We had a great group of people with whom we were going to drive across the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) and the Lagunas route . The group consisted of: Rodger and Gudrun on their BMW motorbikes from Germany; Florian on his BMW motorbike from Germany; Wiffie (Wilfred) in his Toyota land cruiser from Germany;  Dane and Penny in their Delicia van from Canada with their beautiful dog, Wyatt, who they adopted on the road in Mexico and , of course, us two.

We were going to wild camp for 2 nights on the salt flats, before returning to the town of Uyuni for a night to get organised for the Lagunas route. We set off in convoy and entered the salt flats at Colchani. We were a little chaotic at first and we managed to lose all of the motorbikes! Eventually-we all met by the Dakar statue and agreed that we needed to drive together so that no one got lost!

The Salar De Uyuni is the world`s largest salt flat and is over 10,000 km sq. The salt is over 10cm thick in the centre and is a complete flat expanse of dry salt.

On day 1 we headed towards the village of Coquesi to the North of the salt flats and set up camp just before the laguna with flamingos. We had a huge BBQ for our tea and sat around the fire in the evening. The alcohol was flowing, music was playing and suddenly, we were having our very own Salar disco, led by Jen! The song that set us all off was "Barbara Streisand" by Duck Sauce! We danced for about 3 hours like crazy things-I am sure the Salar had never seen anything like it before!
The next day we drove across the Salar to the island of Incahausi. This was an incredible island consisting of hundreds of giant cacti. We had a walk around and then set off for our next island. Then in the space of about 15 minutes-everything seemed to go wrong! Firstly, Dane and Penny`s van  broke down. Whilst Dane was fixing it, the rest of us drove closer to the island, and the motorcyclists actually drove onto the island. Wiffie followed them in his Toyota, and told us that we had to drive over fast, to avoid the deep mud at the edge of the island. We made the huge mistake not to get out and walk it before driving it and tried to drive quickly across. You can guess what happened next! We drove across as fast as we could BUT got completely stuck in the muddy salt up to our axles at the rear! This was much to Wiffie, the Toyota driver`s delight and he quickly sprang into action to winch us out. This was the photo opportunity he had been waiting for-the Toyota rescuing the beleaguered landrover! For those who don`t know-there is a lot of (friendly) rivalry between Toyota and Land rover owners. Then the land rover gods struck! Whilst Wiffie was rushing to rescue us-he also got himself stuck in the mud! Dane and Penny looked over from their van and saw the pair of our vehicles stuck in mud up to our axles! To cut a long story short-the Toyota self recovered, towed us out and we then both slowly used sand ladders to inch across the mud. We then all camped where we were as we had had enough excitement for one day!

The following day-we all headed back to Uyuni. We got our cars washed, our laundry done and had a good feed! The following day we were heading off to do the Lagunas route-an off road route consisting of 260 miles, for 4 nights.  Day 1: we followed Wiffie who took us completely the wrong way, so we all had to turn around and drive the right way; Dane and Penny`s van blew a tyre; Gudrun`s motorbike fell over on the highway; Wyatt, the dog, nearly choked on a bread roll and then proceeded to roll in another dog`s poo-but other than that we had a brilliant day and spent the first night wild camping in a canyon sheltering from the biting wind. Day 2 was almost as eventful-we followed the motorbikes whilst the other cars went ahead, as it was a much more difficult road to drive on the bikes. Along the way, almost everything fell off the motorbikes and Gav and I would stop to pick it up and pop it in the landy for them! In the end-we were carrying all of Gudrun and Florian`s luggage as it fell off their bikes! We finally reached Laguna Colarada, where the water is red due to red sediments and pigmentation of  algae. It also contained hundreds of flamingos. It was a spectacular sight.  We wild camped nearby, in another canyon. The next couple of days were full of great driving, superb views and great company around the camp fire at night. We saw geysers, Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde, amongst many other things. We went to the Aduana  just after Laguna Colarada to sign Ruby out at over 5,000 metres., maybe the highest aduana in the world? We then exited Bolivia, getting the exit stamp in our passports, before crossing into Chile and heading to San Pedro De Atacama where we went to Chilean immigration and the Aduana  for our temporary import permit.

