La Paz to Uyuni (Saturday 3rd - Sunday 4th September)

So there may be no trains in Bolivia, but they do tourist busses in relative style. Not a chicken or goat in sight! Reclining seats, a film to watch and Todotourismo branded blankets and pillows! Even a functioning and surprisingly pleasant toilet! We boarded at 9pm for what we thought was a 10hour journey (knowing Bolivia this means 12 hours minimum) so after watching "London has Fallen" we settled down for a good sleep. It wasn't long before they had switched on the blinding bus lights, handed out breakfast and demanded blankets back. It felt as though it was 6am, probably because it was 6am!!  What?! The one time you don't want Latin America to be on time, let alone early, what do they go and do! Rather than staying on the bus and sleeping until sun up we were ushered off, bikes and bags in hand, left standing on a street corner or a desert town at 6.30am. And man oh man it was cold. Luckily Sunrise was done by 7am and we'd now managed to migrate to another street corner, outside a hotel that is recommended for its amazing breakfasts and pizza (hotel tonito). 
Now I don't know if you've ever tried it, but finding a hotel room in a small town at 7am for the night is fairly difficult. Especially if you're two shivering gringos with bikes looking somewhat out of place. The cycle touring gods were smiling on us, as for some reason at just past 7am a guy decided to leave the hotel. Turned out he would later be the reception guy, yep he has a room from about 10am if we would like it... In the mean time perhaps we would like breakfast... SCORE!! Wiggle wiggle... Happiness all around!
So we sat eating pancakes (yes pancakes!!!) and drinking tea by a fire, playing cards until our room was ready. Then we let all our intentions of going to explore this sleepy little town fly out the window as we drifted off into a very deep 4hour snooze!
By the time we woke up the water heater had enough Sun to give us a toasty warm shower and most of the restaurants had closed after lunch! But we found one open and not in a rush to serve us at all. About an hour later we had spaghetti, quesadillas and chips (what you've never heard of that combination before?!!) served to us by a cheeky little niño who corrected our Spanish and told us we were German!
A trip to World White Travel to organise our jeep tour to the border for two day's time and impress upon them the importance of keeping our bikes safe (the boys were going in a separate vehicle and we would be separated for three whole days, we were more than a bit anxious about this!). How do you tell someone that the bikes are super valuable, without implying they are worth a lot of money, and that no we couldn't just replace them, our trip would be over, we would be going home. Ps please don't just throw them on a roof... Oh and watch the derailer... Eeek... Close eyes and hope is the only way.
So back to the hotel for a bit of sorting and a brilliant Minuteman pizza in the restaurant (so big we had to save some for lunch tomorrow!) then ready for a good night's sleep.