Unfortunately our bus from Potosi was running on time (almost unheard of in Bolivia) and so we arrived in La Paz at about 5 in the morning, tired and confused. Luckily we had booked into a little guesthouse who had a room ready for us and were happy to let all four of us crash on a double bed until the other room was ready!

After a few hours much needed sleep we set off to explore the city, easier than it sounds when all the streets are incredibly steep and you are at altitude so get out of breath almost instantly. But we absolutely loved La Paz. A large part of the centre of town is one huge market with almost anything you can think of to buy, including the Witches´ Market where indigenous women sell all kinds of herbs and potions, including dried llama foetuses for good luck. We also couldn´t pass up the opportunity for a good old fashioned English style curry in what claims to be the highest curry house in the world!

On the next day we waved Si off to climb a 6100m mountain outside La Paz and set off on a much less difficult day trip to Tiwanaku, the site of a huge pre-Inca civilisation. Unfortauntely the Spanish destroyed most of the ruins but some of the sites are still there and more excavations are taking place. They have also reconstructed some of the temples so you can get an idea of what they must have originally looked like. The lack of actual ruins made it a slightly disappointing trip but we had an incredibly knowledgeble guide who, most importantly, taught us why a llama is called a llama - it´s all the fault of the Spanish yet again.... We ended the day meeting up with Liz and Lauren for another world´s highest, this time the world´s highest fondu.

The next day we set off to Sorata, a beatiful little town three hours outside of La Paz. The first challenge was to squeeze ourselves onto a tiny minibus full of locals and then try not to panic as we wound our way down a fairly treacherous road into the valley. Apart from the few bits where I had to close my eyes, it was a beautiful trip and Sorata is a lovely town. We were staying in an eco lodge about ten minutes walk from the centre. Unfortunately this was down a tiny winding track and we walked straight past it thinking it couldn´t possibly be the way and ended up having to hike back up the valley with all our bags and surrounded by sandflies. Once we got there it was well worth it though as we were shown to our lovely room next to the river, with our only neighbours being the hostel´s cows and llamas. There was very little to do but eat great food and chill out in a hammock for the rest of the day to prepare for the walk we had planned the next day.

Despite being given a map and clear instructions, we managed to miss the path that we had planned to take to the small village at the top of the hill, so instead took the very scenic dirt road the hugged the side of the mountain with sheer drops to the valley below. Unfortunately we had only given ourselves 2 nights in Sorata and had to head back to La Paz to meet Si and Jim to get a flight to Rurrenbaque for our trip to the Aamazon. The journey back was even more exciting / terrifying as at one point the driver stopped next to a sheer drop and everyone on the bus rushed to the windows to look down - the only thing we could think was someone had gone over the edge the previous day.

Thankfully we arrived back in La Paz safe and ready for our next adventure....