I hate the fact that you have to select a photo for this blog! There wasnt even an option for Bolivia so just ignore that crap photo!

Anyway Hello, this entry maybe slightly long but I have had a very active time in Bolivia! Fantastic experiences! I have wrote it so quick that once again it will have loads of mistakes but i cannot be bothered as ive got a pool to go to!

I left Peru on a 6 hr bus from Arequipa to Puno, once at puno i was going to catch a bus to Copacabana in Bolivia. Just as i was getting off a man said quick come with me bus leaves in 5 mins to copa , otherwise would have to wait hours. I had to run around with backpack getting tickets and paying tax, didnt have time to get water or food or toilet all of which i really needed. So I was on the second 3hr bus to Bolivia when I read in the lonely planet that copa had no atms!!! I only had about a fiver in peruvian soles! I was meant to stay here two days with a trip to Island de Sol then pay for a bus to La Paz! I was panicking alot! But got the money changed at the border, a strange border we all had to get off the bus, get a Peruvian stamp then walk across the border and get a Bolivian one and then get back on the bus that met us at the other side.

I got to copa and manged to find a cheap very chaep hotel for 10 bolivianos! Which is about 60p! Bear in mind a coffee in copa has just cost me 7 bolivinos!!! So was stuck there for a night with no money for food or drink, just a little snack! I sorted out a bus to La Paz the next day for only 25 Bolivianos! I somehow managed to make my money last. But had to change all my plans but never mind, not as good as I thought it would be anyway. My hotel was ok but very cold, had to sleep in my longjohns, pajamas, vest top, base layer jumper and fleece with hood up , four blankets and two sheets!

Got up the next morning had a wander round, wished I could have gone to the island but never mind. Got on a smallish bus to La Paz, all the bags on the roof...in the rain, kinda of covered up though. Got talking to the guy next to me, Justin from Oz, tried to sleep tho as my stomach was abit iffy... lack of food probably!

 Got off the bus and Justin came to the same hostel as me as he didnt have a booking. Loki, like Cusco but newly opened in La Paz, really nice and grand but still slightly a building sight! Alot of people with hangovers still from their opening St Patricks night! My room was lovely three beds, new beds with duvets!!! Really nice. Met up with two cousins from NZ Libby and Ryan and then the four of us went to book ´the death road´which i had not told many of you worriers about! Its officially the worlds most dangerous road. From a high altitude of 4800 mtrs above sea level down to 1500 I think. Its 65 Km long with drops of 600 mtrs sheer cliff face! You do it on a mountain bike! Anyway we booked that with Down Hill madness a very good company, bikes are fantastic, great suspension and helmet trousers and jacket, all food included, english guide free t-shirt and DVD video and pics of the day! So we booked that for a couple of days time, then we went out and had pizza.

We all met for breakfast the next day and went for a wander around La Paz and i discovered how much i loved it! Saw San Pedro prison, from the fantastic book (thankyou Dannii) which i have just finished reading,Marching Powder, then went around the markets and went to the Coca museum which was really interesting.Me and Justin who ae going in the same direction booked our bus to Posotsi whch wasnt easy as there are strikes around La Paz stopping buses getting to other cities but fingers crossed we will be able to get out of La Paz one day!

Got up for one of the best days of my life... the death road! We all got kitted out then an hour bus ride to the top of the mountain to start. had a really scary safty talk, our giude was a nice bristish guy. The first bit of the ride was cool, wide tarmac road, cool i thougth how easy is this, then we stopped and got pinted out where a young canadian guy had gone off the side and died 12 days before. slightly more scared. Carried on for an hour maybe through police checks and the up hill bits started... not scary just very hard! At this altitude, 4800 its hard to walk fast let alone go up a mountain on your bike, and i have to adnit that for the last bit when i saw someone getting on the bus for the last hill, i joined her!
Then after a short rest the real death road started, thin gravel road no barriers, 600 meter drop! And this was for 4 hours! Very scary but so so so cool at the same time! Absolutly loved it! We had two mini buses following us and three guides with us all, kept stopping for snacks and for them to pint out where an isreali guy died last week, an american woman etc, nice. We had to go under waterfalls, through rivers all on the bike! It was absolutly fantastic! And some of the best scernery i have ever seen...wait for the pics! there are trucks that use the road too and up until 7 weeks ago it was very busy with hardly anyroom for one car let alone two! So it was worse then on average 100 people a year die on it (maily from bus crashes) but now a new road opened which leaves it mainly for the bikes so less deaths! Phil did this when there were loads of traffic and i can only imagine how much scarier it was! It was bad enough with the occastional traffic!

