29.9.14 - So we are off to Bolivia! First we have to go through Chilean customs to leave the country, nearly left Emma and Andriana behind in the toilets! Stopped in the desert, thinking someone needed a toilet stop only to realise that the little hut was in fact the Bolivian border control! Romi had warned us that they may question her here, as they don{t like to think that a foreigner is travelling as a guide, possibly taking work away from their own people, but Romi is not a guide, G Adventures always use local guides.....however they did question her but everything eventually turned out ok. Poor Adriana though, they didn't recognise a Cypriot passport, so she had to pay to get in! Once we were all through safely we met our drivers/guides for our 3 days trek in 4x4's, Champu (pronounced Shampoo), Danny and Luis. Me, Romi, Mairead, Herbert and Magda were in the same 4x4 and it quickly became apparent that we were going to have lots of fun, it was a lively, bubbly 4x4! Throughout the 3 days Champu played Queen, The Beatles and Guns n Roses....we formed a band 'Champu and the Champuettes', I was the bass player, Herbert on drums, Magda on keyboards, Romi on lead guitar and Mairead lead singer! The scenery throughout 'Eduardo Avaroa National Serve of Andean Fauna' was stunning - just beautiful! Out first stop, about 20 minutes in was at Laguna Verde (Green Lake), then 30 minutes later the thermal springs (with shops and a toilet! - knowing when the toilet stops were came to be one of the most important pieces of info. on this trip! We also got very used to just squatting behind the vehicle with strict instructions for no one to look or finding the nearest secluded sand dune! lol - memories of all this make me giggle!), Arge and Celia had a dip in the springs, then we had lunch overlooking the lake, then 1 hour later we stopped at the 'Solar de Manana' geysers - eeewwwww stinky!, and we were now at 4850m altitude! 30 minutes later we came across Laguna Colorada (Red Lake) where we saw loads of Flamingoes - their pink colours are just stunning! 30 minutes later we stopped at 'Arbol de Piedra' (Stone Tree) where we took lots of fun photos! Then we settled in for another live music session with Champu and the Champuettes on 2.5 hour drive to our stopover for the night at Laguna Hedionda (Stinking Lake) at Hotel Los Flamenco Eco. By the time we arrived the sun was starting to set and it was just beautiful. I got quite emotional sat watching the sunset by the lake, watching the flamingoes, I will never forget it! Mairead, Romi, Emma and I shared a room. The accom was far better than any of us were expecting, we thought it would be very basic, but we had rooms, toilets (albeit eco toilets, therefore front section for no.1's and back section for no.2's and wow be tide if you deposit in the wrong place! lol, running water, it was just extremely cold once the sun had gone! Thank goodness I had brought my ickle hot water bottle with me (courtesy of Lisa at last year's Secret Santa), it was a God send! The lady in the kitchen, when I went to ask for some hot water, giggled..then I noticed that the staff were all making their own hot water bottles lol! The high altitude had caused me to have a very thick head (usual apparently) so I went to bed early feeling a bit poorly and didn't sleep too well.......

30.9.14 - got up, had breakfast, then we were back on the road (well dirt/desert track).......Herbert had lost at cards last night and his forfeit was that he had to do an impression of a Flamingo, so at our first stop ' Laguna Canapa' he did the honours, and he did it really well, even had the right colour jacket on! lol.....on the way to our next stop we got stopped bya Bolivian Police Patrol! We could see they had stopped another vehicle ahead, so Champu lead our group down another track to bypass them, but oh no! they spotted us and all of a sudden 4 armed guards came running across the desert towards us! One of them had a very very large gun!! We stopped and Champu, Danny and Luis had to show their papers and then they asked us all to get out of the vehicles and show our passports, it was a bit scary to begin with but it turned out ok. One of the guys ended up chatting to us, explaining they were checking for stolen vehicles coming in from Chile. Apparently, Champu ended up giving them some money, I didn't see this, but some of the others did.......so eventually we were on our way!... next stop was Volcan Ollague viewpoint. This is a live volcano. I had to go to the loo here, crouching behind a rock! lol oooo the joys of nature! someone had made a heart out of stones, so took a piccie.....next photo stop was a rail track in the mniddle of the desert! We all lay on it for a good photo!....we then went to visit a cemetery which had been discovered in the middle of the desert which has been named 'Necropolis' there is small museum there also, which explains the archeology that has taken place and who these people probably were (pre-Incan), etc...we had some lunch here (provided by our drivers! Blimey those 4x4's are like Tardis's, they had obviously pre-prepared lunch for us every day!)...next stop was 'Isla Incahuasi' which basically is an island of Cactus plants!!!....so bizarre! It just looks like it has been picked up from the Nevada desert and plonked in the middle of the Bolivian desert! I climbed it and the views from the top were breathtaking! Tonight{s stopover was at 'Ecolodge Tambo Coquesa' and OMG! Romi and I shared the bestest room yet in a stone cabin! It was right next to a lake, beautiful! I had the best night's sleep ever here! Before dinner we went to see the local herd of Llamas. They were making their way down from the mountainside for the night, and what was obviously the chief Llama was watching over them. Some of the baby Llamas were just sooo cute! Ironically, we had Llama steak for dinner!, which tasted a bit like lamb, I tried not to think of the ickle faces we had seen earlier!.... then we all went to the 'girls' room and drank Mairead's bottle of Gin with lemon....hic....Andriana put Michael Buble on her i-pad for me and we all had a sing-a-long, then Herbert decided to show us how to drink the gin with flaming lemons! hilarious!