So here we are in Chile. We need to go to the mechanics as Ruby has a broken front shock absorber and we also need to give her a good clean as there is dust everywhere!
 
 

We crossed the border between Peru and Bolivia at Yunguyo. We were a little apprehensive because we had not got any vehicle insurance for Bolivia and knew that we could not buy it at the border. We had also heard that the Bolivian police were prone to stop you and ask for proof of your vehicle insurance. However, we had done our research and learnt that foreigners  do not have to have insurance in Bolivia for up to 30 days and we had a copy of the lengthy document that outlined this, in Spanish, which we were going to flourish if we were stopped by the police.

We parked on the Peru side of the border and got stamped out of the country at the immigration office . We then gave our temporary import permit in to the Aduana, who  asked to see our proof of ownership and passports, before giving us a section of the temporary import permit back. Then we drove to the Bolivian side of the border, where we parked and entered the Bolivian migration office. After filling in our tourist entry paperwork we were given 30 days entry, which we knew we could extend later if necessary. Finally, we went to the Bolivian Aduana, who was  real character. He spoke some English and firstly directed us to the copy shop next door, where we had to fill out a form on line for our temporary import permit. After that, we sat with him whilst he completed our temporary import permit for Ruby. He had a copy of the document that we already had, in relation to foreigners not needing vehicle insurance for 30 days, and he told us he encouraged people to take a photo of it and show it " to the cops" if they were trying to extract money from people. Without a cop in sight, we then drove from the border to Copacabana, next to Lake Titicaca.

We stayed in Copacabana for 2 nights. Copacabana is situated on the Southern shore of Lake Titicaca, nestled between 2 hills. We went on a boat trip to Isla De Sol. a 70km square island in Lake Titicaca, it was very picturesque and contained some Inca ruins.

After Copacabana, we headed for the capital-La Paz. We spent a few days here and really enjoyed it. We sorted out our vehicle insurance for the rest of the South American leg of our trip, went on an excellent city tour and, our highlight, mountain biked down Death Road. Death Road was once named the world`s most dangerous road. We went with an excellent company called extreme downhill, and the bikes were in very good condition with great brakes!! We were kitted out with knee and elbow protectors, full helmets and jackets and trousers. They set us off on tarmac first-and Gav and I were the slowest. But wait until we got on Death Road itself! The road is very narrow in parts, with huge drop offs and very bumpy. We started slowly-Jen in front and Gav behind. And then, Jen took off like a rocket, passing many people along the way and we turned from the slowest into some of the fastest in our group! There were only 2 small mishaps-one when a car came around the corner in the opposite direction and Jen forgot which side of the road she should have been riding on and almost careered into him, the second was when 2 vultures suddenly shot across our path and sent Jen wobbling all over the very narrow road! We cycled downhill about 44km in total, through some beautiful scenery.

The day before we were due to leave La Paz, we heard about local strikes which meant that all the roads into and out of La Paz were blocked. This is common in Bolivia, so we decided to head out anyway and see where we got to. We went on a back road route and all was going well-until we hit the road blocks. There were huge piles of debris in the road and the local women were also sitting in the middle of the road-and we know not to mess with them as they are tough cookies! We got out of Ruby and had a chat with the police who were really friendly, and they eventually showed us a small off road route that might not be blocked. We headed this way, off road, dusty and bumpy for 30 miles or so and-success! We reached our destination-Oruro, our stopping point for the night.

The next day we headed for the North part of Salar De Uyuni. The Salar is the world`s largest salt flat (12.106 square km). It is an amazing landscape. When it is dry (at the moment)it is a vast expanse of white salt and bright blue sky. It stretches into the distance for miles, with a few islands dotted around to break the surface. We drove to a small place called Coqueza, on the North and quieter side of the Salar. It was in a stunning environment with a colourful volcano behind it and the salt flats stretching out for miles in front of it. There was also a small laguna before the salt flats where flamingos grazed. This was our wild camp spot for the night-and again, we loved being able to camp in such a beautiful place.

