Watts up on the desert?

We woke from a cosy nights sleep and crawled out into the chilly morning, warned slightly by tea and scrambled eggs with ham and cheese rolls. 

Once packed up we set off across the dusty red desert stopping off in a few local villages with very cute children and dogs before taking in a view of bolivia's only active volcano, which it shares with chile. Hannah was very excited by this and the geothermal activity to come. 

Another large lunch, consisting of chicken, quinoa and plant and, was laid on for us by a frozen lake; very chilly! 

From here we drove across a Mars like landscape to a windblown rock which slightly resembled a tree. 

The next stop was the highlight of the day; a naturally bright red lake, surrounded by mountains and filled with flocks of 3 different species of flamingoes; incredible. 

We climbed yet further in our 4x4 to 5000m, luckily we weren't affected by altitude sickness. Here Hannah was delighted to find plopping mud, steaming fumaroles and an erupting geyser. 

We dropped down to 4700m where our hostel for the second night was located. Whilst tucking in to our soup followed by succulent steak and cold spaghetti we carefully planned our dash through the freezing night to the hot springs below. 

After much debating we finally plucked up the courage to don our bikinis and run through the -10 degree temperatures to the delightfully warm hot springs; well worth the trouble.