Ahhh, civilisation

Yep, finally escaped Bolivia and whilst it was a lovely country, found it rather hard to be in with rather unfriendly people (or maybe it was just me!) so whilst i have fond memories, am now really looking forward to my 7 or so weeks in argentina....bliss

So, whats to tell. The llama gloves ended up coming in v handy as the salt tour was v v v cold, despite the man in the office telling me i didnt need a sleeping bag.....he lies! Tour was actually stunning and as we went on a little travelled route to Tupiza rather than back to uyuni, we went through some really remote and stark areas. We went through some villages and you just had to wonder a) how on earth anyone decided it would be a good place to live in the first place and b) why people still stay there....its a mystery! But anyway, in summary

1st day - all about the salt. Full day driving and pottering around on worlds biggest salt lake plus additional bonus of the train cemetry (yep, Uyuni is sooo dull that a load of rusted trains is the highlight of the town). Really stunning driving on the salt with the clear blue sky contrasting beautifully with white salt....v photogenic as my memory cards show. Also got to watch the sun set over the salt as we were late leaving (theres a petrol crisis here at the moment so we had to wait to buy petrol!) which was easily a highlight, especially as our cooks taught us how to dance bolivian style (jump around and shake your legs essentially) while we were waiting for the sun to finally go down

2nd day - all about the lagunas and the flamingos. Lots of driving, lots of pretty coloured lakes, v v cold night only mitigated by the fact it was one of the girls birthdays so the cooks had made her a birthday cake (blesS) and we cracked open the wine (surprisingly good to say it was bolivian) and the rum (not so good, but cheap!) and played cards into the night

3rd day - random day really - ghost town, amazingly beautiful laguna, hot springs (only after abthing in these did my feet finally thaw out) and cool night in really cute town in the middle of nowhere. Ghost town was also easily one of the coolest things i have ever seen despite the driver being rather confused at one point re the route leading me (and most of the others) to think this was the first time he had driven this route and that we would therefore lose our way in the middle of nowhere and die (mostly just me thinking this last bit!) Luckily this didnt happen

4th day- all about the driving....10 hours in a 4x4 - torture even if the scenery was stunning. Although turned out the driver and cook had more music than just pan pipes and our favourite morning tape (80s compilation played once every morning...had village people on, enough said!) and they were holding it all back for today. We had Brian Adams, we had Mariah Carey, we had Dirty Dancing.....it was like music heaven....yes, it had got that bad!

So that was our salt tour, with the additional bonus that we ended up in small town where a hotel with pool cost less than $3 a night! So spent all afternoon floating in pool trying to feel clean again!

Enjoyed tupiza, did horse/bike/jeep combo tour to see all the stone highlights of the area (am now sick of "starkly beautiful" areas) swam a lot and then hightailed it on the only decently timed bus all week (10.30 only on thursdays! otherwise ALL of the 6 bus companies only went to the border at 4am -not going to happen - or 2.30 -arriving too late for the border to be open!

So am now in argentina, Salta to be precise, have bumped into loads of people i know both on purpose and by accident so am feeling popular and loved, its hot, its friday and we are about to go for ice cream....I love this country!