Hotel Lp Santa Cruz

... a plane from La Paz to Rurrenabaque, and supplies for the journey - including Coca leaves as we will briefly be in the altitude before ehading back down to Rurrenabaque. The best cost and time effective way to go to Rurrenabque was to go through La Paz. In Rurrenabaque plan on visiting the Pampa for a couple of days, Piranha fishing, anaconda hunting and caiman feeding on the plan (along with feeding the mosquitoes but we will try not ...

... understood why.

The bus ticket cost 75 Bs (approx 10 usd) but we met other travellers who had paid 70 and 80, although we had to pay an extra 10 Bs each for the bikes. The price included a taxi from Coroico down to yolosi junction, where the bus was to pick us up, except the driver tried to extract 5 Bs each from 3 of us. The bus was a bit of a bone rattler and not that comfortable, but it would do. There were 3 other westerners, lillie an English ...

... into the backseat in the most uncomfortable hour car ride of my life. Finally reaching la paz 10 at night with a dead leg in a thunder storm i make it back to the Loki hostel. Taking a nice hot shower I pass out for the next 12 hours. One of the greatest days of my life.

The next day I meet up with Darius, a friend i met in cusco. I walk to his hostel which is next to mine and almost identical in statue. There i also meet 2 ...

... Shopping here is quite a different experience from anything at home and I love it! Though Iīm being careful and not spending too much. I know some things here that are way cheaper than at home and so Iīm trying to get those types of things. One great example is manicures! I think Iīll be going with my host sister this afternoon for manicures, because here it should only be about $5 which is much ...

... Brazil were booked, we took a bus. We weren't even going to take the "death train". The bus seemed like our best bet, but that turned into an entire different expectation. There is one thing to understand about Bolivia. Most of their roads are unpaved (but Evo Morales hopes to pave them soon), and so what seems not that far away can take much longer. The road from Santa Marta to the border was terrible ...

... sort of butterfly exhibit!!!!!! How desparate do you need to be for something to do?). Went to the train station to book my train ticket for tomorrow evening. Didnīt seem to have much luck so asked the information people who only spoke spanish. Some guy approached me saying he could sort me out a ticket. Lead me to some back office where he said he could only sell me a bus ticket. Told him no ...

... through. So at first they didn't really know what to do with us. So they stuck us over behind the counter while they called in another immigration official (he was probably sleeping somewhere in airport) and finished up the line of Brasilians and Bolivians that were on our plane. Now once the official got over to us, things progressed quickly. We had our paperwork, vaccine record, onward ticket (for later in the morning ...

... Bolivianos left and don't want to take out more so am focussing on doing nothing until I can fly to Buenos Aires tomorrow! Spent this afternoon hanging out in the main square, reading and enviously watching some local guys play chess at specially constructed tables with built-in chessboards. I wished I had someone to play with but didn't have the nerve to challenge any of the locals to a game!

Santa Cruz was only meant to be a night stop over, from where we would catch our night train into Brazil. However due to the current violent protests in Bolivia there were train blockades meaning we had to stay an extra night and then at our own expense catch a flight to the Bolivia/Brazil border. We didn't really do much in Santa Cruz as ...

... a porter for the day to carry our packs as even the guide said he was going to find it tough and he's been doing it for 3 years! Anyway, it was very reminiscent of Mt Kinabalu as you are greeted with relentless steps, slopes and barely any flats at all during the 10-12K days trek. We also hit the highest point during this day. 4,200m above sea level. We all stopped here for a while and enjoyed a few minutes of rest before we continued on our way ...