Hi All

Again apologies for the delay. I became a bit lazy with the blog writing but I am back on it now!!

This one is going to talk about everything that has happened since we arrived in La Paz on a very bumpy and uncomfortable 12 hour bus journey from Uyuni!!

We decided to go to La Paz for a couple of days before trying to make our way to Sajama National Park as we were both cold and tired from the 4 day salt flat excursion and Sajama was going to be equally cold!

We arrived at our hotel at about 7.30am. It was right by plaza San Francisco which turned out to be slap bang on the middle of the tour agencies and tourist shops so ideal. It was also a little too warm so we could feel our toes once again. We spent three nights at this hotel and took our time to explore La Paz. We took the cable car up to the Alto Plato to see the amazing views of the city, which is in a dip surrounded by mountains. We went shopping for hats, gloves, scarves, jumpers and anything we could find that might keep us warmer in Sajama than we had been on the tour! We ate ice cream in Plaza San Pedro, we walked a walkway with views over the centre and we also found an incredible restaurant that did delicious steak, lama, pasta dishes and a mouth watering chocolate mousse all for very cheap prices!!

After all of this we were back to feeling fighting fit and investigated a transfer to Sajama national park.

We managed to arrange for a taxi to pick us up from our hotel and take us all the way to Sajama village (4.5 hours away) for a reasonable fee so Manuel and his son collected us at 7.30am and we drove over there. As we approached the national park we could see the snow capped Sajama volcano (highest mountain in Bolivia) looming in the distance.

When we arrived we were dropped off at a hostel we had researched and emailed before arriving but no one was there. We walked around the tiny village a bit to try and find someone but it was like a ghost town and everything was closed .... it was a bit odd as it was midday. Eventually Esben went to find the girl at the entrance to the national park and she phoned the owners who said they would return at 4pm. We didn't see a problem with this so locked our bags up and went in search of a packed lunch to take hiking. We eventually found one shop with very very limited supplies and managed to buy some stale bread and jam before heading off.

We chose to hike the 12km round trip to the hot springs and we were pleasantly surprised to find that with the sun shining it wasn't too cold. The springs weren't easy to find but we eventually spotted an old man with his binoculars out in the distance and decided to approach him to see if he could point us in the right direction. It turned out the springs were just behind him and after paying his one toothed wife the £3 entrance fee (pricey for Bolivia!) we went for a dip in the naturally warm pond (only way I can describe it really, it looked clean though :-)!). Once the locals started arriving to wash themselves with soap we decided it was time to exit and we made our breathless way back to Sajama village. The altitude here was 4200m above sea level so oxygen was limited once again.

We arrived back at 4.30pm and the hostel owners were still not back. I was becoming slightly desperate with hunger but a man came and told us they'd be back in an hour so we sat in a room and waited. An hour later it was starting to get bloody freezing (predicted -10 degrees) and I was so so so hungry. We decided to give up and wander around to find an open hostel with someone in it. We came across one that looked open and had the TV on. A little boy opened the door and went to get his mum who told us we could stay for £9 and she would cook dinner for us. I could have hugged her (although she was slightly odd...).

Three other tourists were staying in her hostel and at 7.30pm we sat down for warm vegetable soup and pasta bolognaise. The food wasn't anything special but I was so hungry it could have been award winning in my eyes :-).

We had a chat that night and decided Sajama wasn't for us. It was so quiet and nothing was open or happening in the village. It was very cold at night and there was nowhere to buy lunch (most important point!!). So we decided to get up at 5.30am and take the minivan back to a town where we could get a bus back to La Paz and have a re-think about our plans. All in all not a disaster and I am glad we saw Sajama and swam in the hot springs but not as amazing as we had hoped.

As soon as we arrived back in La Paz we headed to the street with the tour agencies and we were won over by a Dutch lady who worked in 'Tour Treks'. She booked us onto the Choro Trek, 3 days and 2 nights, leaving the following morning with our guide Silverio ('Silver').

All we needed to take for the trek was our sleeping bags, water and clothes. The tent and food were to be provided and carried by Silver so we packed what we needed and got an early night for the next day.

