Salar de Uyuni, SW Bolivia

10 hours from La Paz, one of the most magnificent tours awaited us. South West of Bolivia is home to the worlds largest Salt Flats (Salars), at 3653 metres above sea level. We arrived from La Paz at 7.30am, and started a 3 day / 2 night 4x4 tour almost straight away. The salt flats originated from prehistoric lakes around 1000 years ago that dried up leaving 11,000 km sq of salt.

Pure white salt stretched out before our squinting eyes, with volcanoes and numerous snow capped mountains as the backdrop. A blindingly white desert with only 4x4 tracks to lead the way from one settlement to another - Colchani and Llica. In the middle of the salt flats the land is dry & barren, and so hundreds of Cacti can be found here. The 1st day of our tour consisted of driving across the Salars, regularly stopping to explore the land and take numerous photos (some in an artistic manner). Our lunch stop was at the Isla de Pescadores, home to an island of giant Cacti and a gorgeous view point. The night was spent in the middle of no where (San Juan) in accommodation made of... salt! The floor, the walls, even the light shades were made from salt!

The next morning we rose to a stunning sun rise before travelling through the desert to get a look at numerous volcanoes and various lakes (Lagunas). 3 species of Flamingos can be found on all of these lakes, leisurely plodding around in different shades of pink. The highlight of day 2 was reaching Lago Colarado, a large ´red´lake with lots of white minerals surrounding the outskirts. Now, our guide did not speak the best English and we are certainly not fluent in Spanish just yet, however, from what we could gather, the lake turns red in colour from the wind and also the suns reflection on the water (the water isn´t really red...). As for a more scientific explanation, you will have to wait until I Google it!

The last day brought memories of the Inca Trail flooding back - a 4 am start! No electricity, freezing cold winds outside and a flat tyre on our 4x4 to start the day. However, once I remembered where I was (Bolivia, with beautiful scenery ahead!), I wrapped myself up all snug and hopped in the 4x4 to check out the natural geysers. A strong smell of sulphate (bad eggs) certainly did the job to wake us all up, if not the gorgeous sight of the sun rising over the desert with the bubbling noise of the mud inside the geysers. Final stop of the tour, Laguna Verde (Green Lake), again the wind and sun was the answer to the colour of this lake. The mountains were red / brown in colour and reflected down on the water - a breath taking view once more.

The whole 3 days on tour was magnificient, the natural beauty of South West Bolivia is 2nd to none, the scenery just blew me away in the same way as Macchu Pichu. It was so peaceful that I found myself on many occasions standing sliently, looking across at the lake or mountain or whatever stood in front of me in the middle of no where appreciating that there is more to the world than the one you can easily get caught up in, normally existing of a 9-5 job and the London underground.

The tour ended at the Laguna Verde where we took a transfer into San Pedro de Atacama, Chile... another border, another country.