1.10.14 - Firstly, I can't believe it's October already! Had breakfast watching the Llamas on the lakeside, then we headed for our final day on the Salt Flats! We had such fun creating all sorts of photos! We must have spent about 2.5 hours doing it! The results are fab! Especially the ones Eugene took with us all with the T-Rex! He is a photographer and had allsorts of gadgets with him, including a go-pro (I'd never heard of it!) and a gadget which allowed him to control his camera with his phone! Brilliant! After this we went to a market and a salt museum in Colchani, where an elderly gentleman explained how they turn the raw slat into the cute little bags of salt we see in the shops.....then we headed for the train cemetery...wasn't sure what to expect here, but yep it's basically a cemetery for trains, it was fab! Could imagine it being used as a movie set! Before we headed to Uyuni to our hotel for the night, 'Champu and the Champuettes' had a photo session! It was sad to say goodbye to Champu, Danny and Luis.....we had a collection for them and Romi asked me to present it and say a few words, which I duly did! We said our goodbyes, then hot footed it into the nearest hot shower! We all ordered in a pizza for dinner, as we were so tired zzzzzzz and ended up watching Batman 'The Dark Knight'!

Oh my goodness, the last few days were just fantastic! Fantastic memories!

2.10.14 - We are all feeling tired zzzzzzz but no rest for the wicked! A 4 hour bus journey to Potosi, the highest populated city in the world!! Boy did I know it! Had to walk very slow, especially upstairs! We had lunch in a museum, and on the way there we saw a protest by local miners (elections were due soon) I thought about those Chilean miners that had been trapped a few years ago! Whilst we were eating lunch the biggest thunderstorm ever erupted! It was quite spectacular! It obviously wasn't going to pass over any time soon, so we had to make a break for it! I had flip flops on and the roads were flooding! Herbert was a perfect gentleman and held on to me all the way walking back to the hotel, I think I (or at least my flip flops!) would have been swept away otherwise lol! We all had a siesta then met up for dinner later on. The restaurant walls were covered in graffiti, it was fun reading the messages other travellers had left, it had turned into a great piece of art! A musician entertained us for a while and it turned out he was from Mendoza in Argentina, so he and Romi had a good 'ole chin wag!

3.10.14 - I was due to go to the Silver mines but woke up about 5am with an upset stomach! I went down to tell Romi I wouldn't be coming after all and discovered that both Emma and Mairead were poorly too! So us three stayed behind and got together later in the afternoon and coincidentally ended up at the same cafe the others were at after the tour! We managed to eat an omelette and started to feel better, but we went to bed early!

4.10.14 - Early bus to Sucre! Hotel is gorgeous! A beautiful courtyard right outside my room, was just perfect after having been sooo tired and poorly! We all had lunch together, then I had a sightseeing afternoon with the 'boys' (Eugene, Fabian and Neil) we saw some weddings, including one where a little boy fell over on the church stone steps and smashed his mouth OUCH! We walked up to the lookout point and wow what a view! Here we saw a procession, with dancers and musicians, their costumes were stunning! We also visited the monastery, art museum and sat at the fountain people watching! It was a lovely afternoon, spent with 3 lovely guys...on the way back to the hotel Fabian stopped for a haircut. Later we all went out for dinner and went back to the place we had lunch in, as they had given us vouchers for free Mojitos! It ended up being a fun night, lots of dancing (Fabian can do a mean salsa!) and laughter and we ended up at a Bolivian nightclub! What an experience, especially trying to get a taxi back lol! We lost Neil (again!) but when we got back we knocked on his door and he had made it back ok. Eugene nicknamed Fabian the 'Swiss Stallion' for reasons that will remain undisclosed, what goes on on tour stays on tour lol!....

