We arrive at the airport and get through customs quickly. However, we then sit in traffic for two hours just to get off the ring road some 100 metres from the airport. The metro workers are on strike, holding out for more pay just two days before the World Cup. It's late when we arrive at our IBIS hotel, which we are pleasantly surprised with. Basic, but new, clean and with everything working. We are staying in the Jardins area, which is the swanky part of t...

We land back in La Paz and are told that our next flight leaves from Gate 7a. As we only have 20 minutes to spare we race around to board the flight only to find ourselves on the same plane sitting in the opposite seat. We get a wry smile from the air stewardess. This is typical of Bolivia with no joined up thinking. Sucre is actually the constitutional capital of Bolivia and not La Paz. La Paz holds the government seat and there have been a few attempts to ch...

It is still dark when the flight arrives in Uyuni at 6.30am. It's bitterly cold as we are still at high altitude and everyone is huddled in a small arrivals lounge around a heat lamp while we wait for our baggage. Once it arrives, we find our driver waiting outside for us with a huge toothless grin (him, not us). A really sweet guy named Mario. As we follow him out to his car we see another sign saying Stephen x 2 (overnight an email had come through from Red P...

We hadn't expected La Paz to be such a large city. It's another high altitude one at 3,668 metres above sea level. As we come in on the bus we start winding our way down the road to the centre. This city is bowl-shaped and appears as though the houses have slipped down the hills and into the pot at the bottom, like some kind of house soup! Once we get to the bus stop we grab a taxi to our hostal in an area called Sopachi in the south of the city. We choke on fu...

The bus from Cusco to Puno (on Lake Titicacca) is a tour bus, making it a nine-hour trip, including the stop-offs. After a 7.30am start we first stop off at a church. It's in a small square and even early morning the street vendors are there with the same old 'local' arts and crafts that have probably been churned out in a sweat shop in China. Although the church is quite impressive we don't really to get tuned in to the talk by the tour guide who is alternatin...