No Mans Land - Altiplano

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So, almost the end of Argentina. We had a full day's drive towards the border over a pretty rough desert terrain, no roads to speak of. It's a tough old truck, but even this was too much, and we had a few break downs along the way, which is fun in the middle of absolute nowhere. After a long day we reached a dodgy hostel and slept. Nothing to do around there. Up early and the hostel treated us to a single biscuit for breakfast, cheers!!

We had another long drive, and crossed the border into Argentina / Chile / Bolivia No Man's Land. I can see why no one wants to claim it, miles of nothingness. We cooked at the border, and carried on driving across the Altiplano. We broke down again and we needed an empty beer can to fix the truck, something to do with the gearbox. Everyone immediately looked towards me. We'd been told to have a day off the booze as we were up at 5000m and we needed to aclimatise, but i had to have a beer for the truck. It finally got fixed and we drove for hours till we reached a refuge late at night.

We cooked that night at 11pm, and it was my group doing some steak, potatoes, onion gravy, veg and some cheesy pitta starters. An adventurous meal to tackle at that time. Think we ate about 12.30am, but then i was cooking a soup for the day after so had to do that too. Got to bed around 3am, tired and stinking of soup.

Up early for breakfast and to finish off the soup. It was good! Leek & Potato!

We had another full day drive through nothingness, with numerous breakdowns. This day was more fun however. The night before we didn't drink because of the altitude. We all woke up with what felt like stinking hangovers due to the height we were at. I made an immediate decision to get back on the drink....if i'm gonna wake up feeling rough anyway, may as well have a few wee drinks!!

We finally escaped no mans land in the evening and made it into Bolivia, a place called Uyuni, famous for it's Salt Flats.

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