was at San Juan del Rosario, another tiny village in the middle of nowhere!! Finally after what seemed like forever we arrived at the edge of the Salar. By this time it was pretty dark though so we didn’t really appreciate it so much as we headed along the edge to the salt hotel.

The salt hotel was an optional extra costing I think $25. As it wasn’t in the same place as the basic accommodation it could only be done if everyone agreed. We really wanted to stay there as it wasn’t expensive and we figured that it would complete the experience. Fortunately everyone else had agreed so we were on our way there expecting some kind of gleaming white marble like palacial structure shining out over the Salar.

The reality was somewhat different. It was firstly in the middle of a village,

and secondly was in fact a kind of brown colour - similar in fact to all the rest of the buildings around it. It was only on close inspection that you could see that it was in fact made of salt blocks. Inside it was very similar, and our room wasn’t the plushest thing either. We also found out that there was only electricity for a couple of hours as it was produced by generator. I don’t want to sound like we’re complaining, but we were a little underwhelmed. $25 is not much for a hotel room generally speaking, but it is in Bolivia, and I think all of us had just raised our expectations a little too high!! In hindsight if it had been described as a hostel rather than a hotel then we would have thought it was fine - but hey this is Bolivia after all and they should be proud of their salt hotel as it is pretty amazing. I just think all of our butts were aching after 3 days of off road travel and we were hoping for a plush red carpet and the works!!