WHAT A DAY!!

Still not feeling our best we get up at 5am ready for our flight to Sucre. After a delay, getting on and off the plane, and a bit more of a delay we are informed that due to the weather our flight has been cancelled. In hindsight this should have sparked some sensible thoughts...

We managed to get what we were told was a direct bus to Uyuni, where we were due to visit the salt flats, in 23hours. As we are now expert travellers, he he, we thought it would be fine. So off we went and had a lovely Italian meal before watching our very battered and 'local' looking bus pull into the bus station! After getting over the shock that it looked nothing like the picture and we were clearly one of a very few non - South Americans getting on we decided it would be ok ... Which it would have been if we didn't stop just after the police check point to pick up about 20 more people that stood and sat in the aisles! We then managed to get stuck in the mud trying to get up a hill. The roads that we were travelling on did not consist of concrete of any sort, just mud, which we came to learn made them virtually un drivable and dangerous after all the rain that Bolivia has had recently. As the 'amigos' were summoned off the bus to help try to get the bus free, by pushing and digging it out with shovels, we noticed that the back of the bus had come to only be about 1m from the edge of a VERY high drop. So we stood in the rain for 2hours as we watched the men tie the back of the bus to a lorry, to help anchor it to the mountain and not fall off! Eventually it got free and we had to get back on. It continued to drive on the same type of road and we don't mind admitting we were both petrified that we were actually going to die! We couldn't bear to watch as we were inches from the edge, so we shut the curtain, and had a cry and a cuddle! Someone must have been watching over us and probably one of the very few times we were pleased to break down!! We sat until they fixed the bus, which luckily for us was sunrise! At least the driver could see where he was going now.

Well thank goodness the roads were not quite so bad, but so much for it being direct! We swapped buses in Sucre, and then had a 90min wait in Potosi (the worlds highest city) We eventually got to our destination - 32 hours after setting off but more importantly ALIVE!