Hola Amigos!

So it´s been a while since I wrote. That is mainly because it´s been so full on and i have been having an amazing time, Bolivia rocks my world!

Ok so the last time i wrote we had got to La Paz and stayed there for one night. The next day we got up early to try and avoid any strikes going on in the city and made our way to the airport. Obviously, because we had got up at the crack of dawn to go to the airport, we didn´t encounter any strike action on the way, and therefore were waiting in La Paz airport for hours.

The good thing about this was i got to eat a lot of cheap chocolate and look around the airport, which was interesting as this was the airport Thomas MacFadden got caught at, meaning he got sent to San Pedro prison in La Paz and then wrote the book ´Marching Powder´which i have been reading. ( awesome read btw)

All was ok with the flight until the landing. i was sort of oblivious to what was going on but i knew we were coming in really fast. We landed suddenly and there was a lot of confusions and people panicking. people were holding onto their seats and there were raised voices. It was only when i looked out of the window when we touched down that i saw we were literally 10 metres from the end of the runway, which ended on a cliff. It was incredibly scary, but at least i didn´t realise until that point.

After another near death experience we got our transfer to our hotel in Sucre. When we got there we were told we would have to stay in another hotel as because of all the troubles, all the rooms were booked up. We managed to luck out though, ending up in a lovely hotel with gardens and everything.

We did the usual in the aftrenoon, went to the laundry, looked around the market, had something to eat, and generally got to grips with the place. Sucre is beautiful. Very European looking, and really well set out. All of the buildings indowntown ( where we stayed) are painted white giving it a colonial feel.

After a lovely afternoon, we got a chat from a local tour operator of all the things to do in Sucre. Sucre is famous for chocolate and dinosaurs! I really don´t know too much about the dinosuar thing, but there are alot of dinosuar footprints in Sucre and most of it´s tourism on the outkirts of the city is orientated around this. I feel bad as i haven´t really read up much about it, but there is a simple explanation for you.

After listening to the options, i opted for a dinosaur footprints trip with a 3 hour trek, a visit to the orphanage ( which was more volunteering than a trip) and then horse riding for the day after. I left a couple of days free as the trips get expensive and it´s also nice to just look around and see a place.

After booking our trips we went to a local restaurant which was pretty lively. There was a good mixture of tourists and locals there, which is always better than just a load of gringos! The service was just as slow as the rest of Bolivia, we ordered food and drinks at 8 and got the food at 9.30, one tip, never go to a South American restuarant when you are at the point of starving! We were all up for a night out after our near death experience so stayed in the bar /restaurant until it shut drinking two pound cocktails and very cheap beer. When we got chucked out we sought out a club that i think deserves the title of the s***test but best club in the world.

When we went in, we were met with a god awful smell. When the bar staff saw us they started spraying air freshener everywhere. (at least they are aware i suppose). This didn´t really help. The club was like some old worn out baths, all arches and private booths, but decorated in neon. Classy. We pushed through ordering a bottles of Vodka (Natasha Vodka in case you´re interested - you shouldn´t be) and mixers - proper VIP like!

Anyway, we showed the Bolivans some moves, mainly how to Jop. I have made this a new move across South America that everyone will soon be doing in their local discotechques. Overall, it was a great night for all the wrong reasons.

The next day we all struggled to get up, especially when we remembered we had a trek booked at 9.30 - good planning! most of us managed to pull ourselves together and bundled into the van when the guide arrived at the hotel. We were then taken to the outskirts of Sucre where we began our trek of the area to see the dinosaur footprints. Our guide, jusavio, can only be described as a mad man. He had us free climbing, sliding down narrow dirt tracks and fearing for our lives at 200metres in search of dinosuar footprints. After alot of strenuous and dangerous trekking we arrived at the footprints. I want to be more impressed, but ultimately they were footprints and there wasn´t too much explantation of them. Jusavio was so cute though, arranging toy dinosaurs in the prints to try and illustrate the point to us but we were all a bit apathetic. We were thinking, how can these be real if we are allowed to touch them? Little did we know........!!! After climbing down and getting back to the hotel we told Marcel our tour leader about the trek and he was horrified as well as rolling about laughing. Basically, no one is allowed to go up to the footprints, you have to view them from the ground because they are so delicate and ancient. We were sworn to not tell any of the other tour groups in Sucre about the trip as the tour company would get shut down...

We had lunch and then got picked up by a local lady who was going to take some of us to the orphanage. She took us to the local market first, were we all put in twenty pounds to buy supplies like nappies, cereal. fruit, milk powder etc for the children. It is turely amazing how far money goes in Bolivia. Anyway, we soon arrived at the Orphanage and i was pleasantly surprised at how clean and well run it was. We had been told that this is one of the only orphanages that doesn´t get any funding from the government. This is because they look after children from 0-4 years old. Meaning that most people think that families will keep theit children until this age, as they are probably cheaper than older children to keep. Who knows all the reasons, but as i said, i was surprised at the state of the place. The nuns were really happy to receive the supplies we had brought. They spoke to us about the work they did and introduced us to alot of the children. We all played with them for a bit and it was really nice, as well as sad. The saddest part of the whole day was seeing a four day old baby who had been left on the steps of the orphanage two days earlier. The baby was doing ok, but it just made me think about how desperate the mother must have been.After the orphanage we all went back to the hotel and did the usual, went out for food and dinner.

