Salar De Uyuni. Day 2

Surprisingly I woke up in the night time feeling too hot, but the moment I get out from under my pile of blankets in the morning I’m cold again. After a breakfast of pancakes with delicious "dulce de leche", which is basically caramel in a tin, we head back out into the desert. Our first stop is the Arbol de Pledra, a stone tree that has been carved out of the sandy winds. As usual it looks bigger in the pictures.

At lunchtime we stop by another beautiful, flamingo filled lake with views of the mountains. Fermin encourages us to go for a walk whilst he gets our meal ready. On the lake side there is a very optimistic "wifi" sign, still, we check our various devices just in case. There are lots of other tour groups stopped here, some with fold out tables and chairs, gas cookers and three courses. Fermin has laid out a red and white checkered table cloth, mixed tuna and sweet corn, produced a tub of veg-fried rice and poured us all a glass of coke. We eat right on the lake side, watching the flamingos have their lunch and with the sun on our backs.

 Above: I don’t think so

After lunch we have a long drive to the Ollague volcano. On the way Fermin treats us to some traditional Bolivian music. He has three songs, all of which sound very similar, and he plays them on repeat for two hours. They all feature a woman crying "BoLIVIA, ArgenTINA, CHIle, Asi Asi!". I’m so relieved when we reach the volcano that I forget not to slam my door. There are so many mountains that at first I’m not sure which is the volcano, until I see one of them smoking. It is 5868m high and has, apparently, never erupted despite the persistent stream of smoke coming from the southern side of its dome.

Above: Ollague Volcano

Above: More mountains... or are they volcanoes?

 As it starts to get cold we head to our hostel for the night, stopping at a very small town to pick up 'vital' supplies of pringles and beer. I think the shop must exist solely for tourists passing through on 4x4 tours, but they have everything, including a cute baby llama which I hope wont end up as someone's dinner. When I ask Fermin what we will be having for dinner he responds, straight faced, with "flamenco". "Que?", I ask - "What?" and he repeats "flamenco" and flaps his arms. We´re all intrigued, and not quite sure whether to believe him or not.. there are a lot of flamingo around.

Above: Baby llama

Our hostel for the night is a salt hotel - the walls, tables chairs, beds and even the floors are made of salt (I wonder what happens if it rains). Amazingly there are hot showers available, but they cost a whole five Bolivianos (about 50p) so I don´t bother - its too cold any way. Dinner arrives and we all agree that flamingo tastes just like chicken, and Fermin bursts out laughing crying "Esta pollo, pollo!".

Above: Salt pillars, tables, chairs and floor