Ye, the internet in bolivia is a little slow......   so we have been waiting to get a faster connection....  basically, its another long one!

24th November

A little after dawn, we get on a boat for a little tour round a few islands on Titicaca lake. First off, the ever so touristy, floating reed island community! That’s right, this “town… complete with town hall, bars and a disco Is completely made from reeds taken from the lake….. and is floating in 11m of water about 2kms off the mainland! Once we had dodged the demands to buy some chince, our boat leaves for the next island. Here we stay the night with a typical Peruvian island family! Sounded great…. And it was, but it was just TOOOoooo set up for the tourists, not what we were expecting…… never mind. After dinner we hike up to the top of the hill to watch the sunset.

We end the evening with all the westerners and their hosts having a “fiesta” in the town hall to the band playing panpipe music (ye, more westerners than locals, with us all dressed up in the local getup….. oh well, it was a good excuse for a beer!)

25th November

Up early, we have decided not to carry on this tour, and bail out by catching the early public boat back to the mainland. Lorraine has a slightly concerned face as a local woman boards the boat with two large bags….. which are shuffling about and making a familiar guinea pig sound!!.... off to the market!

Once back in the port we just have enough time to see the Yavari steam ship…. It’s a quick detour… before our onward travels (this one is for me… Lorraine is sooooo not interested…. I think it’s my inner dad coming out!!!) This ship was ordered in 1860 from a Liverpool based company. It was built in 3 years then shipped in small boxes to the Peruvian coast. From here it was packed onto mules and transported over the Andes to the lake where it was rebuilt. This task took 6 years to complete! What’s more amazing is that they ordered two!!!..... well I was impressed….. and I know my dad will be too!...

So we jump on our super cheap, super bouncy bus to the Bolivian border and on to Copacabana……. (with yellow ribbons in our hair??!!.....) a sleepy little town, also on lake Titicaca.

26th November

We catch the first boat to “Isle del sol”, the birth place of the Inca religion, literally. Legend says that the sun, moon and puma was born here, hence the name of the island. The island is just up the coast, so we jump on the first touristy boat leaving copa. 2hrs later the boat, doing just over a slow walking pace, arrives. At the top of the trail is a Labyrinth of Inca ruins, as well as a puma rock…. Apparently, if you squint, you can see the puma. We leave everyone else from the boat to walk the length of the island, this was a nice 8km walk taking 2- 3hours and the views were lovely. We arrive at the beach at the other end, just as the boat with all the same passengers arrives….. (as I say, it was a very slow boat!)

Back in Copa, we go for a wander round the town, I tell you what, them Spanish now how to make them churches look bleedin impressive…… The beach end of the town take us by surprise… there are loads of “travellers” making braided bracelets…… presumably trying to raise enough money to get a plane ticket!...

27th November

Last night, we booked a trip to the Amazon!... I know, a bit last minute! So we get up bright and early to catch a cab to La Paz airport, as the buses can’t get us there in time to catch the plane….. so 3 hours later we arrive, quite a long cab ride!.... £40….. Bolivia is cheap!....

We jump into one of the smallest commercial aircraft I have ever been on….. a sign, next to our seat, made us laugh! “if the cabin loses pressure, oxygen masks will be passed around by the flight crew”…… the only crew are the pilots….. and if the cabin loses pressure, I reckon they will be busy!...... anyway, we land on the grass airfield and check into our local hotel. Sadly Lozza isn’t feeling well (bit of a weird tummy thing…… honestly, we get all the way through Africa with no problems…. Yet here???....) so I go off to explore and look at booking in some trips for our next leg of our trip.

28th November

We jump into our narrow river boat and set off upstream. On the way we manage to get a look at lots of Macaws nesting in the side of a cliff, very tropical! 5hrs later we arrive at Chalalan community ecolodge, a site set up by the indigenous community of the national park forest 10years ago, all the profits of which go into helping with education, healthcare and social services for the 500 strong village further upstream. Quick as a flash, we jump in the lake…. It is SoooOOOO hot in the day!

Once dried (it takes about 30 seconds in this heat) we are taken by our guide on a sort walk. In no time we see a troop of yellow Squirrel monkeys and capuchin monkeys!

Once night falls and the cacophony of tree frogs start to sing, we go for a night walk….

OH MY GOD!!!!.... The size of the WILD TARANTULAS!!!!!..... turns out, there are quite a lot of spiders in the tropical rainforest…… only compounded by the finding of a large spider in our bedroom!!!!....

after much standing and beard stroking, we decided to cut a 2ltr bottle in half for use as a spider catcher…. (its legs only just fit inside the bottle!)

29th November

Our first moments in the camp sets the tone for the rest of our stay, we get up early and head out on a long nature walk.  Lorraine manages to get bitten by a large Ant!  (it really is big, they´re about an inch long!!!.... its not in the picture above.... thats a mantis)  its not deadly, which is nice!  and the guide pulls out  a sucker thing and tries to get most of the poison out.  Its a little sore but lorraines made of sterner stuff! 

We return to camp, swim in the lake to cool down, then another walk before dinner. After which we do a night walk….. more spiders and frogs…. Very interesting

30th November

As before really, we are a bit gutted that the village tour has had to be cancelled as there isn’t a boat to take us there, but never mind.

After dinner, tonight happens to be a moonlight canoe ride around the lake….. to look for Caymans…… that’s right….

A type of crocodile…… in the lake…… that we have been swimming in for the last 3 days!..... well we still have all our toes/arms!

1st December

Dawn ride back to the airport…. Much quicker this time as we are going down stream! Hop on the plane, back to La Paz….. arrive…. Go to hotel…. Check emails for our trips over the next few days, eat then sleep by 10pm…. Pretty boring day really!

