Salar in the winter: We found we only needed about 5 - 6litres of water per day, and had to off load some water towards the end of the crossing - a slight risk, but acceptable. BTW, the salt pan is rock-hard and if you are camping, you'llneed to guy a tent with weights (like we did ) or bang in strong pegs with a mallet.

Going to the loo: We burned all the loo paper we used on the spot to prevent wads of the stuff blowing around the Salar for the next few years. It's so dry there, that hardly anything decomposes or breaksdown.

Vicunas vs alpacas vs llamas: Vicunas are protected camelids and have a lovely yellow-brown coat and can live in very dry areas in pairs ( they mate for life ) or groups of about 10 - 14. The don't breed in captivity, so any you see are ' wild' . Alpacas need to be close to water/streams/lakes, have a bushier coat and are smaller then their close cousins, the llamas ( which are more popular as load carriers )

Weirdest creatures we saw: South American ostriches on the altiplano - whoaaa! We thought they only roamed around in Africa.

Coca: You can chew these dried coca leaves as an energy stimulant, or drink some coca tea ( very mild leafy taste ) . To get anything stronger from this useful leaf/plant is encourage the DEA or similar law enforcement officers to take more than a casual interest in you.

La Paz costs: In short, pretty reasonable. Meals/snacks can be anywhere up from 10 Bolivianos ( US$1 = 7.8Bs, SG$1 = 5Bs ), with inner city taxi rides in the 7Bs range

Fave hotel in La Paz: The Camino Real on Av. Kapitan Ravello - with 24/7 free internet access, and a great restaurant - La Tranquera, not to mention the good breakfast buffets

Souvenir-hunting in La Paz: try the old markets north of the Cathedral, especially the Calle Linares - full of alpaca product shops, T-shirts, bags, and knick-knacks

Souvenir-hunting in Uyuni: Basic - your best bet for salt crystals, cactus wood carvings etc is to get em at the makeshift stalls in Colchani - very popular with the jeep-supported touristas. Uyuni is better for a few decent hotels, and a couple of nice local restaurants like the Julio de 16 or the Restaurant Italia ( great thin crust pizzas )

Che Guevara: You see pictures of this guy everywhere. You might remember him as old Fidel Castro's sidekick when they won the revolutionary war in Cuba in the 1950s. Alas, Che wanted to export his brand of communist revolution and headed down to Bolivia where he did not get the same amount of support and was eventually worn down, captured and shot by the powers that be.

Flights: A total pain as it's a minimum 36 hours from Asia. Typical routings from Singapore are to Los Angeles - Miami-La Paz. In the other direction, you could go to Johannesburg-Buenos Aires -La Paz or London/Madrid - Lima - La Paz. Costs will be in the region of SG$3600 - 4200 cattle-class or about US$2500 - 2700

Visas: A breeze if you from the USA or Japan. For some strange reason, the Bolivians have classified Singaporeans alongside with nationals ffrom Afghanistan and Djibouti. Of the three categories, we're in the bottom one - normally requiring a consular interview, a month of processing et al - and there are scant embassies in Asia. The ones in Tokyo and Beijing weren't interested to help get us a tourist visa and the consular officer in Manila said you could get visa at the airport ( bull ). Eventually, our connections ponied up a diplomatic visa for us, sans consular interviews.