5.10.14 - Slept in! Lazy day.....Dance show and dinner....stunning views from the restaurant over the city!

6.10.14 - Wandered on my own, taking in Sucre and it's sights, sat in the Plaza for a while, think I got chatted up? think he said to meet him at 3pm? Not sure, no speaky the Espanol!.....bumped into Mairead later on, picked up our laundry, then we went to visit a local orphanage....OMG! I could have brought so many of them home with me! First Fabian, Mairead and I played with the babies and toddlers. They kept calling us Mama and Papa!.....three of them all wanted me to pick them up, and I soon realised that they wanted to just look out of the window...oh my heart strings!......the window is too high for them to see out of.....they loved the feel of the fresh air on their faces I think and we giggled over the dog which was outside, lots of woof woof, etc....we were told not to pick them up too much, but it's hard not too. They had to be distracted so we could leave the room....just heartbreaking.....then we played with the older children who were just cheeky little monkeys....Arge, Celia and Andriana had been playng with them first and one of them had grabbed Arge's backpack and had swung it around, not knowing that he had a bottle of red wine in there! Needless to say it smashed all over the playground.....we had fun winding Arge up though, saying that that wasn't an appropriate present to bring the children! lol........we had all been to the market earlier and brought gifts of food, nappies, baby wipes, etc.....Mairead and I left with tears in our eyes!....then we made our way back to the hotel for our transfer to the bus station for our night bus to La Paz!

7.10.14 - Didn't sleep much on the night bus, the driving was a bit erratic! Mairead was convinced that the drivers had been smoking pot and possibly drinking!.....arrived at hotel about 8am....most had opted to do the Death Road! I tagged along but didn't partake! I wasn't going to risk getting injured before getting to Machu Picchu! The weather was awful! It absolutely tippéd it down! I take my hat off to everyone who went out there, on the cycles and survived that Death Road! Basically called thus, as so many people have died on it! It's actually closed now and only used for the cycle treks! You start at 4800m and ride down, down, down, with sheer drops right by your side, so if you fall/slide you've pretty much had it! I stayed in the van with Romi and we followed them down (only part way though, as road closed to vans from certain point) so then we had to drive long way round and meet everyone at the bottom. Fortunately half way through the trek the clouds dispersed and the sun came beating down, phew! gave the guys time to dry out at the halfway point before carrying on to the bottom. I really felt for them, especially as it became apparent the gear they had been given to wear wasn't actually waterproof! but we all got given Death Road t-shirts!! At the end we had lunch at a lovely hostel with a pool, Arge, Celia and Eugene really enjoyed their swim! When we got back to the hotel we went to dinner at an oriental restaurant, owned by a friend of Romi's, I had Pad Thai, but it wasn't the Pad Thai I had been used to in Thailand.....everyone was sooo tired from their Death Road experience......straight back to bed zzzzzzzzzzzz

8.10.14 - Last day with the group! Noooooooooo! Romi, Eugene, Herbert, Magda, Emma and I were staying on for the rest of the trip, but it was time to say good bye to my lovely Mairead, Fabian, Neil, Arge, Celia and Andriana...I was going to really miss them....but first we had the rest of the day and evening together. We went on the free walking tour at 11am and I learnt all about the Prison made famous in the book 'Marching Powder' (which I must now read, as I'd never heard of it or the prison before) how corrupt it is and how tourists used to go in for a tour but not get back out again! The guide told us that if we see any nappies on the pavement by the prison, not to pick them up, as they will have probably been thrown out a window by a prisoner, they would be full of drugs, waiting for the dealer to pick them up! If you some how got caught up in anything the authorities are not very helpful! After the tour went round the markets and bought a few things, then later on in the afternoon we all went up in the cable cars....we had to queue for ages, we then found out that it was sooo busy as lots of locals were making their way up for an election thing! On the way up we passed over a cemetery, which is lines and lines of what look like little deposit boxes....also saw a car lodged in the cliff side, apparently a taxi driver had committed suicide driving this car over, goodness only knows how it managed to get lodged in the position it's in! Once at the top the view was stunning! Later on I met up with our new group and CEO Javier. I am sooo lucky, my groups are always full of lovely people! Mike and Jemma from England (Dentists) had been living and working in Australia for last 14 months, Eric from America (Chilean descent), Kelsey from Canada and Melissa from England. We had an introductory session then we weren't meeting up until the following morning, so the original group had one last dinner together, in a lovely hotel restaurant, afterwards we said our goodbyes, sniff, sniff!......onwards to the next leg of the tour!