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Landing back in La Paz from the Jungle was a bit of a shock. (Climbing from 200 metres to over 4,000 metres in 40 minutes.) But luckily we weren't staying long as we were on our way to the small mountain town of Coroico. So after stocking up on cash we caught a taxi across town and then jumped on a 3 hour bus to take us up over the mountains and down the other side to Coroico (at 1,700 metres). The clouds covered most of the views but we still got to see some impressive peaks and valleys and even some llamas for Katy. We also passed the 'Most Dangerous Road in the World' which was the old road to Coroico. Apparently, before the new route was opened, a vehicle every 2 weeks would disappear over the edge.
After safely arriving we found our hostel, a beautiful little place, outside of town just to be told that they hadn't received our booking and they were fully booked. After seeing our faces they found us a room for the night with a rock hard bed and told us that we could move into a cabin the next day. Villa Bonita was run by a Bolivian/Swiss family and their 3 young kids helped out around the place. They also had a kitten called Tommy who liked to climb trees but would always get stuck. Once we found the hammocks we stayed there until it started getting cold and then found the Dutch run pub in town for the evening.
The next day we needed to use the internet; as we hadn't had access for the past week - so that was how we spent our morning. We then ate a yummy lunch at our hostel's cafe, moved rooms and then went out for a walk in the hills. We climbed the hill behind the town which gave us beautiful views of the valleys on all three sides. After just gazing for a long time we headed back into town for dinner at the pub.
Our last day in Coroico was more eventful but in good and bad ways. The day started off well with a walk to three waterfalls out of town. The first leg of the walk was beautiful up in the hills but after the first waterfall the path was blocked by a gate so we had to find our way down to the road to continue. The road was really dusty but the third waterfall made it worth the effort. After a while we caught a minibus back into town and went to check our emails. The previous day we had contacted an agent in La Paz to book us our night bus to Sucre for Christmas - we had wanted to book them sooner but had been told that wasn't possible. But we got an email telling us it was fully booked. After a bit of worrying and debate we finally got the agent to book us a ticket to Potosí where we could change for Sucre - crisis averted, all good but then I (Simon) started getting ill. I found it very difficult to eat my burrito dinner and at night I had a really high fever. I had horrible nightmares and needed to wake Katy up so she could reassure me that the night wasn't infinitely long and that the walls weren't falling in - in a word, weird. I don't know what could have caused it but I guess it could have been a coca leaf that I tried on the walk as we later saw people spraying them with insecticide. It wasn't even nice and I spat it out after only a few seconds. Chewing coca leaves is a tradition in Bolivia - you need lots of chemicals to turn it into cocaine. Luckily in the morning I felt a lot better.
After breakfast it was time to leave for our long trip to Sucre. Unfortunately we waited around in the town's main square for ages in the rain for a bus. One minivan turned up but the crowd was so big we had no chance of getting on and then we were told that there weren't any more tickets for sale. Luckily another backpacking couple were also stuck so we shared a taxi with them back to La Paz at 5 times the rate of the bus but at only £10 each. We left our bags in La Paz's bus station's left luggage and went out camera shopping. My camera was becoming very temperamental and we couldn't be sure we could buy one after La Paz for a very long time. After lots of shopping round and haggling we got the latest version of my original camera at a very good price and then spent the rest of the day waiting for our night bus in a cafe and a pub. The pub was an English pub and had fantastic Shepherds pie that I would have been pleased with back home. I really wanted to try the beer but thought I shouldn't as I still felt a bit dodgy and was going to spend the night on a bus. After that we headed to the crowded bus station and eventually our very basic and freezing cold bus left for the 9+ hour bus journey to Potosí. We had to wear both of our jumpers and hats to keep warm but we finally made it at 7 in the morning and then took a final 3 hour bus to Sucre for Christmas the next day. Let the Holidays begin.
Simon
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