The next day i went on a horse riding trip with a few of the girls in my group. I have a real taste for it now. We had to wear helmets this time, but instead of nice jockey hats we got attractive cycle helmets - gorgeous! There´s not too much to say about the riding, about fomwe saw some great scenery, had a lovely barbeque in the mountains, spoke a bit of spanish and were allowed to properly gallop this time. It was a really nice day.

We went out again that night, and not learning from our previous night out in Sucre, visted the s*** hole again when everything else closed. We must have had a great time though as we rolled into the hotel just in time for breakfast and the photos are awesome!

The next day was our last full day in Sucre but we wated most of it with sleeping off our hangovers! Some of us visted the chocolate cafe, and it was definately a good call. The choclate was delicious and very, very cheap. All the group then went to a look out spot in the evening to watch the sun go down. It was really beautiful and an amazing end to the time in Sucre. The group we had was so brilliant, i have been so lucky to have been able to meet some really great people and share experiences with them.

Anyway, on the Friday we flew back to La Paz. This time we went with Bolivian airways and it was a lot smoother ride. We even got a Dulce de leche croissant and a drink on the 45 minute flight! However, the customs and searching procedure at Sucre airport made me nervous. The scanner wasn´t working so they couldn´t check our bags, and then rather than looking in them they pointed to a list of things you couldn´t take with you - e.g, knives, lighters, poison etc, and then just asked ´Do you have any of thesé?´ if you said no, you were free to get on the flight. slightly worrying!

We all got to La Paz in one piece though, which was obviously good. Again, because our hotel was booked out, we had to stay in one across the road for the first night. After dumping our bags we strolled around La Paz, taking in it´s craziness once again. All of the other people on the trip were keen to bike down ´death road´. It´s called this as it was once named the most dangerous road in the world. it´s 68km downhill, and very, very narrow. At one point there was a death a week. There are still fatalities, but it´s now only people getting injured and taken to hospital. Despite this, i decided i would save my $80 and let them all book it up. I knew it would be a great experience, but i knew i would get scared and annoy people, so decided the next day would be a day on my own.

after they booked the trip, we all went to the hotel to beautify ourselves as it was one of the guy´s bisthdays. We bought him a Bolivian football shirt and some sex perfume during the day, and presented these to him at our meal in the restaurant. The restaurant was amazing, it was an old museum that had been turned into a bar. I didn´t mind having to wait ages for my food as it was really interesting looking at the walls and around the whole place. After eating we went to a bar that is run by English people. It was awful They were rude and everything brits abroad should not be, The place is called Olivers, if you are in La Paz, don´t go, it´s a disappointment. Apparently their chips and gravy are nice, but i think that is all it has going for it.

So the next day the guys and girls all got up at 6 to do death road. I slept in, had breakfast on my own and then helped Marcel to move all the bags from one hotel to the other. Just call me rocky. This was a bit of a feat seeing as those there are 16 of us and the road is crazy and the lifts didn´t work.

I got a good room out of it, and after a morning of feeling sorry for myself for no real reason, that was an achievement!! Anyway, i then decided to pull myself together and went to lunch at a lovely cafe with Marcel and his friend. It´s was a good idea as they cheered me up and the lunch was amazing. I then left then and went shopping around the millions of stalls in La Paz, i even practised my bartering skills! i looked around some of the plazas and knackered myself out walking out the steep hills and roads of La Paz. I then called the rents (yes you) and then went back to the hotel for a bit of a rest.

When i got there, some people that were in another gap group chatted to me and i ended up going out for a walk with a couple of them. La Paz is a great city to walk around and gives you a work out in the process. It was great to talk to some other people and also finally chat to these people who had been following us since Rio!! After a lovely time at a lookout point and a very nice milkshake we called it a day. I came back to the hotel to gind everyone back from death road. They all survived and were all excited! They were so sweet and even stole me a Í survived death road t shirt, which is no mean feat in a country like Bolivia!! i was genuinely touched! Theyall had a great day too which was awesome to hear about. from what they have said it is definately worth doing and a great achievement.

We all then got showered and ready for another night of celebration. This time there was no excuse to go home early as noone had to get up!! We decided to go to a Thai restaurant which is a favourite with Marcel and the other Gap leaders. The place was packed with backpackers, but it was a really good atmosphere. We all had amazing food, and everyone was in great spirits after surviving! We sang happy birthday to Darren about 20 times, got him cake and copious amounts of coktails, enjoyed happy hour(s) to the enth degree and then went to a club called Mongos, which was packed. too busy, but briliant still. There was actually a mix of music here, not just party stuff or dance music. We all had too much to drink, a dance and a great time. Many of them then went to another club called Blue, but i got a taxi with some others and just continued at the hotel. It was another great night.

