So after a brief stay in Chile, it was time to embark on our next adventure, a three day trip through the altiplano to the salt flats. First task for day one was to cross the border into Bolivia in the middle of nowhere, and then meet our drivers and jeeps that would be our home for the next 3 days. Somehow we managed to split the group into team UK (the two of us, Liz, Lauren, Si and Jim) and team UN (Anand from India, Claire from Ireland, Melissa from the US, Davide and Alexandra from Switzerland and Andrea from Germany).

Once on our way we began to climb very quickly to a day 1 peak of just over 4000m. Our jeep were all lucky enough not to suffer too much from the altitude so spent the day in hot springs, seeing geysers and then the first of many altiplano lakes, complete with llamas and flamingos. Unfortunately half of team UN were left in their jeep suffering from the altitude. We had been warned that our accommodation for the night would be cold and very basic but were pleasantly surprised by a huge meal and wine even though the generator ran out by about 9 and we were forced to finish our card game by torchlight!

The next day was another day of altplano lakes, all of which would have been pretty impressive on their own but, after the fourth or fifth the attraction started to wear off and we were glad to get out of the car for a hot shower and an early night ready to be up at 4 the next morning. After a quick drive through the quinoa fields we arrived at the salt flats in time for sunrise which was a quite spectacular site across the white salt flats, with just the 12 of us for miles around. There seems to be nothing but a huge expanse of white so we spent plenty of time taking picutres before heading on to the Fisherman´s Island in the middle of the flats for breakfast. After exploring the island and taking hundreds more photos of the flats it was time to head towards the town of Uyuni, via a final stop at the train cemetary and then a well earned shower, meal and drinks!