Buses, Bolivia and Salt Flats

I left Arequipa at 8:30 pm last Saturday night after a lazy day in the sun and boarded the now familiar 6 hour bus to Puno. This time however, I had the misfortune to be sitting next to the fattest man on the bus, this meant that my hopes of sleeping most of the way were dashed. We arrived to an empty bus station at 2 am and I realised that there was no bus to La Paz, Bolivia until 7:30. So I sat...and sat...and sat. It was chucking it down with rain outside and yet all the doors appeared to be open. It was freezing. Eventually however the time came and I boarded the rather plush tourist bus. I believe the route between Puno and Copacabana (where we had to stop to change buses) was supposed to be very pretty, unfortunately I was so tired by this point that I slept or at the very least snoozed the whole way! I got across the border without any hassle and then had to wait around for an hour or so in Copacabana to pick up the connecting bus. It was then a tedious 5 hour journey to La Paz, interrupted only by the excitement of having to disembark in order for the bus to be loaded on to a raft to cross a lake (we got into a small, alarmingly low to the water boat). Anyway, on this journey I met an Australian couple, Scott and Felicity, who, I discovered, were aiming to do the exact same thing as me: get to La Paz and immediately go on to the Salt Flats. We (or maybe just I) decided that it would be a good idea to travel together. So as soon as we arrived in La Paz we went round to all the ticket booths earnestly trying to procure three tickets to Uyuni. To no avail. Everywhere was booked up so the only option for us was to stay a night (and a day) in La Paz. We found a fairly gross hostel to stay in right in the centre of town and after a hefty steak dinner, we returned to bed.
The next day we split up, they wanted to go to look for warmer clothes for the Salt Flats and I wanted to explore the markets. I spent a happy few hours clambering up and down the cobbled streets in search of the best bargains. La Paz is an extremely cool city. It´s basically built in a huge valley which means that when you are in the centre you can look around on all sides and all you can see is red brick buildings staggered up the hills. The centre of the city is also extremely pretty, there are loads of delapitated colonial buildings and grand cathedrals.
We all met back up and headed off to the bus station for our 7:45 pm departure. It was to be a 12 hour journey and had cost us 80 Bolivianos each (that´s less than 10 pounds) we weren´t expecting it to be great. The journey got off to a brilliant start as in true South American style we were delayed by 45 minutes. But eventually we set off, only to stop off every 2 hours or so in order for the drivers to get out and clank about with something in the engine (or that´s what we guessed anyway!). At 7 am in the morning, however, we stopped for longer than usual. Tired of hanging around, we got off the bus to be met with an impressive sight. We were in a queue of about 5 or 6 buses and in front of these to the right hand side there was a bus stuck firmly in the mud and on the left hand side it was the same story, and between the two buses, where the road should have been, was a steep muddy bank. Rain had washed the road away and we were stuck. All the buses were apparently equipped with pick axes in shovels, and all the Bolivians were getting their hands dirty trying to dig out the buses or trying to rebuild the bank into something resembling a road that the buses wouldn´t sink into. After about 15 minutes one cocky bus driver in a big red bus decided that he would be able to get through, he built up his speed and headed for the other side, only to sink at an alarming angle up to his axles in deep mud!
Eventually, after about an hour of waiting the first bus made it through victoriously and the rest followed on in quick succession. We boarded the bus triumphantly...only to have to desembark again 15 minutes down the road in order to wade across a shallow river while the buses struggled up and down the banks. Then there was another river, this time, on a bank in the middle one bus was busy trying to tow another bus out of the sticky mud while other drivers tried to work out a better route to get across. Eventually, however, we did it! And then it was plain (if a little bumpy) sailing to get to Uyuni (the jump-off town for the Salt Flats).
We met another Australian couple, Rob and Lauren, and managed to persuade a tour company to let us start our 3 day tour that day. We bundled into a jeep, I as the only Spanish speaker sat with the driver/guide and acted as interpreter, bought some beers (I had a Fanta!!) and set off.
After an encounter with a giant llama made of salt, and lunch in a builiding built of the same substance we drove out onto the Flats. It was amazing. A vast whiteness went on forever, and because it was the rainy season the water covered surface reflected the sky beautifully. This, coupled with islands that appeared to be floating on air, made it feel like you were on a different planet.
After this we drove to 2 hours or so to a small hostel for the night (stopping off once to visit a train graveyard!)
The next morning we set off at the reasonable time of 8 am for a grand tour of the tens of lakes that are scattered on the barren plains between Bolivia and Chile. At times we were driving through the middle of red desert with soaring volcanos and mountains on either side of us and only vicuñas (cousins of the noble llama) to keep us company. It was awe-inspiring. We got to see stinking sulphuric lakes, and I got pretty close to some flamingoes too. We also saw a red lake (also with flamingoes) and had frequent stops for 'natural pipi'!
It would be safe to say that the Australians I was travelling with enjoyed an occasional alcoholic beverage, so our second night ended up being slightly more raucous than the first. We were staying in very basic accomodation again, but this time there were loads of other tour groups with us as well. Then it was discovered that it was the birthday of a Turkish man so, of course, we had to celebrate. Despite the fact that we were having to get up at 5am the next morning, the celebrations continued well into the night.
When the knock on the door came the next morning however, a few in the party were less than pleased! It was pitch black and there was no electricity, I was the only one who'd thought to bring a torch so we took it in turns to pack our stuff up and check if we were missing anything.
We left and drove in pitch darkness to the geysers. Noisy, smelly plumes of smoke shooting directly out of the earth. It was bizarre more than anything, and pretty impressive at the same time. From here we drove to a thermal bath to take breakfast. Unfortunately it was far too cold outside for any of us to consider stripping off and jumping in but all the same we enjoyed our breakfast of pancakes and yogurts. An hour later we set off once more for our final stop: an impressive green lake towered over by a gorgeous red volcano and surrounded by barren red and orange desert. After a quick stop for photos I was then transported to the Chilean border and dropped off. While my Australian buddies were to drive 7 hours back to Uyuni and then onto La Paz, I'd decided to not risk the bus journey again and to go back to Peru via Chile. I am glad of this choice, as I later learnt that it took 25 hours in a bus to get back to La Paz as they got bogged into the mud for 6 hours or so!
So I waited at the border for my bus to take me into Chile...