It all begins with a teary goodbye with Mama Matile as i board the £4 train from Lichfield to London and a struggle through London rush hour with a bulging bag, a goodbye meal with Pye, a celebratory bottle of wine, an over booked plane, two extra leg room seats, too few TVs, a dodgy American accent, a failed customs joke, a lost baby, a delayed departure, a stolen pen and a secret stash of Oreos later, we arrive in La Paz. But there's no rest for the wicked as we take several taxis to and from La Paz's two bus stations to decide on our first adventure before agreeing to take a night bus South to Uyuni. We kill 10 hours in Bolivia's unofficial capital city by visiting the Witches Market, procuring much needed gloves and sampling some of Bolivias finest food and drink (Mr Pizza and Huari beer.) Then all aboard the 14 hour bus to Uyuni which was a relatively painless journey, if not a bit on the cold side (tescos sleeping bag- best £11 ever spent). Towards the end of the journey I notice that my bag had gone missing and after 5 mins of frantic search up and down the bus, I realise that, with all the buses twists and turns, my bag has slid several metres down towards a group of suspicious looking locals. At that point I realise that hangbag are not appropriate in South America and there after I opt for a more practical rucksack which I could wrap around my leg on future journies to avoid any further slippage.
So we arrive in Uyuni (suprisingly fresh) and it is soooooooo cold. There is nothing more we want to do than get back on the bus, back in a warm sleeping bag and get back to La Paz where it is not a requirement to see your breathe in front of you every time you breathe / speak. But we stick it out and after spending 30 minutes searching for our tour agent and a further 10 minutes sat in what looked like the front room of some random Bolivian woman (who took us on under her wing and helped us on our way) we were united with our fellow tourers, a cute Russian couple from St. Petersburg and an equally cute American couple (and yes, at this point both me and Becky were becoming deeply depressed about our single status).
The tour started with a brief visit to a standard Bolivian Market which seemed to sell the same woolley hats, socks and gloves as every other Bolivian stall and after we amused ourselves for a good 10 minutes watching a little girl being eaten by a dog (not as sick as it sounds) we headed off for the salt flats. Bolivian is known for hosting the worlds largest salt flats (over 4,000 sq mi) which sounds a bit boring but they were absolutely amazing! We spent the morning having a photoshoot on the flats (see some of our best work in photos) before stopping off for a lunch of veg, rice and llama! At first we were a little shocked by the guides choice of meat as we had recently passed a flock (?) of the animal in question and had all commented on how cute they were, but once we got over this, we all all found llama to be rather tasty! After lunch we spent the afternoon on one of the salt lakes island (never seen so many cactus!) before heading to the hostel which, of course, was made from salt. And it was basic to say the least! We bunked up with the American couple ("no funny business please") slept in all our clothes and politely refused a freezing cold shower (which we had to pay for) in the morning. We all rose in time for sun rise (which we actually missed due to our battle with freezing water with which we were attempting to brush our teeth) and set off for a volcano trek. It took us about two hours to climb to the top, a walk that was not aided by the altitude (we are 4000m above sea level) which meant we got very out of breath very quickly. But once we reached the peak, we had a great 40 or so minutes taking in the sights of our surroundings (and catching our breathe!) before heading down for lunch. After lunch there was time for another quick photoshoot on the salt before heading back to Uyuni in time to catch our second night bus in 3 days...