The first is lunch, served on a lin

The first is lunch, served on a linen-covered table set up on the salt pan. My mate and I sit down to a feast of melon and prosciutto, followed by grilled steak and potatoes, and a cold beer. Most visitors to the lake today eat soggy sandwiches in the back of a four-wheel-drive.

There are certain experiences, however, that every visitor to Uyuni salt flat has to try. One of those is to find a desolate patch of salt (not too hard) and take photos that play with the lack of depth perception in such a featureless landscape. Check. The other is to visit Incahuasi, one of two islands in the salt lake, a rocky outcrop dotted with 500-year-old cacti. It's there that we finally encounter some other people, joining the day-trippers for the climb up to the top of the island to take in views of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes.

Then we're back in the Landcruiser and heading towards camp, stopping in the middle of the salt pan to see a spectacular sight that none of the day-trippers has the chance to experience: sunset. The crusty salt surrounding us turns orange, then yellow and finally a deathly blue as the sun creeps below the horizon.