Anyhow 5 hours later we were at the bottom, sore bums, hot and ready for the pool which was at a hotel we were taken to along with a big fat meal! It tuns out alot of the deaths are from people been stupid, the canadian did it in the dark without a guide, the isrealis were messing around, but some people do just fall off from mis judging corners! I loved it! And didnt tell most of you about it incase you worried! i could go on tçfor days about this. the worse part was actually on the way home in the mini bus goug back up the roads, fog so bad couldnt see 1 mtre in fromt! I ws terified! I tipped the driver when two hours later we arrived saflty in La Paz.

That night the four of us along with two other ozzie girls went out to celebrate, saw our guide out too... who is a whole story on his own...will tell you face to face, acted like the best of british cool, bigged himself up but turned out he was from Norwich! Which i took the mick out of him for! Nice enough guy though.

Next day after picking up the DVD and tshirt... well deserved, coz it was hard, me and libbie went around the markets ate more of the best ice cream ever (better than Bariloche Emma L) and then me and justin caught our night bus to Potosi.

Arrived there early morning after an ok bus ride, straight to hotel/hostel and had a nice hot shower (hit and miss in Bolivia) had some breakfast and went to book a mines tour (second most dangerous thing i have ever done), mangaed to get on one for the afternoon so i went and had a look around the town, it used to be the biggest in the world in the 1700´s but it seems small to me, beautiful though.It is one of the higest cities in the worls but notheçing has felt as bad as cusco for me yet, altitude wise. I really do love bolivia and feel very safe here, not scary at all... well maybe the transport but the people are lovley and all the places so far have been , as the south americans say ´´tranquillo´.

Now the mines tour, these are working mines, there are hundreds of them around used to be silver but the spanish nicked off with most of that so now mainly just copper etc,we drove up there, after alot of waiting around and times changing in what was probably the worlds most dangerous bus!!! Once there me and justin were the only english speakers which worked out well as we got our own personnal guide, he was about my age and used to work in the mines. The mines arnt owned by anyone a corporation rents the mountain form the goverment and its run by the miners, they earn by what products they get out and manage to sell, there are hundreds of mines and in each one is 300 miners who work in either familes or groups of mates (boys start as young as 14). Each group has to supply everything they need and and each work in an area of the mines. before we got there we had to stop in the shop and buy them presents of either pop, ciggarettes, very strong bolivian alcohol or dynamite! So when you first get there they set off the dynamite to show you how it works which was scary!

We entered the mine down a fairly airy corridor, i thought or this isnt too bad but it gets worse much worse! The tunnels get smaller and air less (remember on top of all this its the highest city in the world so the air aint good to start with!) After about ten mins we had to stand to the side, pretty quickly to let the carts pass, pulled and pushed by miners and full of stone! Then a cart got stuck and i thought we would have to go back out but oh no we had the climb over it, without touching the cables as they would give us an electric shock and seriously between the top of the cart and the top of the tunnel was about one and a half foot! Thank god i had a hard hat on the amount of times i banged my head!

The tunnels got smaller and smaller, first we were standing and then crouching, then crawling, then sliding on our stomachs! There are no safety procautions at all, only one way out and there are five levels! It took us two hours to get to level 3 so you can imagine what it is like! I had a face mask thing on and it was black almost instantly! The miners normally get bad chests and usually die and it can be within 10 years! I had to climb up shafts, free style and slide down shoots! It was pitch black (apart from our head torches) and very very dusty. Could never stand up straight, and couldnt touch the sides coz of electric shocks! We kept meeting miners working which was cool, very manual, no machines! i kept hearing dynamite go off in other tunnels close by which was nerve racking!

