Next stop en route was Bolivia, the highest country on the continent. It is also one of the poorest, hottest, coldest, wettest and driest countries on earth. Feeling intrigued, we set off to find out what it was all about. Our journey across the border from Argentina to Bolivia started, as many of the days in South America had, with a bus ride. It was only 7 hours though, so it didn't really count. On reaching the border town we managed to find what looked like an immigration office and joined the queue, feeling confident that the three hours we had allowed before the train left would be adequate time to cross the border, withdraw sufficient funds for the next few days and buy a train ticket. An hour and a half later when the queue still hadn't moved and we were still in Argentina we began to feel slightly less confident and decided (with a few other equally worried gringos) to try and find out what the hold up was. As it turns out, it seems that no matter how many people are waiting behind you in an obvious queue, in Bolivia and Argentina you are under no obligation to let them know that you are not really trying to go anywhere very quickly and are instead just filling out a load of forms and chatting. With Alan's rage barely under control we managed, by the skin of our teeth to hop on the train just in time for it to chug off into the great wide yonder, no thanks to either set of border guards or the train ticketing office! And so we trundled through the rugged countryside admiring the views of cactus covered hills and listening to the dulcid tones of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart - a tune that was to become very familiar over the next few weeks.

Eventually we arrived into Tupiza and felt as if we'd stepped off the train and into the Wild West - the town is the final resting place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after all - with giant rocky red hills surrounding the small town. We checked into our hotel and strolled around feeling like we'd finally arrived in "real" South America - Ladies in bowler hats and colourful skirts, men in cowboy hats and the odd horse trotting round. Perhaps the most exciting discovery we made that evening was that we could afford to eat out again...and so we did.

The next day we had arranged to get out into "them there hills" on horseback to explore the local canyons. We were especially pleased to be given cowboy hats of our very own, though mine was far too big and kept falling down over my eyes everytime my horse broke out into a trot. We met our guide, Miguel, who appeared to be about 14 years old and then met the horses who had, unfortunately, seen better days and were decidedly skinny. Nevertheless, we got saddled up, had a VERY brief lesson in how to control our mounts and set off into the dusty distance. We spent the morning wandering along various dusty tracks into gorges that had carved through the red rocks, often with one or more other groups and their guides, stopping every now and again to look around the rock formations (whilst the guides sat and listened to Avril Lavigne on their mobiles). Eventually we trotted back to town and bid farewell to the horses - Whitey and Steed Malbranque (google the name and you'll see who rode which horse if you can't already work it out!) - and decided that we weren't made for life in a saddle as we walked like John Wayne back to the hotel.

Next on the agenda was a four day tour from Tupiza to the Salt Flats of Uyuni. We met up with our "group" and were please to find a chatty couple from England, Kayleigh and Chris, and passed the first part of the morning laughing and joking, and admiring the awesome views of the Valley as we climbed higher and higher on the Altiplano. The climb from 3000-4000m only took half an hour, and it left us all feeling pretty breathless! Unfortunately Alan wasn't feeling too great after a run-in with some chicken so wasn't able to enjoy the day as much as I did, but we did all manage to do some llama spotting. We spent the day driving through some unbelieveable landscapes - plateaus, valleys and rivers - with our guide Edwin (pronounced Edweeeeeeeeeeen) telling us alsorts of interesting facts about the area and me trying my best to translate for the others in the 4x4. Eventually we arrived at our first nights stop, a tiny hamlet called San Antonio de Lipez population about 40 and watched the local kids run around playing football envious of their ability to walk more than five steps with out puffing like someone who smokes 60 a day. Edweeeeeens sister Miriam was along as a cook and rustled up a delicious 3 course meal which only got half eaten as the boys were starting to feel a little rough.

Day two started at the ungodly hour of 4am and the early start, cups of coca tea and a general lack of available oxygen made the four of us quite delerious; we were soon 'running' around an abandoned mining town pretending to be ghosts (fantismos) as the sun came up. Once we'd used up all our available energy for the day and Edweeen had fixed one of the other Jeeps in the convoy, we set off through more incredible landscapes - deserts surrounded by huge mountains and snowcapped volcanoes, and llama, alpaca and vicuña filled plains - and eventually we arrived at a thermal bath, where we all jumped in and enjoyed the warm water, sunshine and beautiful views. Later in the afternoon we climbed to 5000m to see some geysers and that made me feel horendous - altitude sickness is not fun! We also stopped off in an area that looked like another planet, infact NASA have said that the area is similar to what they would expect Mars to be like, so we really felt like intrepid explorers. Eventually our convoy limped into "town" for our second night's rest, Edweeeeen must have stopped about 15 times to fix one or other of the jeeps in our group only for them to go speading off and break down again or get another puncture. All the while we drove on at a reasonable pace and didn´t have a single problem. We were all very glad to get out of the jeep after 15 hours in it, despite the entertainment we found in asking Edween or Miriam questions from our lonely planet phrase book (if you ever find yourself with a spare minute in Waterstones, check out the kinds of phrases that the Lonely planet think you might need when touring Spanish speaking countries - truely bizarre!).

