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Our visa deadline meant that we could spend one more night out here in the national park before needing to cross into Chile the next day. We never like to push things to the last day when possible, especially out here where you never know how slowly you’ll be going. We decided that we would like to spend our final night at some hot springs. Nothing here was particularly far away, but at our steady rate of progress a handful of kilometres could take hours. Still, we were in no

We had arranged to meet Louis and Kareen in the small village of Uyuni. It sits to the east of the Salar and is the last real town as you head west. While Uyuni mainly exists for the tourist industry around the Salar, it also has a very cool train graveyard where you can camp. We planned to meet there later and spent the day in town preparing. The first port of call was the car wash. Ruby was washed so enthusiastically that half the paint came off, along with the fuel gauge w

The Salar de Uyuni had been something I had been looking forward to for a long time. An enormous slat field with no roads and only the odd few tracks marring its surface. It's a place of epic photographs, distorted perspective and memorable sunsets. We had seen reports from other travellers of people breaking through the crust and getting stranded on this otherworldly terrain. Apparently the fee for someone to come and get you out is $1,000, and as only one company does it—yo

We awoke after a chilly night with a busy day ahead of us. I had managed to get hold of the guy who dealt with the pet paperwork via WhatsApp and he had told me that he wouldn’t be back in the office for several days. This didn’t work for us at all and so we had agreed that we would pay the fee here and leave the correct documents with one of his colleagues before leaving. He would then come in and process the paperwork and send it on for us to collect in Uyuni after we had v

Normally, we would probably have stopped somewhere en route for the night, but there was no time for that. We had just 11 days left on our visa and one of the most challenging roads of the trip still ahead of us. We were trying hard to coordinate our timings so we could drive that route with our friends, so we pushed straight on to Potosí, a town built around a 16th-century silver mine that we were keen to visit. With time being short, we had already pre-booked a tour for tha

We needed to be back in Sucre for Monday morning, around 550km away. While we knew we wouldn’t make it in one day, we decided to cover a substantial chunk of the drive first. That would take some of the pressure off for the following day. We drove for nearly eight hours, arriving at the small town of Pocoata in the fading light. Pulling out onto the now-dry riverbed, we camped a little way from town. After a mammoth drive, we fell into bed and slept soundly through the night.

That morning we once again set off for the small border. We had been woken early at 7am by a police officer asking for our permit. We had no idea what he meant, and told him we were about to cross into Bolivia. That seemed to satisfy him, and he left us to pack up the van. As before, we stopped at the fuel station just before the border town of Khasani and filled up. We reckoned we could carry enough diesel for our heating to get through the next stretch, only needing petrol

While we had planned to repair the chassis in La Paz, we now also needed to repair the door. It was therefore a good job we had given ourselves the option of up to a week in the city. As we had not made it nearly as far as we wanted to the previous day, we still had a fair drive to go. We managed to buy fuel in the town for 5 bol/l and we set off for the capital. After negotiating the ever-present crazy market and road closures that always seemed to be around Leo and Tacu’s w

As my parents were coming to visit us soon, we had decided that we wouldn’t go to the salt flats or the Laguna Route, as we didn’t want to risk damaging Ruby and it would also be much nicer to go with a working heater. Instead, we thought we’d start heading back north, making sure we had plenty of time to cross the border. We had planned to visit a meteor crater just north of Sucre, but I noticed that our terrible suspension welding from Santa Cruz had already started to fail

Now we had visited the highlights of Samaipata, it was time to head to Sucre. It was a good seven-hour drive and we therefore planned to do a big chunk of it on the first day, camping somewhere nice within striking distance of the next. It was a long and fairly uneventful drive through a dry and deserted landscape. We arrived at the tiny village of Compuerta after six hours and dropped down off the road to camp by the river. In the photos it looked like a pretty spot, but it

We had greatly enjoyed our stay at La Bolivianita and, after blobbing around for the remainder of the previous day, we were ready to move on to Samaipata. Here it’s possible to go and see some giant and very ancient fern forests, but we had heard the tour was somewhat expensive and overrated. Once again, we planned on the budget option, driving out to a free little hike through some rough back roads. As it was a little late in the day to do everything, we drove the short dist

The following morning we were back at the blockade at 6am and nothing had changed. We waited around an hour to see if anything happened, but it seemed to be pretty set as it was. According to Maps.me and Google, there were dirt roads that bypassed this, and we thought we may as well try them. It was a half-hour detour to get around, and we passed through the toll road, telling them we were trying to get to Samaipata. After looking very confused because we were on completely t

As we had done the majority of the driving the day before, we were now only around an hour from Santa Cruz. While La Paz still technically holds the title as the capital, this city is a close second and in some ways better equipped. It’s the place to go if you want bigger shops or something special. The last time we were near a reasonably sized supermarket was back in La Paz, and we were looking forward to being able to stock up properly again. The small shops that line every

We had pulled up outside Chino’s house to find that there was no one there. We decided we would go and get something to drink from the shop, and if there was no one there by the time we came back we would just head off anyway. By the time we returned, one of the guys from the ranch was outside Chino’s — no doubt the one who was going to be our escort. He told us to follow him, so we drove to the other side of town and he waved us into a parking spot by the river. Chino came o

It was a hot night by the side of the laguna, but a quiet one, which felt long overdue. We awoke refreshed and set off for the tiny town of Loreto. While it may not have much in the way of houses, it is home to the blue-throated and critically endangered macaw, endemic to Bolivia, with a population of only around 300 birds. This little sleepy village was one of the only places in the world they could be seen. We thought we’d drive in for a tour and stay the night, hopefully.

We awoke the next morning, ready to finish the final leg of the drive to San Ignacio. Fortunately after the rather graphic events of the day before we were both feeling a bit more human. The camper was still a horrific mess and we didn’t even try to sort it. We finally managed to extract the change from the owner that he owed us, adamant that we definitely wouldn’t pay any more for that horrible room, before we left. It wasn’t a particularly long drive but after a noisy hot

With our amazing river tour complete, there was still no time to waste. Back at the laguna spot for the night, Lee set about cleaning out the overdue compost toilet, an event that turned out to be important later. I meanwhile repaired the mosquito for the sliding door. Now back in warmer climbs it was necessary again but it had been somewhat destroyed by an enthusiastic kitten who loved nothing better than to climb it. While I pieced together bits of netting and magnets, Lee

After a quiet night on our make do camp spot, we set off on a grey humid morning to drive the remaining 100km to Santa Rosa. We hoped that the recent rain had not turned the dirt road into an impassable mud bath as we passed through a toll booth that marked the start. We were still trying to get our heads around Bolivian toll roads. Here, they are a wooden hut on one side of the road, with a piece of rope tied across to the nearest tree. Normally several bottles or pieces of

We normally take it in turns to drive each day, sometimes both driving if it’s a particularly long drive. But despite the fact that I’d driven us here, I was definitely the designated driver for the following morning. Lee nursed a sizeable hangover and a broken phone, which he had no recollection of breaking, as we headed towards the town of Caravani. We decided to bite the bullet and get Lee’s phone repaired straight away. We found a shop that offered us a genuine new screen

It had been 163 days since we last saw Lizzy and rarely a day passes when I don’t think of her. It certainly affected our relationship with first Aimee and then once we had her, Lexi. Aimee’s normally pretty punctual for her evening dinner and now if we don’t see her around 6pm we both kind of instantly spiral into panic. You only need one of us to utter the words, “Have you seen Aimee recently…? And then we’ll drop everything, searching until we find her, trying to laugh of