A salty birthday

The next to last day of the desert tour our group stayed in a hotel on the edge of the salar de uyuni - at 7,000 sq. miles the world's largest salt flat. We were all glad to finish somewhat early that day because the two previous days had been long. Ou guides took us to some lovely sites but were always hustling us to leave as soon as we arrived.
That night was the 18th, the day before my birthday - the Argentineans and English/Aussie wanted to stay up until 12 to celebrate it even though we were leaving the following morning at 5 to catch the sunrise.
We met several groups of English in our hostel - one small group of very cool girls and the other a massive group of 20-somethings. I can only describe them as English frat boys and sorority sisters.
I tried not to drink much because of our early departure time - but my travel mates didn't help. Eventually, I found myself outside in the sub-zero temperatures at 4 in the morning with no shoes on. A move I like to call "The Nathan Christ". Finally, I headed back to bed at 4:45 AM and set my alarm for 5 AM. I, of course, awoke disoriented and just as drunk as I was 15-minutes earlier. I accidentally took someone else´s coat, crawled into the car and witnessed the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. We finished the day in Uyuni at a train graveyard.
I'm in La Paz now, a city out of a dream/nightmare, all other roads to other cities are closed because of mining prostests. I'm sick again.