The next morning we drove for the first time onto the salt flats. It was brilliant it felt like we were the only people there, flying along on the pure white salt and blue skies. It was quite surreal. We stopped to take some perspective pictures-where the object on the background looks tiny and we also stopped at a salt hotel and the Dakar sign.

Near here were loads of flags from all around the world and Gav was so inspired by the landscape, that he decided to leave his Yorkshire flag here, tied to the flag post alongside the others! We also met a lovely group of Chinese people, who worked in the construction industry, who were taking a break from their business trip by seeing the sights. They were more interested in Ruby than the sights of the Salar, and had hundreds of photos taken with her and us! I was hoiking them up onto the bonnet of the landy for their photos! We swapped email addresses and said our goodbyes. For now!

We then went to the small town of Uyuni, where we will meet  some other overlanders we have made friends with along the way, at the weekend. The plan is to spend a few nights driving and camping on the Salar, and then to do the off road lagunas route into Northern Chile. Tonight is another wild camp at the train cemetery! This is a site where a lot of old rusty trains have been put to pasture. It was really good-and we took loads of pictures clambering around over the trains. We had just started to eat our tea, early evening, when our lovely Chinese friends turned up at the end of their day tour! We had little chance of eating as they made a beeline for the landy again, and took many more photos. This time-they wanted photos sitting in the driver`s seat pretending they were driving! Once they had left, we ate our tea which had long gone cold-but with big smiles on our faces as the Chinese people were so lovely and friendly and we have invites to visit them in China!
Net step-a few days on the Salar and the Lagunas route into Chile!

After sleeping in the cemetery outside of Nazca, we drove through some spectacular high altitude scenery, where we spotted birds and animals such as  condors, flamingos and vicunas ( a relative of the llama). To break up the journey to Cusco, we stopped for the night in a place in the hills called Chalhuanca, where we bumped into a huge group of Harley Davidson riders who were also on their way to Cusco for their annual meeting. The following day we drove to Cusco, another beautiful drive although driving through Cusco itself was very challenging due to the very steep and narrow cobbled streets.

We spent a lovely few days in Cusco, the plan being to head to Machu Picchu through the Sacred Valley once we had finished in Cusco. Cusco is another UNESCO world heritage site and was once the capital of the Inca empire-containing many ruins and museums nearby. It is also a very beautiful city with many colonial buildings and plazas. We spent our time here exploring some of the ruins-the most impressive being Sacsaywaman, an amazing Inca construction. We also caught up with and met some more lovely people at our camp site-Quinta Lala. We reunited with Lother and Petra, 2 lovely Germans who are driving their Bremach truck from Colombia to Uraguay and Dane, Penny and Wyatt (the dog they adopted in Mexico) from Canada who are driving their Mitsubishi delica from Canada to Ushuaia. We met some new friends from Brazil-Arthur and Sophia ( a Brazilian TV presenter) who had a land rover defender and were driving around South America and Toby and Anja, a doctor and a dentist, who were from Germany and driving their VW syncro campervan around the Americas. We had a lovely night sitting around a campfire with them, sharing tales of travels, home, our old jobs etc. We also met a lovely family from New Zealand-Kim, Chris and their 2 girls-Tamsin and River (13 and 15) who had done many previous road trips.

We spent time in some of Cusco`s excellent museums and simply wandering the streets and plazas watching life go by. We discovered the obligatory Irish pub ( Paddys) in the main Square and had to order the shepherd`s pie which rendered us both speechless! This was the real deal!

The plan was to obviously visit Peru`s most famous attraction-Machu Picchu and we planned to drive to Santa Theresa, leave Ruby there, and take a collectivo (small minibus) to hydroelectrica-from where we would walk along the train track to Aguas Caliente. Here we would spend the night before taking the bus to Macchu Picchu the following day. Well that was the plan. We learned that there were strikes by local people on the day  we were due to leave, blocking all the transport routes to MP. We had a decision to make. Now I am really lucky in that I have previously trekked the Inca Trail and been to Machu Picchu 10 years ago. Gavin, however, has not so it was really his call. We decided that we did not want to try and get there and break the strike, nor did we want to wait around, so we decided to continue our journey and see it another time-it has been there a long time and is not going anywhere!