Silver met us at our hotel at 8am and we got in a minivan with him and his three daughters (14,16 and 20) who we're going to be trekking with us as it was their summer holiday. They were very very shy and hardly said a word to us the whole time but it was nice to have them along.

We drove to the beginning of the Choro Trail (getting out for the police checkpoint as the minibus driver didn't have the right passenger documents). We started the trek at 4860m and from there is was 25km of mainly steep down hill for the first day. Many of you probably think 'oh lovely down hill, nice and easy' but 5.5 hours of downhill destroys your leg and knee muscles I can tell you!

We walked from 10am until about 12.30 where we came across the village Silver lived until 10 years ago when he became a guide (he is now 39). There is no road access to the village and living conditions are extremely basic. We ate a deli vacuous packed lunch on his parents land while his daughters had lunch with them and then they came to say hello.

The scenery up until this point was Rocky Mountains leading down into greener and greener landscapes similar to the Scottish highlands. Throughout the hike we were to walk through ten different ecological zones.

The last 3 hours of day one we walked through the cloud which was really cool as you felt like a descending aeroplane ... except you couldn't see much. It was also very steep. Eventually we arrived at our first camp which was a piece of land belonging to Silver's godmother. He set up tent for us and we had tea and biscuits before he went to make dinner and we relaxed in the tent. Unfortunately the cloud hadn't gone away and we were in for a very damp night.

When dinner was ready Silver asked if we would like to eat in his godmothers kitchen which I can only describe as a stone shed with a fire in the corner and some planks of wood along the side. It was barely big enough for four of us and very warm even with the door open. We gratefully accepted and sat on what might have been her bed... I am not sure. We had vegetable soup followed by pasta and she just sat there and ate with us. She looked about 150 but Silver reckons she was 70. I almost burst out laughing when she gave up trying to eat spaghetti with a spoon and shovelled it in with her hand instead.

At about 6.30pm we thanked them for dinner and made our way back to the tent to read and try and sleep. It gets dark at 7pm so there isn't much to do after that.

The next day we were up at 7am, me feeling fresh after a good nights sleep and Esben less so. We had yoghurt, bananas and bread for breakfast, packed up and were on our way again by 8am.

The next day was much more up and down and our muscles were a little sore from the day before. We passed through forests, rivers, waterfalls and ended up in rainforest. We covered 35km and the last 5km were really tough and painful. Especially 'devils pass' which is a steep up hill climb right at the end. We could have ended the day at 25km but would have had further to walk on the last day so we decided to persevere.

At the second camp there were some German guys and a French couple who we chatted with over dinner of mashed potatoes and cut up frankfurters before heading to a slightly drier, much harder bed! I did not sleep well that night and was quite grateful for morning. Esben had slept well but his legs had been eaten by Mosquitos on the walk the day before so he wasn't ecstatic about that.

My legs hurt A LOT that day and I tried my best to look normal hobbling around camp in front of these seamlessly unaffected European hikers. We were off again at 8am for the final three hours and every time I started walking downhill I almost yelped with the muscle pain. The trick was not to stop for too long and if we took a break definitely not to sit down for too long because my muscles would seize up completely. Pathetic really but there you go, the longest I have ever walked in one go!!!

The last day was rainforest as we were at the beginning of the Amazon. We even managed to see a monkey in trees. After the promised three hours we reached a small village which was to be the end of our trek. Silver dished up some pasta and omelette and we waited for the minivan which was to take us up the new 'death road' and back to La Paz. After a quick argument between the Bolivian's and the French couple who didn't want to pay for the transfer even though they had nothing to do with the guides we left them behind and set off.

Once back in La Paz we said an 'emotional' goodbye to Silver and his girls, went back to the hostel, had dinner and a lot of wine and went to sleep at 8.30pm!! Haha, we know how to party.

Today I am once again in pain but drinking, eating and moaning my way through it.

Tomorrow we are off to Copacabana at the edge of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world (whatever that means).

Promise to blog again soon.

Alice
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