Potosi, Bolivia...Jess and I just arrived a few hours ago. We checked into a hostel called Koala Den that was recomended to us by our friend Jorgi. It's a little expensive (expensive for us here is $5 a night, so I guess that is relative), and it's so worth it after the past week we've had. On Wednesday afternoon, we got on a bus to Uyuni. There was a direct bus at 6, but we were impatient, so we got on the 3:30 bus, which required a bus change in Oruro. THis change was supposed to arrive at 7 and leave at 8, but things didnt really work out that way. We arrived and waited in the most unorganized bus station I've ever seen. It was total insanity, and nobody seemed to work there. So, another bus was in the spot where ours was supposed to be, but it wasn't actually ours. We finally figured out that it was supposed to arrive as soon as the other bus left, which took another half hour. Finally a bus pulled in, but it wasn't ours either. Eventually, we figured out that our bus was somewhere out in the parking lot, so we hopped on. We were waiting for the huge bundles and packages of the other passengers to be put under the bus, when we started hearing murmers of a refund of 5 bolivianos. I asked some other passengers, and it turns out that some people had been charged 30 bolivianos, and others 35. They asked me how much I had payed, and I told them that we'd payed 70 in La Paz. They informed me that this was a rip off, and that it should have only been 45 total. So, I hopped off the bus to join the angry mob. It was pretty useless because I had bought my ticket from another company, but it was really funny to watch. There was a woman police officer yelling at the driver, and some consumer advocate guy who had been monitering this sort of fraud, and then all these confused looking passengers. Some tourist police had befriended us earlier tried to help me, which was also pretty funny. I think they were really bored. After another 25 minutes of photocopying "evidence", yelling, and a few refunds, we were on our way. Now, let me mention that the bus company in La Paz not only charged us more, the lady who sold us the tickets also lied to us when I asked if the buses were heated. She said that of course they were! I don't know why I believed her, I have had this experience (in warmer temperatures) and should know better...I think because I couldn't image being in a bus in sub-freezing temperatures without heating, I didn't bring my sleeping bag on board, or the new huge fleeze I bought in La Paz. And of course, there was no heating on this overnight bus. It was miserable...I swear I almost lost some toes. A few passengers took pity on us and at the end of the trip, we had a bed sheet, a jacket, and a scarf. I had my feet under some guy's blanket that was out in the isle. The bus pulled in to the dusty little town of Uyuni at 5:30 a.m. (ironically, the same time that the 6 pm bus arrived). It was SO COLD outside, and we didn't know what in the world to do until everything opened. There is a tourist info center where you can check out different travel agencies that lead trips to the salar, but we didn't know where or when they opened. So, when a lady aproached us saying "you want trip to salar? I have heat in the jeep", we decided not getting hypothermia was more important than finding the very best tour. She picked up a few other recently arrived tourists, and we went to her little office to hear about the tours they offered. We decided to stick with the company, "Jhaneth tours", and that was that. At 11 a.m. Thursday, we were on our way.....