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As our bus trundled out of San Pedro in Chile’s northern Atacama Desert (the driest place on earth and another cracking destination incidentally), little had prepared me for the sheer scope and majesty of the scenery I was to encounter over the next three days as we headed into Bolivia’s altiplano. The distance as the crow flies between San Pedro de Atacama and the Salar de Uyuni may not look too excessive, particularly in comparison to some of the epic length journeys for which South America is renowned (I have had the pleasure of 29 hours straight on a bus from Santiago to Arica on more than one occasion). However, as with so many other appearances on this continent, deception is the rule rather than the exception.

The altiplano is the barren, high altitude area between the Andean ranges, and at somewhere in the region of 4,000m above sea level it takes your breath away literally as well as figuratively. The typically dry air of a desert is compounded by the lack of oxygen, so one finds oneself both short of breath and continually thirsty – not an entirely comfortable sensation. Such physical discomforts are soon put aside however, as you traverse this bewilderingly surreal landscape, a desert dotted with flashes of life and colour such as the startlingly vivid lagoons, populated by flamingos.

- Flamingos? Is this lack of oxygen making me hallucinate?

- We’re a long way from Florida, Dave…

Or the silent and eerie ‘Dali’s Stones’ - a randomly scattered collection of vast rocks that have been sculpted into weird and wonderful shapes by the harshly erosive desert winds. I was almost mystified to find no ‘floppy clocks’ draped over them.

By the second day, the landscape and the lack of oxygen was making me pretty light-headed; the really big draw however, was yet to come. I find it hard to describe to people why the Salar de Uyuni (the world’s biggest salt flat) is one of my top three South American destinations:

- It’s enormous and white, and there’s nothing there except a cactus-covered rock in the middle…’

Well, maybe they have a point.

Mainly I just ask you to trust me and see it for yourselves, as it really is like nothing else you’ll ever experience. There is a constant conflict between your mind and your senses as to whether you are standing on an endless expanse of ice or salt, and all sense of perspective and distance simply goes out of the window.

All in all, it’s a pretty pleasant way to feel like you may be somewhat losing your grip on reality