More from Salar de Uyuni

So final day of the salt flats tour involved getting up at 4.30am so we could be there to see sunrise.

The drive up to the spot where we would watch sunrise was pretty mesmerising.  Getting up that early was definitely worth it.

We had really long shadows!

These are the people we tended to be in convoy with:

Back: Stevie, Walter, Marte, Me, Paul, Caroline, Brian, Paul, Noel

Front: Ann-Marie, Sally, Micheal

After sunrise, we went to Isla de Incahuasi, or Cactus Island, an outcrop of land in the middle of the salt flat where loads of cacti grow.

Then we had breakfast before being driven to a spot to take cool photos!

We also did a cool video but it was on the other Paul's camera so we need him to get decent internet so he can share it with us!  

There was so much more we could've done, but we had to go after a picture with Juan Carlos and Patricia (can you tell who got up the earliest?)

After lunch, we visited the train cemetery in Uyuni.

Some people ended their tour in Uyuni.  Paul and I went back to Tupiza with Juan Carlos and Patricia.  Milton and the Irish friends also headed back to Tupiza.  En route, the drivers stopped at a small building in the middle of nowhere, we're told to perform a ritual to protect drivers.  We don't know what  it involved, but after 20 minutes in the little hut, they came out smelling of cigarettes and with their cheeks bulging with coca leaves!

On the way back to Tupiza, Juan Carlos stopped to pick up two groups of hitchhikers - the towns are so remote that this seems to be a regular mode of transport.  The first group was three school kids either on their way home or on their way to school.  Then he picked up a man and a woman who got dropped off just before Tupiza and in Tupiza itself.

SALT FLATS!!!

We don't have all the pictures we took on the salt flats yet because we need to exchange with the other people who were on the tour.  But here are a few to prove we went!

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.

Salt flats tour - accommodation

We'd been warned that accommodation during the tour would be basic: dorms with beds with three blankets, no showers the first two nights and limited electricity.  We rented sleeping bags for £5 because the stops were remote and at altitude, with no heating.

I think everyone had been expecting the worst so we were pleasantly surprised by the first night's accommodation.

Unfortunately I was in a dorm with 5 blokes.  Guess what the first thing I heard was when I took my earplugs out in the morning.

The second night was more basic.

Beds made of something like concrete, with a mattress and blankets.  The ceiling was made of straw so it was definitely colder!

Fortunately, there was a wood burner in the building.  Initially, Paul and I tried to warm ourselves with PMA - pretending to warm our hands on imaginary heat from the wood burner.  Patricia the cook did a double take when she walked past us.  She must have thought we were raving mad because it turned out there was actual wood we could burn.  Paul included lots of little bits of kindling in the wood he collected, only for one of the staff - a small woman in traditional Bolivian dress - to pour petrol on the wood in the burner and throw in a match!  The explosion was pretty spectacular but I'm sad to say I did not catch this moment on camera, just the resulting happy tourists.

The last night was positive luxury.  We were in a hostel on the edge of the salt flat, that was largely made of salt - tables, seats and salt on the floor.

We even got a private double room.

And electricity and alcohol!

There were even hot showers for the grand sum of £1.  A few people had cold showers until Paul realised you had to pay a dude first.