at about 35 degrees which just isnt that warm really! Sure fire way of getting full on flu i think! Ha! So yeah missed that one!
We then left there and headed for the Chillean boarder where we would be catching a bus to Chile to go to San Pedro de Atacama.. The driest desert in the world! Desert to me means heat so i cant wait!

The last three days have been great and i really enjoyed the Salt Flats, but it had to have been the coldest i think ive ever been in my life and definately something i do not want to feel again! The photos will sure bring memories back to me when i look at them!! Haha!

This is the also the end of our Bolivian experience.. Ive learnt a lot.. They are NEVER on time, they are NEVER in a rush to do anything, and they generally hate speaking English!! I have enjoyed it but ohh boy I cannot wait for Argentina!!

Speak soon! Muchos love!

XxX