Eldorado Hotel La Paz

... to capture us all as we came past him but as we followed down a few minutes later we arrives at a scene of carnage as Javier had somehow hit an oncoming car head on. Luckily he got up with just a few cuts and bruises but the front of the car had quite a dent, yet his bike seemd okay, go figure. After that reality check we carried on down the mountain and to my surprise I had been firmly at the front of the pack, not that it was a race, but it was really fun trying to test my ...

... to alpacas and alfalfa (aids the men's virililty apparently - Bolivian Viagra!), ‘Chollas’ clothes to cereals and grain by the sack. Near the centre entire pavements are taken over by street sellers and you have no choice but to walk in the road.

What was most fascinating was the amazing ‘Mercado de Hechiceria’ – the Witches Market that sells charms, herbs and more gruesome items such as llama foetuses. The small area is ...

... with weird blue lights) and tried to think of exciting things to do to keep us amused all night... we weren´t very imaginative... we read, dozed, watched the crazy cleaning man whizz about on his floor cleaner and went for another play on the travelators! Checked in ourselves as KLM are too lazy to do it themselves and waved goodbye to our rucksacks until la paz! The short journey to Amsterdam was quickly over after having declined the goats cheese, walnut and ...

... was surreal. Arriving in the heart of the city was pure chaos. So often in developing countries there is a method to the madness of cars, motorcycles, scooters going in all directions without stoplights; La Paz has the madness but hasn’t discovered the method just yet.

The roundabout we had to pass simply did not move for 15 minutes and our driver confirmed that it was 'normal todo el tiempo’. The benefit of moving so slowly was the opportunity to ...

... out another group of people first, but it was great when we finally paid and had it all sorted. We went for lunch at the same place as yesterday, thinking that service would be as **** as before, but were pleasantly surprised when a far more attentive waitress served us, and also brought the bill within about twenty seconds of us asking – a miracle.

After we`d eaten we browsed some more tat some tat. I bought a hat. Fancy that. Too much rhyming there. I`m not really ...

... Iron man competition. That evening we wandered up and down the witches market and braved some local cuisine from the street sellers before heading back to pack as we had an early start the next morning. We got in bed and turned our phones on to set alarms (for the first time in weeks) and within minutes Lee received a drunken phone call from Mr Larter and Chatterton - he was really pleased to hear from them despite their incoherent state!

... niti iza mene nije bilo nikoga pa sam razmisljala o tome kako nitko ne bi ni znao da sam sletila sa ceste u slucaju da se to dogodi :D

Na kraju puta morali smo proci kroz potok tako da smo tamo oprali patike sto je bilo jako dobro jer smo bili prljavi od blata DOSLOVCE od glave do pete! Bicikli naravno nemaju blatobrane tako da su nam guzice, leda i glave bile pune blata, a unatoc kacigi, blato nam je spricalo s prijeda i ...

... immigration card. You then had to barge your way through the cambios, street sellers and masses to join the other queue where your passport got stamped by anbother guy. It took nearly three hours. Then you had to barge your way accross the world´s most crowded bridge where i got my foot run over by a few cycle trucks to go do the same thing at the bolivian siode. It was chao ...

Um 3:45 sind wir mit Stirnlampen in 3er-Seilschaften aufgebrochen. Ein eisiger Wind blies uns ins Gesicht. Kurz nach Sonnenaufgang kommen wir auf die windabgewandte Seite, wo es wesentlich angenehmer wird. Wird steigen langsam aber stetig nach oben.

huayna potosi, La Paz, Bolivia muh30

... outside as if it was a naughty dog!
On our travels we also visited a place called Bariloche. This is a place in Argentina renowned for chocolate. It was also the place where Swampy (my truck) and Bernie (the other Tucan truck) stayed at the same hostel/camp ground. Needless to say we all got pretty drunk (we played a drinking game called 'Ring of Fire' which helped) and the next day the owners threatened to never let Tucan stay there again... Ooops! we thought we were being quiet.. but ...