Potosi (altitude 4200m)

After leaving Bolivia's Bangalore, we arrived in the world's highest city called Potosi. This city is where South America earned it's riches. As a colonised city of Spain, it made the Spanish very wealthy due to its mining of silver. It now mines silver, zinc, tin and copper. The town centre is full of lavish buildings that reflect its affluent past. Our hostel also had hot water and heating, so Shelly was ecstatic. Note from Shelly - so far I have enjoyed South America very much. BUT. it's been fricking cold at night, the showers are often cold and heating just doesn't exist - people that know me well will know this is a nightmare for me ! So yes, this hostel is AMAZING, its the Ritz! Im going to stay in the room the whole time so I can thaw out!

I (Dom) got to go inside a working mine as part of a tour. This tour is not wrapped up in cottonwool to comply with health and safety and is run by miners. To kick off we got taken to the miners store to buy gifts for the miners. They sell dynamite like its a carton of milk. I settled for some coca leaves instead. We then spent 2 hours navigating through these pitch black mines and crawling / climbing through these ridiculously small tunnels. We got to see the miners at work and even shoveled stones for them. 2 mins of this and I could have collapsed. The altitude, the dust, the heat and the sheer effort was unbearable, these guys do 10 hour shifts of this every day. These miners don't take food due to the dust, so they survive a 10hr shift on a bag of coca leaves and drink 97% pure alcohol. To protect them in the underworld they worship a devil and have a statue which they cover in coca leaves. Overall a scary, claustrophobic, knackering and humbling experience.

Whilst we had no initial problems with the altitude, we have found any physical exertion makes you breathless. I totally sympathise with COPD sufferers. The Bolivians munch coca leaves to combat this. Coca seems to cure everything over here.

Sucre (altitude 3750m)

After 3 nights in Potosi and a 4hr bus ride we arrived in the former capital city of Bolivia. This city is also full of impressive buildings and loads of students. We had our cheapest meal of the whole trip in a market here. Whilst here I had a 4hr Spanish lesson whilst Shelly checked out the anatomy museum. I'm getting better and can ask simple questions, but just can't understand the simple answers. Whilst here we also randomly bumped into 2 people from our salt flats tour. We booked a 2 day trek with them and another couple.

Our trek began with a ride on a typical Bolivian bus. We were stuffed into the bus like sardines. Someone brought on a bag of live pigs and someone else a wardrobe. Local buses don't have timetables. They wait till the buses are full, squeeze 20 more people in and then they move off.

Our walk covered 35 km over 2 days whilst carrying all our supplies. The terrain was dry, steep and passed through a giant crater. Its believed this crater is either from a meteorite or a volcano. We also saw the footprints of 4 different dinosaurs which had been uncovered and preserved on this enormous rock. The local people we encountered on the way were so friendly and chatty and would ask us for coca leaves. Men and children were carrying massive haybales (I picked one up and it was really heavy) and they carry them for miles....We stayed one night in a dormitory in the tiny remote village of the Halka community and met the family that owned the dorm the next morning. The ladies spend their days weaving intricately designed textiles that take so much skill and we got to see this first hand. We learnt that the men choose their wives based on their skills, not based on their looks; its all about practicality!

La Paz (altitude 3660m)

As soon as we finished our trek we jumped onto a night bus for our 14hr ride to Bolivia's capital city. This city is much busier, noisier and manic than the other Bolivian cities we have visited.

The highlight here was riding a mountain bike down the worlds most dangerous road. It earned this name due to it's narrowness and the sheer drop on one side of it. Between 1993 and 2003, 4400 people were killed by driving over the edge. This ride covered 64km and a descent of 3600m. We were well kitted out with safety gear, but it wouldn't do much to protect you from the 600m drop. This ride would have been terrifying if it wasn't so much fun. It's easy to get carried away going too fast and forget the danger. Luckily no one went over the edge, but I saw 2 people crash and I went too fast round a corner and ended up in a ditch.

We did another free walking tour here. We got to see a witches market where they sell llama foetuses and you can buy almost any spell, Bolivians are very superstitious.

We also saw the famous San Pedro prison which is run by the inmates and is known to make the purest cocaine (from inside the prison). The locals refer to it as a university for crime. The inmates run unofficial tours of the prison, but this seemed stupid ie why pay when you could simply commit a crime and see it for free. No, seriously, these unofficial tours are definately not recommended by any guide book, as once you are inside the prison, there are no guards!!! I (Shelly) have just read an interesting book all about the prison called Marching Powder. Its a true story about a Brit imprisoned there, and the book has been banned in Bolivia (oops naughty me) because it claims that all the guards are corrupt, there are several cocaine labs, prisoners have to pay for their cells, lots of crazy stuff.

We also visted one of the main squares where only 10 years ago there was a mass shoot out between the police and the military (!) And you can still make out bullet holes on the walls of surrounding buildings. This city is crazy.....

Santa Cruz (altitude 400m - I can breathe again)

We had a gruelling 18 hour bus ride to get here. Gruelling because the only film they showed was "Twilight" and worse still it was in Spanish (Dom wrote this. I love Twilight). We have found the scariest thing in Bolivia is the roads. They seem to skirt the sides of the mountains, have no safety railings and a very steep drop. Bolivians also seem to believe that a great place to have a sleep and a drink is behind the steering wheel. Santa Cruz is the biggest city in Bolivia. Its also the dullest. It didn't stop raining here, luckily we found an Irish bar. Stranded here for 2 days then got a shared taxi to Samaipata.

Samaipata (altitude 1650m)

Beautiful little town surrounded by green hills. "A great place to visit due to the great weather and endless sunshine".Only it was cloudy and it rained. Our accommodation was lovely though so were were happy and when it didnt rain we were out and about exploring the lovely scenery. The local animal sanctuary cost 50p and amongst other animals had monkeys who were free to roam around the grounds. We met a very friendly monkey who wouldn't stop hugging us would wrap himself round Shelly's face, apparently an erotic display of affection...

We are headed for Lake Titicaca next and then on to Peru, so "adios" for now..