Greetings from Bolivia, Now Let me start at the beginning!

Last night we decided to go to our favourite restaurant for our last meal in Cusco. What a disaster, it turned out that the kitchen was very behind with the food and almost every table was full of bloody American idiots! We needed to leave the tabe by 9pm to get back to the hotel - our food was served at 8:50pm, and that was only after I explained we were catching a bus to Bolivia!

We ate and got our stuff from the hostal (which also seemed to take forever) and a tai dropped us off at the bus terminal. Why are bus stations always in the dodgy part of town?? After alot of running aeround we boarded the bus. For a Bolivian bus it was good, very spacious and seemed to be in working order! We started to slowly go through Cusco and out the otherside and everyone was then geting sleepy. They turned the lights out and thats when we seemed to run out of bloody road!

I swear that I spent all night on that bus and the driver purposely found a dirt track to take us up, other than that his main hobby must be potholing! We went along gravel tacks, half built roads - anything but nice tarmac road. Im sure they were craters in the road and not pot holes! Everytime I nodded off I would either get a crick in my neck or the driver would try to break my neck with his manovering! He was probably watching me in his mirror and I was his entertainment for the journey!

We done quite well for time and a man came through the bus around 8am to tell us that we should be arriving in 5 minutes. We arrived and got our bags - we were in the middle of nowhere! There were quite a few locals looking at us and grinning and a few "taxis" if thats what you could call them. We asked about a tai and a man loaed up our bags only for usto be told by the person from the bus that we had put our bags in the wrong place. How Frustrating!

There must have been about 12 of us altogether (everyone else was in a group and they were all ozzies) cramped inot this tiny little mini bus. We appoached the border and were told that we needed to fill ot a form and to have our passports ready. The man from the bus helped us as if he didnt we would have been suckered into giving the police bribes. We left Peru and entered Bolivia (it seemed the same at the time) and everthng was fine and dandy. We got into another mini-bus (a bolivian one) and this one was old and awful. I thought the bloody wheels were going to come off. We screeched down the road at around 10 miles an hour. I couldnt help but laugh my head off. We struggled up hill in first gear and after about 15 minutes we arrived in Copacobana.

First imprssions of this place are diffeent from anyhere else we have been so far. These people are poor - reraly poor. You can see it from the way they look at you, the way they dress and the state that this place is in. Imagine Costa Del Sol run into the ground very badly with everything dirty, dust and just awful. (Just in case you dont know Copacabana is on the shores of the worlds highest lake, lake Titicaca in Bolivia)

We found our hostal and were give our room. There is only one word to describe it "SKANKY" . Kerry's face was a picture! The beds had pink satinf thros over them and they have tears in, the floor is dirty, the shower has wires hanging from the shower head, we have a TV however it only has one channel! And we also found out (after use) that the toilet does not flush and is disgusting! Kerry refused to sit on her bed!!!! We have agreed tomorrow that we are moving into a hostal just up the road which is slightly better and about a dollar cheaper. I didnt really care if we stayed or not - I have a feeling Bolivia is going to be like this all the way through!

We had a drink by the riverside (it looks like th sea) and then decied to hire a Pedalo. We went right around the bay in a Pedalo in the shape of a swan. We hired it for an hour and after 30 minutes the young lad said or time was up - cheeky b*****!

We have changed our plans completely now. We are staying here for 2 nights and then on thursday we will catch a bus to La Paz, Bolivias Capital. La Paz souds like a s**thole and no doubt it will be. We'll spend 2 days there and then on saturday we will catch anoter bus from La Paz to Santa Cruz (18 hours). Santa Cruz has a brilliant write up and it is where we need to be in order to get to Brazil. It also appeals to me because its only 420 metres above sea level! Yipeeee!!!!! No more gasping for breath or feeling like my eyes are gong to pop out of their sockets! We were meant to be going to the salt flats in Uyrani however this means a bus trip there longer than 20 hours and a bus trip to santa Cruz which will take over 30 hours. Not good! We do need to catch a plane to Brazil from Santa Cruz and this is proving rather tricky. The airlines websites are under construction and we went into a travel agents but then they decided they did not accept Visa card! (Lying b*****s!)

Anyway, I think this updates you with whats happening here.......