We arrived in Potosi after midnight so it was straight to bed that night and a rare opportunity to have a lie-in the following morning.

The plan for the day in Potosi was to visit the working mines in Cerro Rico. These were formerly silver mines but pretty much all of the silver was taken by the Spaniards so the main outputs are now Zinc and Tin among other things.

After breakfast we were picked up by the tour guide and boarded a bus that was to take us to the mines. First stop was the miners market, where the miners buy all of their equipment. The state mines were closed in the 1980's and the mining is now done by small co-operatives who then sell everything that they've excavated to private companies. They therefore have to buy all of their equipment themselves, including explosives, and we were shown the dynamite that they use. We then bought small gifts (dynamite (!), coco leaves, cigarettes and soft drinks) to take with us into the mine and give to the miners in return for taking photos and asking questions.

After picking up all of our safety equipment (overalls, helmets, boots and headlamps) we then headed up to the mine entrance to begin our tour. The entrances were above 4000m and we had to descend down a ladder and crawl along a small tunnel to enter the mines. The next two hours were fascinating (and a bit terrifying) as we made our way through the small tunnels.....often having to crouch down, avoid holes in the ground down to the lower levels and scramble up ledges.

We saw the miners moving the minerals that they'd found up to the surface and spoke to one of the heads of the cooperative about his work. The conditions were pretty horrendous and working there reduces life expectancy to 45 due to the exposure to toxic gases and dust. Compared to other jobs for unskilled workers it's actually pretty well paid though so it's not surprising that so many people continue to do it and the conditions are better than they have been historically (when the Spanish were running the mines workers had to live down there for up to 8 months at a time...at least they get to go home at the end of the day now!).

It was a really interesting couple of hours but I was very pleased to get to the surface again. The mines definitely wouldn't have passed health & safety tests allowing them to run tours in the UK and there were a couple of points where I was very aware that one wrong step could lead to a nasty accident!

After the mine tour we got some lunch and had planned to wander around the markets and see some more of the town but I started to feel quite unwell, whether it was the altitude or too much sun on the salt flats the previous day I don't know but I headed back to the hotel and ended up having a chilled afternoon and an early night as we had a 5.30am start for our final drive to La Paz the following day.

We left the hotel on time and made very good progress, having both breakfast and lunch on the road. There had been rumours of road blocks (hence the early start) but we didn't see any sign of them until we were nearly 2/3s of the way there and we came across one and were told it wasn't opening until 5pm....it was 1.30pm at this point so would have meant a significant delay. We were then approached by some children on the side of the road who told us they could navigate us around the roadblock. This is something that Dave and Mic had done in the past so they jumped on board and we headed off road onto what looked like some maintenance tracks, followed by a number of other cars and trucks who clearly didn't want to wait either.

The road on the far side of the blockade was only 10m away when disaster struck. Faced with a choice of going straight on and over a bit of a ditch or left we took the latter at the advice of the children and next thing we knew Amber was grounded in soft mud and at quite a precarious angle! We all jumped out and started to figure out how we could get her out and on the road again. First off we tried to convince a passing lorry driver to help tow us out to no avail...there was nothing for it but to get dirty and dig her out. Everyone got stuck in and we dug the underside out, discovering that a metal mid flap had been bent and was up against the wheel. We had to cut this off and clear away all the loose earth so we could put sand mats down.

Once we were all set Dave jumped in ready to try and reverse out. It looked promising to start with but the back wheels soon started spinning as the front wheel sank further....we had managed to move her 2m backwards though. We gave it another shot with the same result....getting closer but still not quite there. On our third attempt we realised it was going to be a lot harder than anticipated and by this point we'd been digging and moving rocks for nearly 3.5hrs and there was still some work to do. We were then approached by some locals who said for $100, they'd get a truck to tow us out. By this point we were tired, filthy and getting a bit demoralised so we happily accepted and next thing we knew a petrol (!) tanker was pulling up behind us ready to tow Amber out. The tow rope was soon in place and in a matter of seconds she was out of the ditch although the tanker driver was a bit enthusiastic and almost towed her up a bank!

Relieved we loaded up all our tools and jumped back on board...it was 5.05pm and the barricade still didn't seem to be open so we'd saved ourselves a little time at least! The big advantage was that the roads were still clear so we made it to La Paz in good time although we hit awful traffic as soon as we got to the outskirts in the city, something that's apparently very normal, it even rival the likes of Moscow in terms of traffic chaos!!

We arrived at our hotel just after 8pm, tired and in need of showers! After a quick turnaround we regrouped and wandered out to a local restaurant for our last meal together followed by a couple of drinks. First impressions of La Paz were not that favourable, the city seemed very chaotic and dirty and I didn't feel particularly safe walking around. This was further evidenced when the last of our group to head home left the bar and had a knife pulled on them as they ignored a man's request for money. Luckily it turned out he was making an empty threat and he disappeared when he realised they weren't paying any attention but it as still quite a scary story and made us all much more aware.

The next day, my last in Bolivia and also the last with the group, we all cycled the most dangerous road in the world. This was a full day excursion and involved another early pick up to get us to the start of the track in good time and to sort out the equipment. Once we were all set we headed off down 26k of asphalt road to get us used to the bikes, the bends and to prepare us for what was to come. At the end of this section we had the chance to load the bikes onto the minibus that was following us and get a lift to the start of the most dangerous road in the world, or we could do another 10k with some steep uphill. We all decided to cycle it and had 45mins of quite full on exercise......18kg mountain bikes with massive tyres are not designed to cycle up hills!

We finally reached the start of the track and after a quick snack break we were ready to go. The track is 32k in length and only 3.2m wide at some parts. The surface is very rocky and it even goes under waterfalls which have washed some of the track away.....apparently 19 cyclists have died whilst going down it since 2000. The 3hrs that it took us to get down the track were pretty intense. It was bumpy and uneven so created lots of vibration on the handle bars. We made frequent stops so the guide could explain the next section of track and he delighted in telling us stories of who had died and how in each part.

Needless to say I was quite pleased to get to the bottom and was even more so when we saw the animal refuge that awaited us, complete with a natural swimming hole, cold beer, a buffet lunch and the chance to see
monkeys up close. After a couple of hours chilling here we jumped back on the bus for the 3hr drive back to Cuzco.

It seemed to take forever and we even took to counting dogs for a part of it and managed to spot 88 in less than an hour, all over South America there seem to be dogs wandering around!

We finally got back to the hotel, had a quick change around, packed my bags for the next morning and headed out for drinks and a bite to eat. The group for the next leg had arrived by this point and had their pre-departure meeting before going for dinner. We met them afterwards for a couple of drinks and it was weird to think that it was only 3 weeks since we'd been in their position...it's amazing how quickly you get to know people when you spend 24/7 with them! It wasn't a crazy last night as quite a few people had early starts the next day, myself included as I was due to fly to Peru at 9.45am. It was good fun though and it was very sad to say goodbye to people, especially those that live on the other side of the world and realistically I might never see again.

So, Part 1 of my adventure is over and now it's onto Part 2 and me travelling Peru solo. First stop is Cuzco and the Inca Trail...one of the things I've most been looking forward to from this trip. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little apprehensive about travelling alone and it would definitely have been easier just to carry on with the group but I guess you sometimes have to put yourself out of your comfort zone so Peru here I come!