Salar de Uyuni; a mysterious expanse of salt half the size of Wales in the heart of South America - the World's largest salt flat, Bolivia's top tourist attraction and one of the places I have been wanting to visit for a very long time. So off I went on a four day tour of the South-West of Bolivia, taking in many sights along the way with my new band of merry young men...

On the first morning we loaded into our jeep; our spanish-speaking driver/guide (Ruben) and our cook (Anna) up front, Danny and Avi in the middle row, and then myself sandwiched snugly between James and Oron in the back row. With hindsight this was not the best arrangement as the three of us in the back were the ones on translation duties, and it became apparent rather quickly that the middle row afforded its occupants rather more space than the back. But I was happy enough, and after the train journey where I was packed in between Danny and Avi it seemed only fair to let James and Oron have the pleasure/give the other two a break!

Just minutes after we left the town of Tupiza we were surrounded by stunning scenery as far as the eye could see: mountains, valleys and desert with some amazing colours. After a few hours of driving and many photo opportunities we parked up in a field of llamas to have lunch, which interestingly included some little llama pies... yum yum. Bolivia is at rather a high altitude and James seemed to be suffering from this rather a lot, so he just passed out on the grass whilst the rest of us unsuccessfully chased llamas around the field. This day was mainly about driving for hours to reach the small village where we were staying that night, seeing much more of the same mountains we had seen the previous day. Once we arrived we went on a quest to find some alcohol and all we could locate was some rancid local wine which we were all too tired to drink by the time we got back to our room! The place where we stayed was pretty basic and had no shower, but it did have running water and flushing toilets, and we each had our own bed so it wasn't too bad.

The following morning we were up at ridiculous o'clock to set off on another day surrounded by beautiful scenery and a few stops off in small villages along the way. This time we had dug out a cable to connect our own iPods rather than listening to Ruben's interesting choice of music, something which we were not sure he appreciated at five in the morning. For sunrise we stopped off at an old ruined village that used to be inhabited by miners who worked in the area, it was freezing cold and we were all still very tired from the altitude and early rise. To help us with the altitude Ruben had given us some coca leaves, but I am not sure whether they really did a lot! Throughout the day our jeep broke down various times, which if nothing else gave us a chance to go the toilet... something that was a lot easier for the boys than for me - sometimes I really do not like being female, although I did have some of the most scenic toilet stops of my life on this trip.

The village in which we stayed for the second night was also rather small and gave us the opportunity to crack open one of our fine bottles of wine over dinner before playing a few rounds of cards. Once again I was pretty tired and James was still suffering so we both got an early night whilst the other three had a little explore in the freezing temperatures of an evening at altitude.

Our next day started with Ruben being in a massive huff with us because we were half an hour late getting ready... we all thought he was going to wake us up as he did the previous day, but he was expecting us to get up ourselves. Our punishment was that he would not put on our music, the saving grace was that he did not put his own on either! First stop was a lagoon which contained many flamingoes and also was the source of some minerals. That day we visit many many lagoons, all of which seemed to have flamingoes and/or minerlas within them. Once Ruben had calmed down a bit and forgiven us for the late departure that morning we started asking too many questions about the owners of the companies that extract the minerals and he got into a massive rant about the politics of Bolivia that we were frantically trying to translate for Danny and Avi without interrupting an already very angry man! Fortunatley, by the end of the day we had all made friends and he was a chirpy chappy once more.

Before reaching our final night time destination we visited some interesting shaped rocks in the desert, which the boys climbed all over whilst I waited at the bottom with everyone's cameras and a severe lack of energy for such activity. Here we also bumped into the lovely Aussie boys that we had met in Salta who seemed to be continuing the drinking frenzy that they had been on when we left them there. I also met a Bolivian guy who had a cowboy hat very similar to mine and he greeted me with a showdown of pistol drawing whenever he saw me from then on, much to the entertainment of all the guides around us. We also stopped off for a quick dip in a natural hot springs near to where we had lunch, visited some geisers at an altitude of 5,000m, saw some dormant volcanoes and then started the long drive to our hostel made from salt. En route we stopped off at a shop and invested in bottles of rum and coke to make the most of our final night of the tour.

Upon arriving at the salt hostel, Oron did the honours and checked that the flooring and the walls was indeed made from salt. This was the final night, and the first place we had stayed which had showers. Each of us had to pay B$10 (about £1) to have a hot shower, which was a little on the pricey side, but totally worth it. The queues for the two showers were long as this hostel actually had many other groups staying there too, but as we had got ourselves into last place in the queue it meant that the last two of us got to have a nice long shower as there was nobody else waiting. Once we were fresh and clean, dinner was served and we were given an extra bottle of wine to go with the one we still had left from the first night. Two bottles of wine and a litre of rum between five people doesn't sound a lot, but you have to remember that we are at an altitude of around 4,500m which makes an incredible difference... trust me!

We met lots of good people that evening, and it was good to mix with some girls again after male-only company for some time. Most people were great, but there was one girl that managed to annoy many of us... particularly Oron and James and she earnt herself the very catchy and original nickname of "Fucking Tory". She was quite nice to me though so I didn't have too much of a problem with her, I just think those boys are too sensitive! Needless to say we all got very drunk that night and ended up making rather a lot of noise, much to the disatisfaction of the people in the room next to ours. I think that Oron was by far in the worst shape as James and I discovered him lying on the floor in a pool of his own vomit (sorry, I know you won't appreciate me putting that in (M)Oron). Nothing that a quick lift into bed, photo and manouvre into the recovery position wouldn't fix!

The last thing anyone ever wants after a hard night's drinking is an early start and an action-packed day including the highlight of their tour... but, my life is not an easy one at the moment (being on a big holiday is so tough), and that is exactly what I had! In order to avoid disappointing Ruben once more with our tardiness, we made sure that we were all ready to leave despite having to pack up in the dark as it was too early for the generator to be turned on. He was very pleased as we were the first group to leave the hostel and arrive at the salt flats before the sun came up. I have seen many-a-sunrise in my time, but this was definitely one of the most unique I've ever witnessed.

Although I knew the salt flats of Bolivia are huge, I could not believe how long we were driving for and all I could see before me was a large expanse of flat white land. Randomly in the middle of the salt flats there are also some islands, the largest of which we visited. Although none of us fancied a hike up a mini-mountain, we were at the destination that the whole tour was angled around so up we went. On this island there were many cacti and we got a panoramic view of the salar which was all worth the effort. Then, at last it was time for food as breakfast was served at the foot of the island... for which we were joined by an ostrich who was very keen on helping to clear up any leftovers.

One of the things that most tourists love to do at the salt flats is take the classic photos to deceive the eye. However we had not prepared and none of us really felt too inspired, plus we already had some great shots from the mini salar in Northern Argentina, so we just took a few as a token effort before we were so covered in salt and cut by scraping ourselves on the surface that we gave up!

So, there it was... one of the parts of this huge trip that I have really been looking forward to, and I had a massive hangover! However, despite this I was still able to take in the amazingness and although I had really high expectations of the salt flats I was not disappointed at all. Once the tour was over we were dropped off in the town of Uyuni where we all got a much-needed early night before leaving the next day for Potosi.

Before we departed there was time for one last moment of excitement as we went for breakfast at a nearby cafe and randomly at the table next to me was my ex-boyfriend Rees! Time for a brief and quick reunion as we arranged to meet up in La Paz a little later on before rushing to make sure we did not miss our bus out of town.