Day 3 saw another early start followed by more beautiful scenery and lakes of all sorts of different colours: some hot water, some sulphurous ones, some salt water. We saw Flamingoes, more llamas, vicuñas and alpacas, more beautiful mountains, more dusty deserts, and had a great time climbing over the volcanic rock formations that littered the desert. Eventually we arrived in Uyuni before contuinuing on to a small town called Chuvica, a small salt mining town on the edge of the salt flats and settled into our hotel, which was made almost entirely of salt...even the bed. We were given the option of getting up at 4:30 to go out and watch the sunrise or to lie in - it didn't take the four of us long to decide that A) that was far too early for us to get up after so many sleepless nights and B) sunrise is very much like sunset in reverse and so went outside and watched that instead. Our final morning started at the rather more civilised time of 7:30 and we hit the road/track out to the salt flats which were incredibly beautiful. There was a covering of water over the entire flat which perfectly reflected the sky and made it look like we were driving on thin air. We spent the morning taking pictures of each other using various optical illusions provided by the salt, before heading back to Uyuni and saying goodbye to Edween and Myriam. Fortunately we had booked an overnight bus to La Paz for that evening and were able to get out of Uyuni very quickly - it's a desperate place, a toxic wasteland where plastic bags go to die. Unfortunately, we were both feeling pretty ropey and weren't looking forward to a night on a bus.

We arrived in La Paz and spent the next couple of days in our hotel room, only venturing out to score some antibiotics and attempt to eat something at Burger King of all places, desperately trying to feel better for the arrival of Alan's brother Mark/Rocky. We did finally start to feel better and managed to spend an afternoon at a museum and having a walk around town, though walking is more like huffing and puffing at that altitude. Mark's arrival did inject some enthusiasm for the city and we were soon joking around with renewed vigour. We had a lovely day walking around the Witches Market, admiring the dried llama foetuses (?!), selecting various items of llama wear to keep us warm over the next few weeks (hats/gloves/mittens/socks) and watching Alan practising his haggling skills - conversations generally followed this pattern:

Alan - Cuanto cuesta? (how much [for this hat]?)
Shopkeeper - 25 Bolivianos (£2.50)
Alan - Will you take 15?
Shopkeeper - 20
Alan - 15?
Shopkeeper - 17
Alan - 15?
Shopkeeper (deflated) - Ok 15.
Alan exits shop with very smug look on his face and a fancy new hat.

With woollies purchased and our brief stay in the Capital city over, it was time to head off to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca for a few days. On arrival we dumped our bags and headed out to explore the town and saw that we could walk to a look out point at the top of a hill. Little did I realise that the giant brothers that I now had in tow would be so competitive as to race each other up the hill, leaving little old me to wheeze my way to the top (we were now up at nearly 4000 m - I promise that is the only reason for wheezing) and wheeze all the way back down. At the bottom of the hill we were greeted by yet another of South America's stray dogs. This one wasn't quite as friendly as the pack in Argentina and lunged, with a bloodthirsty look, towards my ankles, i managed to squeal and leap far enough behind Alan for the dog to change direction and attempt to sink his gnashers into Mark's calf. Fortunately Mark gave him a bit of a jab with his walking boot and we were able to escape unscathed, thanking the fact that we'd invested in Rabies jabs before we'd set of on the trip. A beer in the sunshine on the lake front calmed our nerves enough for us to return to our hotel via 'Dog Alley' before devouring a delicious dinner at a local restaurant. The next day we headed over to Isla del Sol for an adventure on the Inka island of creation - the plan was to walk the length of the island, see the Inka ruins, stay over night on the island and get the ferry back the next morning. However, we managed to walk the length of the island and visit the ruins by mid afternoon (mostly in the pooring rain - Island of the Sun? Pah!) but the price of the accommodation on the island was as much as the mainland but didn't include the feast of a breakfast we had stuffed ourselves with that morning. Add to that the lure of last night's tasty trout dinner and the deal was sealed, we hopped back on a ferry to Copacabana and checked back into the very same room before dining at the same restaurant as the previous night. Another day of strolling around the town, eating a 3 course lunch for 80p, wandering along the lake front playing stone football and drinking nice beer and coffee passed before we headed off to Peru with the promise of the Inka trail.

We crammed a fair amount in to our short time in Bolivia and really loved it, it was so different to anything we had seen in Latin America so far and really set the bar high for Peru to follow.

Love

Kate and Alan x