2nd December

Today we are going on a bike ride!.... no, not round the town….. this isn’t any ordinary ride…. We make our way to a café to meet our group of similarly excitable westerners! After an hour and a half we arrive, we are 16000ft above sea level, infront of us is the main road and thorough fare to coroico. It’s a 64km road that drops 12000ft…. simply put, its one of the world’s longest downhill bike rides!

However this is not the end of the story….. I previously described it as a road…. It not a road in the conventional sense….. its little more than a 12ft wide gravel track (barely wide enough for one vehicle) that clings to the side of a valley for the entire distance. On one side , a vertical rockface shoots skywards, on the other, a vertical cliff of almost 2000ft drops into the forest and cloud below…… and no barrier…. It is because of these extreme conditions that an average 26 vehicles a year find their way over the edge. This road has been deservedly named “the world’s most dangerous road” by the Inter American development bank….. oh did I mention the cars and lorries?.... yes, they still use it.

So we tighten our helmet straps and off we go!....... we pass hair raising hairpin bends and waterfalls that pass over the road. A few hours later, we arrive at the bottom. No one died!

I had a great time, but even with the full suspension, lorraines bum hurts!

3rd December

Today is the only day… well, half day we have in La Paz, so I drag Lorraine out very early to try and catch a bit of the life of the town. There are Soooo many people selling … well everything! One part of the town has been named the Whitches market, named because you can buy all manor traditional medicines and herbs, including llamas….. dead foetus llamas. Apparently you bury them under your house to bring good luck?... nice.

So we grab our things and head off to the airport. We are off to Cochabamba to go to another national park, and it is famous (in Bolivia at least) for dinosaur footprints!

We meet our driver at the airport who takes us on the 3 ½ hour journey to torotoro….. we it would be 3½ hours had he not been the SLOWEST DRIVER IN BOLIVIA!!!! However, the scenery is quite something, layers of rock have been forced up, due to plate tectonics into almost vertical mountains eitherside of a valley. I jump out on a few occasions to grab a photo, waving to curious locals as we pass.

30mis later we stop for a loo break. As I get back into the car, I notice my passport is on the seat. “why is that there, it should be in my pocket?... with lorraines passport….. which is in my pocket………. Why isn’t lorraines passport in my pocket??......” This is followed by a frantic few minutes searching through the car….. it isn’t there. It is lost……. Shit.

It could be anywhere from here to Cochabamba. Right, turn around and lets go back to the place I last got out of the car to take a picture, it is a massive long shot, but it could be there. 30mis later we arrive at roughly the right place…… it is now dark. We drive down the road, with our torches on. No passport. So we give up, turn around and head back the way we came. After 100yrds, a girl jumps into the road….. can you guess whats coming???....... yes thats right, in her hand is the passport! AMAZING! We give her a big hug and a nice tip and head back on our slow but merry way!

After 6 HOURS, we arrive in the dark to our destination. We are quite hungry now, the only place open (there is a choice of two) is a traditional restaurant….. no, café…. Well, its actually someones front room! There is a choice of rice and meat or meat and rice. Still we settle down to a beer and watch the Van Claude Van Dame film showing on the tele (badly dubbed into Spanish!)…. Ace!

On our way back we hear some music… getting louder and louder as we walk to our hostal. Turns out that the college, nextdoor to our digs is having a massive party, for the graduation of this years students! So we wander in to take a peek…. The ENTIRE town appears to be there!

After some of the worst drink I have ever had (fermented maize drink) kindly offered by one of the locals, whos toothless smile encourages me to drink a rather large cupful, we got up for a dance at the start of a song! Its kind of like line dancing…. Without the line!..... I tell ye what, them bolivians have never heard of a short song…. After 20mins (of the SAME 3 CHORDS!) we bale out!

Its now 11:30 and we head back to our digs. We were right, our room practically backs on to the stage of the college…… 4am and the band are still playing strong!

4th December

We awaken somewhat wearily to go dinosaur hunting! After a long wait for our guide we set off. After checking out a massive canyon we find ourselves looking at a large slab of rock, about the size of a football pitch, pushed up to about 45 degress…. And its covered in Dino footprints, some big, some small, its quite cool!

After lunch our guide takes us to a cave system. The health and safety of this country is somewhat lacking, as we find ourselves crawling through tight gaps in the rock without a helmet and with only the slightly broken torch I happened to have…… after about 1km of tunnels and lots of impressive stalagmites we emerge back into the bright sunlight.

So the plan was to stay another night….. however our plans have had to change. Today is Friday, we wanted to make our way to Uyuni for a tour we have booked round some salt flats into chille, starting on Tuesday, plenty of time we thought!

However, this Sunday is election day and the entire country shuts down. You cant by any drink and all public transport is prohibited to run. So, long story short, we have to go back to cocha, to catch the first bus out, to catch the only bus going to uyuni. Oh well, so we set off. Its amazing, our slow driver has almost doubled his speed! I guess he must have a date! We arrive in Cocha in a stunning 3½ hours!

5th December

So, up we get for our day of travelling, despite best efforts (we even looked at chartering a small plane!) we have two long bus journeys, which will take all day. We catch the first one at 7am and arrive knackered at Uyuni about midnight (4 hours longer than they told us the journey would take!!!...)...  quite a long day really

Forgot to add this, we got onto the bus and as we are sat there, the older lady next to us coughed....  and her false teeth went flying down the asile..... for about 7 rows......  it was very hard not to scream with laughter!!!!...

From here we are going round some salt flats for 4 days then into chile for the end of our South American leg!

Until next time see ye!

Will and Loz