This morning, Claudio came to pick me up in the van, and we stopped to get Steve, a Brit from Manchester living in London.

We did ten questions and I found out Steve had given up his job in advertising to go travelling for eight to ten months, and this was his third, all in South America.

We cleared Chilean customs (I will have so many Chilean stamps in my passport) where I didn't spot anyone eating my raisins and set of for the Bolivian border. We came to a crossroads. The road ahead, nicely paved, went into Argentina, the road to the left, nothing more than a dirt track, went into Bolivia...

We cleared Bolivian customs and had breakfast with a bunch of other people piling out of vans and jeeps. We spoke to a French Belgian girl married to a Chilean guy and living in Sanatiago (if that makes sense) and she was raving about the trip.

We put our stuff into a red jeep, which we turned out to be sharing with Alissa, her boyfriend Aaron (at first I thought he was called Erin but surely that can't be right as it's a girl's name) and sister Sheema. They were all in their early twenties. Alissa is an architect who had spent four months in Cuba, Aaron spent a year in Ecuador and Sheema was studying in Chile. Bastards...

The first spot we hit was Laguna Verde, with the volcano Licancabur looming over it. The lagoon only changes to its insanely turquoise colour when there is wind so we were lucky to see it at its best. It's very easy to get snap-happy, whichever way you point your camera, there is a great view.

Driving through the Salvador Dali desert, we saw volcanic rocks dotted around picturesquely around the sand, and it was easy to see where Dali got his inspiration for his wobbly clocks: time itself seems to melt in this barren, vast empty space. It seemed surreal, as if we were driving through a filmset, as nothing natural could be this wonderfully arranged.

Next up were the Agua Termales, a mini-hot springs but open air, in the middle of the Altiplano. It's a favourite lunch spot for truckers, sporting their hairy chest and tattoos. We got into the water, a cosy 30 degrees, and enjoyed the spectacular view, while Maria made our almuerzo (lunch). As soon as you got out of the water it was quite chilly. Steve didn't want to come out, and got seriously sunburnt as a result. The hot springs and strong sun did make the altitude worse, I had to stand up really slowly or my head went spinning.

The lunch was great, better than expected anyway: rice with veggies, tuna and tomato and cucumber (the last two becoming something of a recurring theme through the three days). The Americans tried to get Maria and Criso to join us, but Criso made it clear: tourists first, guides later.

We pottered about for a little bit, then set off to the geysers, who at a temperature of 180º Celsius are not something you want to get too close to. They were bubbling away, smelling awfully bad. One of them was letting off a lot of steam.

After that, the landscape turned brown and nothing could really capture the eye. The distances are vast and it's amazing what a variety of landscapes you drive through in just a few days. All of a sudden we saw something red and white at the horizon. It could have been a mirage, as we were not sure if we were looking at water, sand or salt.

Getting closer, it turned out to be Laguna Colorada (red lagoon), which is only 80 cm deep and has that colour due to algae and plankton who thrive on the minerals in the water. The fringes are white due to sodium, magnesium and borax. And there are flamingos, lots of them. We tried to spot the three kinds: the all pink Chilean flamingo, the Andino with black tipped wings and the James, who has yellow eyes and legs.

Laguna Colorada was also our last stop before the night. We walked closer to the lagoon but it was already getting very windy and we were nearly blown back. The five of us shared a dorm room in the very basic hostal. We had dinner, which was a great soup, chicken and vegetables and then we all turned in, not realising that eight Chilean time was early enough, but seven Bolivian time was just ridiculously early!