Salt flats tour - food

All of our meals were cooked by Patricia who came with us in the jeep armed with all the ingredients and equipment she needed.  The price of the tour included three meals a day, drinks and snacks.  It was incredible what Patricia managed to cook up, on one occasion in the room she slept in.

Our first meal was lunch on the first day: a delicious lentil stew with rice, followed by a banana.

When we arrived at our accommodation at around 7pm, we were served what would normally be afternoon tea with biscuits while we waited for dinner: vegetable soup, followed by bolognaise and cheesy mash.

This was one of the meals we thought might be llama, but Patricia reckons it was beef.  This was also one of the few meals which was different to the other groups, who got a burger instead of the bolognaise.

Breakfast on the 2nd day was bread rolls with jam, dulce de leche (yay!) and butter and a boiled egg.  One of the Irish girls, Ann-Marie, is allergic to gluten so she was served a bowl of Frosties to be eaten with powdered milk made up with hot water!  Fair enough, can't expect fresh milk to be kept on a 4-day tour of the wilderness.

Bread shaped like a croissant.  Cute, but nothing like a croissant.

Lunch after the hot springs was an amazing buffet including a steak which we all think was llama, with salad, vegetables and pasta (and rice for Ann-Marie).  

And papaya.

And my condiments!

Dinner on the second day was another vegetable soup, followed by an amazing platter of chips, hot dog sausage, egg, olives and tomato.  Patricia described dessert as a flan, to me it was a set custard.

This was the night we had the wood burner, so people were warming up in between courses!

Breakfast on the third day was pancakes.  No bacon or maple syrup, so I settled for good old dulce de leche and Frosties.

Lunch on the third day was al fresco after our trip to the market and the border with Chile.  Patricia managed to serve up chicken, salad, fingerling potatoes and sweet potato, followed by an orange.

Our final dinner started with the usual vegetable soup, this time flavoured with turmeric.

The main course was a bit bizarre though: spaghetti with a tomato sauce consisting purely of diced onion and some mushrooms.  It was as though the meat had been left behind in Tupiza.  A bit disappointing, especially since the other groups boasted of meat lasagne!

Dessert of a tinned peach in syrup was simple, but very pleasing!

Breakfast on the final day was eaten on the salt flat after watching the sunrise.  All the groups had cake, while I also tried Frosties with strawberry yoghurt instead of warm powdered milk.

Our least meal was lunch on the final day - I didn't get a picture but it was some sort of cake like a fishcake (but not sure it had fish), with Russian-style potato salad and regular salad, followed by an apple.

We were also fed mid-morning snacks at around 10am each day, ranging from Oreo cookies to yoghurt to be drunk from the carton.  All-in-all, pretty amazing what Patricia managed to cook for 11 people over 4 days with a cylinder of gas and minimal equipment.  Wouldn't base my choice of tour group on the food though, as all the groups were fed pretty much the same.