Our next adventure starts in Uyuni...or does it?

Being a "newbie traveller", I'd blocked out the sensible part of my brain telling me of the hardships that we'd have to endure on our travels: getting up at 5am, having a cold shower, dragging yourself to the early bus, then roasting in the midday sun with no air-con and gathering mouthfuls of dust through the windows (whether purposefully open or permanently so!)  On our journey from Sucre to Uyuni it all became clear why we were on another Bolivian death bus, with no leg room, a bladder ready to burst and overly familiar fellow passengers (the aisles are very narrow and the roads windy!)...the scenery was out of this world.  I had a picture in my mind of our forthcoming tour across the salt flats from Uyuni, but I hadn't imaged we'd find such extraordinary countryside on our way there.  We weaved round desolate hills and through ghost towns, watching grazing Alpaca with brightly woven braids, and mountain ridges rose magnificently before our eyes, delightfully coloured by various layers of mineral deposits, before descending towards Uyuni with the sun beginning to set across the nearby salt flats; a landscape you couldn't paint so perfectly.  Do we really need to go on our jeep tour now?!