Arrived in La Pax Tuesday morning and made it to the hostal after 25 hours of travelling. The hostal is called the Adventure Brew Hostal and is the highest microbrewey in the world at 3,600 metres above sea level. I'm sure this explaines why I chose it over some of the others and it has proven to be an excellent decision as Ihave met some geat people here and the beer is retty good too. We also get a free beer for every night stayed.

I don't think you really ever get used to living so high up, the air is very thin and climbing the stairs to my room the first day with bags meant by the time I reached my bed and dropped my stuff I was panting like a 20 stone fat man in a hurry so say down and took a break!

So, so far I have visited the tiwanaku ruins, an archeoligical site founded 3 million years ago and is believed to be the cradleof the andean civilisation and fundamental inspiration for the Inca Empire where i got v suburned, got caught in the rain in La Paz city, we're in raiy season so it's pretty common, been hailed on twice with sizebale stones and found myself in a fast moving snow storm stuck on a mountain. Everyone looked at me enviously as I pulled out my water proofs having thought I was a little over zealous with such extreme clothing as we left sunny La Paz! That day 5 of us from the group made it to 5,000 metres, a long and ehausting hike up hill as the bus got trapped in snow at 4,300. There's not much air to breathe at that height and although I felt fine at the time and could have gone higher, I paid the price later with a stonking head ache.

Yesterday was a real experience as we went down to San Pedro prison in La Paz city where you can join an unofficial tour and meet the prisoners. An excellent example of how Bolivia is rife with bribery and corruption and for the expensive cost of 250 Bolivianos, about 25 pounds, you can walk in there, be branded with an entry number so they know to let you out again and walk round with a guide, 2 body guards who are also prisoners and the most feared murderers as they are the best for protecting you apparently! I have to say it took me out of my comfort zone at times, however it is very safe as it acts as a fantastic money earner for both the local police and the prison mafiosa who gain massively through the tourist visits. Thera er 1500 people in a relatively small space and within the eclosure they have 7 different sites, a football yard, snooker and table football room, a kitchen, sauna room, although we didn't see these and i don't imagine they are similar to those in virgin active, as well as children running round everywhere. When a man is sentenced to jail, he has the option of paying 1 pound for his family to come and live with him as he serves his time. The kids go to school in the outside worls and the women are aldso free to come and go as they please, offering rife opportunities for smuggling all kinds of illegal things. Rapists and peodophiles may spend one night in jail if they are lucky as will be murdered by another prisoner almost immediately. For murder you get 30 years. Once you are serving that sentence you can commit as many murders in jail as you like because the sentence can never be more than 30 years, hence why our boy guards would protect us however required!

Our guide was certainly interesting and I shall hazard a guess that he may have a small drug problem looking at his body language and speech for none of it was quite normal! Considering they have a cocaine factory inside the jail it is hardly surprising but that really isn't the darkest thing about the jail and in the end I was definitely quite glad to leave.

All in all an activity packed 5 days, loads of new friends and off tomorrow to Lake Titicaca, looking forward to it and will keep you infrmed. Sorry for lack of photos but it takes so long to upload I may have left La Paz by the time they are attached at this rate!