 After two hours i had had enough to be honest and wanted to go out but the guide wouldnt really let me as he wanted to see more of his friends! I was freaking out slightly... alot! We all sat in this little cave about 10 of us all squashed in, i couldnt barely breath by now but we had to give the miners their presents! So we all sat drinking this alcohol out of cut up plastic bottles, very strong and you have to have two as they are superstitious and before you drink it you have to pour in on the floor and say pacha mama (motherearth) El something or other (the devil) they worship him down there even though on the outside they are catholic because they believe they are in his territory underground, and then pour it for someother god (seems a waste to me) then you can drink it! We sat here for about an hour, them getting more drunk! They start work at 7am and finish at 7 and cannot eat during that time as it affects there stomachs! But it seems for the last two hours they get drunk! They say its only on a tuesday or friday but Im not so sure! After that to my relief we made our way, all up hill, climbing shaftand manmade ladders to daylight! i have to say that i was relieved, i enjoyed it but 3 hours was too long! Glad i did but wouldnt ever again!

That night me justin and another guy called Sam watched Little Miss Sunshine on DVD in the hotel which was nice just to sit infront of a TV and do nothing for a change, the film was fantastic too! been wanting to see it for ages! then the next day me and Justin left for Uyuni and a 6 hr bus ride, it was hot, very stuffy, crammed with people, baskets and produce to the brim, thankfully we had seats! Was one of my worst journeys yet! Seemed to take weeks! love Bolivia but hate the transport!

Got to Uyuni and checked into a hotel and went out for one of the best meals yet, yummy pizza and salad! Spoiled slightly by a power cut to the whole town (again Helen) which lasted for hours but the food luckily was cooked by gas! Booked on a 3 day salt flat tour which would take us to the Chilean border for the next day. Was nervous as there are so many companies and most of them are rubbish, crap food, hotels, guides and drivers but we found what seemed like a good one with an English speaking guide which was hard to do also.

Got to the tour 6 of us in a 4 by 4 plus Juan the guide and Donaldo the driver.Two young french girls and a german man about 67 and his Bolivian wife who has lived in Germany for 30 odd years. i will speed through this section.. first day through salt flats, amazing they are as big as northern Ireland! It used to be an in land sea but now dried up and left the salt! Just looks like the artic or something but very very hot! There are even a couple of islands made out of coral and covered in cacti! Wait for the pics! Had lunch which is all done for us camping style, nice enough, the others had LLama meat... i had salad! Called at the salt hotel (couldnt find your message Lesey) and to a lagoon then arrived at our very very basic hotel had dinner, this is possibly the most remote place i have ever been! The showers... which were the only hot ones of this trip looked like they would make you more dirty! The electric only was on from 7-9 at night! beds were ok though.

Day two looked at more lagoons and beautiful landscape, saw loads of pink flamingos! And some dessert foxes which were waiting to get our leftovers... they wernt shy! The Lagoons here make me laugh, they are not very imaginitive with the names Smelly lagoon (it smells) Green Lagoon is green and deep lagoon is... yes you´ve guessed it Deep!
The hotel this time was more basic and the bes were concrete with a very thin matress and no pillow, nice food though and some vino tinto!

Next morning was getting up at half 4 which was bad enough (like g´s on a winters morning) but juan the idiot got the time wrong and woke us at half 3!!! most people were dressed before they realised, i luckily was snoozing! There was no electric and was the coldest ever! Think it was 5000 mtrs above sea level! And i have to relectantly admit that i did indeed need a HEADTORCH!!! I had to borrow one in the end! hee hee. We went to see some geysers and thermal pool but it was freezing and there was no way i was getting in! I had a snooze in the jeep and waited for breakfast, only the french girls got in! But they made sure they made it back for breakfast, i am absolutly amazed how much these girls eat! They have at least 3 servings of everything! And you know I love food and eat alot but bloody hell, every meal was like it was their first in weeks they had food dripping out of there mouths, chomping away! They were nice though... just noisy eaters! then atfer some more stunning scernery we got dropped off at the Border to get back into Chile.

Will miss Bolivia, really loved and didnt find it scary at all, the opposite infact! Can someone tell Andy Townsend that I got out alive as he thought I was def gonna get kidnapped! Im actually back in mendoza now in Arg... long story but for another time... off to sit by the pool now! Ha Ha! Chao.

Take care Love Emma.xxx.