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From Calama in Chile we took an overnight train to Uyuni in Bolivia. This we a nightmare journey in rickety old carriages with plastic seats. Nobody got any sleep, and the locals swamped the train with goods for the towns on route.

From Uyuni we took a four day tour of the largest salt lake in the world. In the agency they told us that we would have wonderfull food, a new 4x4 and a friendly guide. Alas, this was not to be and we had to fight to see every sight we had been promised.

The first night of the tour we stayed in a hotel where everything is made of blocks of salt cut from the surface of the ground. Even the chairs sculptured as lamas are made of salt and you can see Domino in the background.

The wall of the hotel. Blocks cut from salt!

The sunsets and sunrises on the Salar were some of the most powerful that we have ever seen. You can see Domino doing her yoga just after sunrise.

I am standing by the piles of salt which are scraped from the ground, dried, ionised and sold in Bolivia.

The second night of our tour we spend on the Isla de Pescado which is a desert island in the middle of the Salar. It is now surrounded by water due to the rainy season, but is normally surrounded by dry salt. The island is covered in cacti, which Domino was very impressed with.

You can see Miles on the island sitting in front of the sunrise.

Domino is in front of the sunset from the evening before.

In the photo of the blue sky there are two ostriches walking through the water away from the island. The other inhabitants of the island are a hawk, the hotel keeper, a cat, two pigs and a dog...... quite a weird combination.

In this photo the Toyota Land Cruiser (greatest 4x4 in the world) got totally stuck and we had to walk for about 2km through the water. As it turned out we were luckily to make it to the Island as most of the other tours would not go through the water.

After four days of cold or non-existent showers we were delighted to arrive at the therms, where you can see Domino bathing. The water was delightful as we warmed ourselves up from the freezing air. The morning of the therms we had stayed at Laguna Colorada (coloured lake). The laguna Colorada is inhabited by the Andean Flamingo, which matches the red colour of the lake. We also visited Laguna Verde, which is very green and uninhabited because of the toxic minerals that make it green. This is where we dropped our two friends Simon and Martin to cross over into Chile. We are still not sure if they made it?

On our way back to Uyuni we stopped at some amazing eroded rocks where we found this large green blob..... we are not sure if it is a rock or some strange moss.
Considering the facilities that the town of Uyuni had we took the first opportunity that we could to leave the place, which meant an overnight bus to Potosi along a road that barely existed. We got stuck in the mud at about 1:30am and had to get out and push.

Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4070 meters and was once the richest Spanish colonial stronghold due to its large deposits of Silver. Miles took a tour of the mines, which are still worked today by hand. You can see in the picture a worker in one of the tunnels. They work there as much as 12 hours a day, seven days a week because it is co-operative run and each miner had to earn his take. Their life expectancy is about 10 years after entering the mines, due to the poor quality of air they breath. When you are down there you can see asbestos flaking from the walls. Coca leaves, which they chew, play a very important part in sustaining their work and thanks to our visit in La Paz to the Coca Museum we now understand the Cocaine qualities of the leaves. They help numb the feeling of hunger and hard labour, therefore none of the miners eat during their working day. Potosi's atmosphere is very Spanish due to this wealth and after a visit to the Museum of money we understood its importance in colonial times. The majority of coins minted for the Spanish Empire were made in Potosi, first out of pure silver and later cut with copper. As you walk along its steep streets you can feel the altitude. In fact the streets are probably not that steep it is just the way that we will remember them due to the effort it takes to walk.

From Potosi we took a four hour bus ride along one of the best roads in Bolivia, to Sucre (sealed all the way). This was the capital of Bolivia in the early years of the republic and the city is named after its first president. Sucre is very pretty but does not have many sites for tourists. The photos of the chilly peppers and sleeping baby are taken in a village located outside Sucre, which hosts a large crafts market on Sundays. Domino was delighted with the selection of bags on offer and we came home with three new ones. We took a visit to the weaving Museum which has rejuvenated the tradition. What amazed us was the time that it takes for a person to complete a manta (shawl). They weave about 30mm a day, and to complete one can take 3 to 4 months. The examples in the Museum shop cost hundreds of dollars, but you can find cheaper models for as little as $25 in the streets. Domino will be bringing back an example for you all to see.

In fact the baby in the photo is wrapped in one with a more basic pattern. What is nice to see it the amount of Indians that still ware traditional dress here in Bolivia, that is if you don't mind their smell.

The photo shows an old man, on such example, who befriended Marco who we mentioned earlier with relation to the nightmare bus ride. In fact Bolivia has the highest Indian population of all the South American countries and there are many different ethnic groups among them all with different dress.
Cochabamba where we went next, has even less for the tourist, expect for a bizarre colonial house that was built by a rich tin miner. Every part of the house was imported from Europe, even the wooden floors and marble fireplaces. What is tragic is that he never lived in the house because when he was serving as Bolivian ambassador in France, he suffered a mild heart attach which meant he could never live at a high altitude which half of Bolivia is.

From here we visited a monkey sanctuary that we had heard about; here tourists volunteer help to look after the rescued animals. It is located in a one-horse town in the Amazon Basin surrounded by forest and vegetation. The bus ride there from Cochabamba was spectacular descending from the high plateau to the low lands but when we arrived we realised that along with greenness and moisture come bugs and heat, so out came the anti-mosquito spray and shorts. The parrot was one of the many guests at the animal sanctuary and if you look close you can see that he has just chewed off Miles’ shoe lace, probably because it was soaked in salt water from the Salar de Uyuni.