It took an overnight bus to get to Uyini before the excursion into the vast Salt Flats and surrounding desert. The bus journey was not very comfortable and it was soo cold there was ice forming on the inside of the windows during the night. Also they played the new omen movie which was a weird choice.

The first day we visited some ghost trains - basically a train cemetry in the desert on the outskirts of the town, weird and kind of pointless. From there we were driven in the back of a 4x4 to the Salt Flats. It was really strange seeing such a vast flatness of pure white that was nothing but salt for as far as the eye could see. We visited a Salt Hotel, which was obviously made from salt(!) and then set off to an Island in the middle of the flats where we took a good few forced perspective photos, that was a lot of fun especially aligning people into the right positions for extra effect.

The second day we drove through the desert and passed by an active volcano (smoke coming out of it!)  and a number of ice covered lakes. The colored lake was really bizare (see the photos below) it was a mix of blue, red, green, grey and white in different places. There was not a single cloud in the sky for hours and the surrounding mountains were a spectacular sight. Ive never seen soo much nothing!!

The final day was one of the best. We got up at 5am in the freezing cold and drove to the natural Geysers. That was really cool to see all this steam coming naturally from the ground, because we were soo cold the warmth of the steam was very welcome! The geyser field itself stank of sulphur (rotten eggs) but the bubbling water and steam in the middle of the desert was an awsome sight. An hour later we arrived at the hot springs at the edge of an ice covered lake. Everyone in the group was freezing but we bravely stripped off (4 or 5 layers!) in the freezing cold and hopped into the hot water beside the icy lake. It was one of the best feelings ever, to swim in really hot water when the air and lake around you is so cold. Loads of people wore hats in because your head would be cold sticking out of the water! It was exactly what we needed to warm up. It was just around sunrise too so the steam rising of the lake was a facinating view at that hour. We just relaxed and soaked it all in while waiting for breakfast. Really comfortable, i could have stayed there all day!! After that we crossed the border into Chile - San Pedro.