I made myself get up the next morning despite having a very sore head as we had decided we would try and go to San Pedro prison. It is currently closed to tourists, no tour groups offer any type of advice or anything, but we were told Sunday was visitors day and to try then, but to expect disappointment.

I am not sure how much you know about San Pedro prison, but it is one of the only facilities of it´s kind. I found out a lot about it by reading ´Marching Powder´, and wanted to visit the prison to see if this was actually true! San Pedro is a prison essentially run by the prisoners. The prisoners have to buy their own prison cell when they get there and basically if they have no money, they will sleep in the corridoor and eventually die. Prisoners have to get jobs in the prison, in one of the shops or restuarnts. Prisoners can have their wives and family stay with them in thier cells, the wives anc children can then leave during the day to go to work or school. It is essentially like a community. It takes seeing to believe.

We arrived outside the prison on sunday not looking like Bolivian family members in the slightest. We were soon approached by a guy asking if we were visiting the person. We said yes and he made a call. We then were ushered to the front of the queue ( i felt bad about this) and then showed the guards our passports. They then asked us for 400 bolivianos each, forty pounds, and we were let inside. We were thensearched and taken to a room. A guard then wrote a number on us. i was number 8. The 8th visitor that day.

We were then taken into a room, split into two groups if three and introduced to our tour guide. Mine was Victor, a guy who had been in for 2 years for theft. He was awaiting trial so had no idea how long he would be in San Pedro. We also had two body guards, also prisoners escorting us round. Some of the prisoners obviously don´t like being a tourist attraction so it is essential.

We were obviosuly not able to take pictures, which is bad as it is so hard to explain. The place is just amazing and ridiculous. It is like a community, but other parts are awful. i was scared most of the time i was there, as the prisoners were approaching us, shoutinf at us, shaking our hands and it was weird! some of these people were murderers etc. The place is run like a mini town, and for the most part it seems to be run well. The only problem being, if you have no money, you have no benefits and will more than likely die. The day we were there was one of the sections birthdays ( the prison is split into 7 sections) and there was an outside band playing, and alcohol all ready to be drunk.

After walking around for an hour and a half, we were taken into a room. We were then told to give the tour leader and bodyguards tips! It was an intimidating situation, but we escaped unscathed. i understand that they have a living to make and need to pay their rent etc, but it was a difficult one. I haven´t done the visit justice here, but honestly, if you can go in, do it. it is one of the highlights of my trip. We were shooed out really quickly, as it is all secret that they let people in, so we couldn´t take pictures outside either, but make sure you visit if you can. even the outside is worth a look.

After our big visit, we met with the rest of the group as we were going to a Cholita wrestling show. I am not going to say too much about this as it was a real disappointment! it had to be seen to be believed. We thought it would be all tradtional and fun, but it was a low budget WWF, complete with spit, midgets and really disgusting surroundings. it was also not two cholitas fighting, but a man and a cholita, which made it look like it promoted domestic violence and i wasn´t a fan. an experience in the least. We didn´t get back to the hotel until about 8.30, but had food at a local resturant and then i met with the people i had met the day before. The hotel was awash with Gap groups, with 5 groups starting and finishing tours, so it was really lively and fun.

After another night of about 2 hours sleep, i got up for my last full day in awesome La Paz. a few of us went on a city tour to see some other touristy place like the Valley of the moon, the stadium and the oldest street in La Paz. We then went to see the congress building, along with the the theatre and other imposing buildings. It was great to see the contrast between these buildings and areas and downtown La Paz were we were staying. It really is an amazing city that divides opinion i think.

We then had another walk around, lunch, shopping and then back to the hotel to say bye to some of the group. It was really sad, as this group has been brilliant and we have got really close. We then got glammed up for our last night together. We went to an amazing French restaurant where the food was great and so was the service. We then had too many drinks at the thai restuarnt and club we went to a few nights previous, It was a fun but sad night. i had trouble saying bye to Marcel. weird how you get attached to tour leaders after nearly 40 days together. He was like my chilean dad!

After being forced out of the club we went back to the hotel, packed(!) and got 2 hours sleep before our transfer to Copacobana and Puno the next day. As i have obviously made clear, i loved my time in Bolivia and am hoping that Peru will be just as good.I am just back from a homestay, where i dressed like a cholita, stayed with a peruvian family and danced with their community. To do it justice i will write it all in the next blog. I might be a bit quiet in the next few days to week as we are off to Cuzco tomorrow (sin city apparently- hmmm we´ll see) and then i embark on the Inca trail. I am so scared it hurts, but Machu Pichu will be worth it in the end!!

Ta ra for now, as ever, i hope you are all well. Email me if you get the chance. and send money, lots of it, as i have the bug now and i think i might stay! x