Day 25 - The surreal and crazy Salar de Uyuni - Salt Flats of Bolivia at 3653m and climbing into Pringles tubes and beer bottles!!                  
 
Excitedly we quickly explored the local markets of this dusty small town, bought some bits n bobs then in our mixed groups boarded our home for the next 3 days, a jeep! Half the jeeps looked like they wouldn't make it to the end of the road let alone across the bumpy rocky desert for 3 days, will they last .... we will see! Jeep day 1 I was in with 'Ash and his girls', myself Jodie and Hayley. First we went across the desert to what is known as Colchani or 'train graveyard,' the most bizarre of places where basically a long line of random old rusty trains from 30 years ago lay dormant! Ads enjoyed his 5 minutes of climbing on these toys, then it was back in the jeeps to race across the hot desert for abit to a salt making factory, well already one jeep had broken down and had to be pushed so perhaps 'race' is the wrong word for some!
 
Here at the factory after buying some multicoloured mad socks, stylish Bilynda demonstrated to us her many skills in Spanish and when translating for us the salt production process, she translated the long and beautiful Spanish name of our guide to be 'JILL!' I had to walk away at this point cracking up, crazy lady! It was interesting to see how they make the bags of salt in such a small room and primitive way. One small machine is used to crush the salt, then this is then shovelled into a bag using a Bunsen burner flame to seal it! I think we all questioned the hygienic process of the old shovel used to put the salt into the bag so perhaps Bolivian salt will be abandoned from the shopping list at home now, Ha Ha! All in all though they make 3000 bags a day and got a mere 1 boliviano for them, 10 pence! But 300 pounds a day is quite a lot for a bolivian wage so perhaps these figures should be taken with 'a pinch of salt!' Sorry Adams gag!
 
Afterwards, back in the jeeps we finally hit the start of our incredible journey across the salt flats!! For once in my life I was actually quiet for a few hours, I just couldn't quite believe that we were finally here, it was one of the most surreal places I have ever been too, hundreds of miles of flat white salt all around you and bright blue sky, the landscape and feeling of being here was just out of this world, a place that pictures and words just don't do justice! As if you were skiing the brightness of the whiteness so to speak is unbearable without sunglasses as we raced along across the flats towards the famous 'salt hotel!' Yes you guessed it, the entire place is made of blocks of salt which for 20 dollars a night you can experience the luxury or should we say sheer hardness of, don't forget your pepper! Inside we visited the museum, statues like Big Ben and large naked women made of salt, bizarre or what, I kept expecting the stuff to melt, it was so weird to not think we were looking at blocks of salt not ice sometimes . Then after some random group photos jumping behind lumps of salt we were back on our way for 2 hours racing across the vast White Plains.
 
Around us now we could start to see small islands on the salt flats which distorted by the craziness of the salt never seemed to get any closer in perspective however far we travelled, then suddenly were upon us, just weird. Lunch stop was at Fish Island (Isla Pescado) or should we say Cactus Island, the most random of places, basically the largest cactus you have ever seen cover a lump of land in the middle of nothing but..... salt! After a good pasta lunch from the back of our jeeps made by our lady cook, it was out onto the salt flats to act like big kids and set up crazy photos! So bizarre that you can make mad things appear so real, with the vast white landscape distorting any size or perspective on anything and soon we were all setting up scenes of standing in beer bottles, slipping on bananas, climbing into Pringles tubes, laying in a sandwich and holding up fingers, beer bottles you name it, plus a few rude ones, Bilynda we say no more! Getting the photos right was actually harder than you thought, Ads and Ian became the master at it whilst I was useless! It was great fun though and yet another highlight of our world trip, can there be any more?!!
 
Next we were back in the jeeps for the last time racing across the final part of the salt flats and then suddenly that was it, we were back onto the dusty, bumpy desert! I actually felt quite sad for it to be over as we had dreamed about it for so long but the next 2 days to come would be equally spectacular! Soon we reached our bed for the night, concrete dormitories at a place called 'Bella Vista .' Hearing the stories of what we were told to expect it was actually way better than we thought which was good, no showers though now for 3 days......nice! Being in the dorms was like being on some school trip or indeed perhaps Big Brother with all of us squashed in single beds in one room, god knows how Hayley coped doing this for 5 weeks! Due to lack of beds Ads and I squashed into one single which I didn't mind seeing as it was meant to be minus 15 tonight! The boys then headed out for a game of footie with the drivers, looking out as they were playing the sun was setting over the mountains and salt flats, turning everything a pinkish tone, we could see why this place was termed beautiful view and with it being in the middle of nowhere you appreciated being here even more.
 
That eve after a chicken and chips dinner made for 17 by our cook on one small gas stove (how do they do that!) we all had some fun playing a true/false game that Bilynda had thought about which ended up with us finding out the most interesting things about people, Aggie for example had been a nun for 14 years but we never knew it and Pete had died and come back to life when he was very young, made our ones about footballers and badminton look very dull!! Then it was early to bed for a sleepless night for some plus some operatic snoring by Pete Ha Ha!