Last time was a while ago, so this may be a bit hazy in places. That last day in Cochabamba, we did absolutely nothing, and went to bed early. We got up early the next morning and headed straight to La Paz. We met up with the others at the hostel and it was immediatly obvious that we were back on the gringo trail. In our whole time in La Paz we barely spoke a word of Spanish and met only travellers. We went out for dinner at a place called Oliver's travels where they had things like Shepherds Pie and English Breakfasts, which we didn't think we'd want but were quite a welcome break from what we'd become slightly more used to - meat and chips. We then went to a bar for the evening and danced the night away to English music!

We spent the next day wondering around La Paz, which is difficult to do for too long because of the altitude, pollution and hills. I got an email from Allon and managed to track him down eventually, so wondered the streets with him, Charles and Guy, before heading back to the hostel. Allon moved to our hostel, gave me my present he'd brought from England from my mum, and we relaxed for the rest of the day. We cooked dinner that night and then went and wasted money on an oxygen mask at an oxygen bar whilst playing playstation. The next mornning we went for what was my first fry up since England (quite a disappointing one), and then booked ourselves in with Gravity, a company who runs bike rides down the road from La Paz to Coroico - The World's Most Dangerous Road, which drops 3000m in 80km of road. I spent a while deciding whether or not tofollow the others in doing it, but we were quite rushed about it because we couldonly reserve the places without pàying for 1 hour. I eventually decided to do it and coughed up the 40 quid and spent the rest of theday wondering why I was going to be doing this and wondered around the National Gallery and the cathedral. The road has the name because it has the most deaths a year on it. This is because it is a single lane rocky road, used by 2 way traffic, with, in places, 300m verical drops to one side. However, the main cause of deaths is the 2 way traffic having to reverse to find wayts round one another, but nowadays, another, safer route has been built so it is barely used by vehicles and mostly by cyclists, so the deaths, or injuries are mostly caused by idiot boy racers who want to go down it as quickly as possible. I trusted myself so decided Iwould be alright.

We got up early the next morning to do the ride. Hannah wasn't feeling too well so was a bit worried, but so were were all. It was me, Hannah, Allon, Jenny, Charles andGuy who did it. We bought extra insurance that morning because were were all unsure as to whether our basic insurance would cover us, and then set off. We were all equipped with really good helmets, gloves, buffs, jackets, trousers, and of course bikes, and made the journey by bus up to over 4000m, to the start of the road. Our guide, Dale, did nothing to reassure us that we'd be alright, and just told us about all the injuries and deaths that the man who had sold it to us had neglected to mention. I really didn't like him. We set off anyway, with a guide at the front and at the back of the group, and 4 second gaps between each of us, on the tarmac start of the road. We sped down at great speeds on this, the safe part of the road, and stopped at the start of the dirt road. This was much trickier and slower than the other part, and then thehuge drops started to appear. Hannah took a break in the van and wentdown some of the way in that, whilst Jenny took it really slowly and us boys less so, but still on the slower side of safe. There were muddy parts, slate parts, big drops, HUGE drops, and it was all very challenging, more mentally than physically, because it was almost all downhill, but you had to avoid thinking about the drops. We all made it safely to the bottom though, and lapped up the free all you can eat buffet, and watched a slideshow of the photos and videos taken that day, whilst I got eaten alive by the sand flies. We had stopped at an animal refuge, which Hannah loved, but we had to leave quite quickly to get back to La Paz. We got the bus back up the safer road and got back to La Paz around 8pm, knackered. We didn't manage anything that evening and slept well in Loki hostel, where they had duvets and really comfy beds. Me and Hannah then booked our flights to Rurrenebaque, north east of La Paz, and then we went up the mirador (viewpoint), to get a better view of La Paz. Lucy cooked bolognese that evening and then we went to a bar for the evening. We got up early the next morning to see a bit of the carnival (we still don't know why they have that carnival) before getting our flight to Rurre. The flight was from the international airport, where the security found Hannah's scissors and let her go through with them anyway, and then we got on our aeroplane, which was tiny. It had one seat either side of the aisle, and was nowhere near tall enough to stand up in. Hannah didn't enjoy it much but I thought it was incredible. We barely ascended because La Paz is so high up, and then we flew low over the mountains, before descending 45 minutes later to Rurrenebaque, in the boiling humidity of the Bolivian lowlands. We chose a hotel from the Lonely Planet and dumped ourthings there beforegoing out and booking a Pampas Tour. This was a 3 day tour through the pampas (savanna) which started the next day. We hadn't taken long to book it so didn't know much about it and left early the next morning.

We went by car/jeep for 3 hours into the jungle, before having lunch, then getting on a boat for 2 and a half hoursdown the River Beni. We saw hundreds of alligators, a few caimen (just bigger crocodiles), loads of different types of birds, turtles, pink dolphins, and then monkeys, which we went very close to, and fed bananas to as well, which was very funny, having them climb all over the boat and Hannah a lot of the time. We went to our base camp, which was surprisingly nice, with beds with really good mosquito nets, and relaxed there for a while, before heading out to watch thesun set. I playedfootball with the guides and got eaten by the mosquitos before we headed back for an early night. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and then headed down the river, before a 4 hour walk through the pampas, lookingfor snakes. We didn't see many though, the highlight was when the guide caught an anaconda which we took turns at holding before letting it go. We walked through alligator infested swamp up to our knees before heading back to camp for a siesta. In the afternoon, we went swimming in the river with pink dolphins, none of which any of us got anywhere near but was still fun. We had to stay away from the sides to stay away from the alligators - nice. We didn't do much that evening, but the heat and humidity really takes itout of you so we didn't really mind. The next morning we went pirana fishing, which we then ate for lunch before heading back to Rurrenebaque which is where we still are. That was yesterday and we were absolutely shattered to we went to bed early after putting on a well needed laundry wash, and had a good nights sleep before a nice breakfast and a lazy day today. We've spent most of the morning doing this but are soon going to go to the swimming pool in the town and then I'm making Hannah come to a bar to watch the Champions League final - she's doing a good job at being interested, maybe just for my sake, but still, nice to have someone to watch it with! We aren't sure what our plans are but we want to see more of the jungle and more animals, so we'll have a look into that today.