Day 33 4/11/09 That morning we headed for La Paz on a very local bus. Ahead of us we had Bolivia's equivalent of a Chav family. The trip involved a child pissing out of a window which landed on Ian's arm and also the occasional tossing out of soled nappies. To be honest I was quite glad that I still was not eating properly and thus managed to sleep through the vast majority of the trip! La Paz itself is enormous sprawling out amongst the mountains. We arriv...

Day 28 30/10/09 I got up early as I needed to head across town to get stamps. I actually really enjoyed this as it was the first time that I was able to explore on my own and interact using my own Spanish. It helped that the lady on the desk was really nice and spoke slowly to help me understand. On the way back I ran in to Chris and Dave and we took a wander around the town. Our first stop was an enormous market seemingly specialising in clothes. After thi...

Day 26 28/10/09 Chris and I went to find some food before our trip to Potosi. We found a good looking Burger restaurant and were promised food in 15 minutes. 45 minutes late it arrived, not bad for Bolivia! The burger was huge with every feasible combination on it. I managed to eat about half before my stomach felt like it was ready to explode, not aided by the fact I had to wolf it down. Chris managed to wrap his up in a napkin and we rushed to the bus only...

We awoke early on Kate's birthaday to head straight to the border with Bolivia. By the time we had arrived the temperature had already plumeted as we had climbed into altitude. Therfore before we had boarded the bus my t-shirt and shorts had transformed into full winter clothing. Our first stop was at one of the many salt lagoons. IT was inhabited by countless flamingoes. They were not the floresent pink ones that Attenborough hangs around with but a paler p...

Day 21 We arrived at around midday in San Pedro de Atacama. It is a tiny town right on the border fo the desert. As a group we found a tour operator with far batter deals than the one GAP recommende especially as the owner not only spoke perfect english but was willing to give us discounts considering we were such a large group. That afternoon we began our excursion to the Valley of the Moon. The view were breath taking! We went through numerous valleys of c...