We left Cusco and headed for the Ausangate  mountain range which is famous for its Rainbow mountain, a mountain with stunning stripy colours. We drove off road for the last 30 miles-climbing higher and higher until we reached 4,200 metres. We drove past the tourist minivans and set up wild camp at the very end of the road-amidst stunning mountain scenery. It was perfect-and we lit a fire to keep warm as the temperature dropped to freezing as night fell. There was no light from anywhere, so the sky and stars were spectacular that night. The plan was to get up at 4.30am, get ready and set off by 5.30am so we could beat all the tourists who arrive there by minivan from Cusco at 7am ish. The next morning-all was going well. We got up at the planned time after a good night`s sleep, got our stuff together and started on the trail for our trek. It was simply stunning as we walked through a valley with huge snowy mountain peaks on one side and colourful peaks on the other. We only saw a handful of local people tending to their herds of alpacas, and walked through a herd of alpacas ourselves as they wandered along a narrow path to graze. We walked and walked and walked-hitting nearly 5,000 metres. 

After about 3 hours (the time we had been told it would take to get to the Rainbow mountain) there was still no sign of it. We put it down to being slow and carried on, although a bit more slowly as the altitude was high and we had climbed a lot. We climbed a high pass and thought we were nearly there. We got to the top of the high pass and......DAMN! We saw the rainbow mountain in the distance but at least another 5 miles or so away-down a steep hill and then up a huge climb. It dawned on us that we had come the wrong way! I stubbornly refused to give up and forced poor Gav to head down the mountain in a quest to still reach our goal. Big mistake. We got to the bottom, lost so much altitude and it still looked so far away! By this time we could also see lots of tourists at the correct viewpoint for the mountain, like ants in the distance. I conceded defeat and we both agreed we had had such a spectacular trek anyway and had seen the rainbow mountain, all be it from afar! But what a bloody trek back. We had to go back up the huge hill we had descended-and with much swearing, heavy breathing and stopping we finally made it up and then returned to Ruby at the top of the valley-7 hours after starting! As we drove out-we saw all the tourist buses at the correct start of the trail!! Oh well-another thing for next time!

We drove down the mountain track and set up camp at a lovely spot in Tinajani canyon-where an elderly farmer maintained a little museum, and asked for a voluntary contribution to stay overnight. The following morning-he cycled over to us at 8.30am. Bear in mind it was the morning after the day before and we were still drained from our trek the previous day. He insisted we went to the museum with him there and then, so we followed him in. It was actually lovely-as it documented the history of the Canyon and he was so proud of it and where he lived. Then he opened another door and suddenly we were faced with numerous stuffed animals of the region-some of them stuffed very badly and some of them literally brushing the top of our heads as we walked in. We walked around making the appropriate ooohing and ahhing noises but could not wait to get out! We joked that we fully expected the piece de resistance to be a stuffed overlander who had refused to pay a voluntary contribution!!

We then set off to drove to Puno, close to the Bolivian border. Puno is situated on Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the highest navigable lake in the world with an elevation of 3,812 metres. The West of the Lake lies in the Puno region of Peru and the East in Bolivia. We stayed here for a few days, exploring the centre of town and taking a trip to the floating reed islands of Uros. The most common way to travel in cities is by small minivans called collectivos. Every day in Puno, we would wait at the side of the road and wave down a passing collectivo which stops and expects you to alight very quickly, so it can continue its journey. They are usually very full and also have very small aisles to squeeze through, which are certainly not made with the Western female bottom in mind! On one occasion-we jumped in the collectivo which was full with small Peruvian people and then my bum got stuck in the aisle trying to get to the back! "Gavin, my arse is stuck!" I yelled-thankful that no one else could understand me! After nearly taking out two Bolivian people, I managed to free myself and take a seat!

Next stop-the border at Yunguyo to cross into Bolivia.