The bus from puno was a long one, we got through immigration successfully after reading reviews about the bus leaving people there. We stopped just after the border in copacabana where we had to change buses to a smaller bus, we had a little bit of time so we got lunch, the usual chicken, chips and rice, but the rice tasted terrible, they had completely ruined it somehow.

The next bus took hours and hours, we had to get off at one point and get a boat across the river while the bus went on a homemade looking raft to get across the river as there was no bridge.

The bus journey never seemed to end, we were in traffic for hours and hours before finally getting to La Paz station. While we were at the station we tried to book a bus to sucre, our next stop. The station was crammed full of different bus operators all with desks that had signs showing their destinations. We asked about 10 different desks which advertised buses to sucre, all of them just said no, literally one word, no, nothing else even though they advertised it. We then went to one who said yes, but then just turned away from us and started doing something else, she didn't tell us any times or anything, she just seemed to ignore us so we walked away, she didn't even care. We then had to go to the most expensive bus operator and book with them as they were the only ones that seemed remotely like they actually wanted to sell their product to someone.

We then got a taxi to the hotel and checked in, it was a nice hotel but was a bit out of town so ordered a pizza to the hotel, well 3 pizzas, they were really good.

The next day I walked down to the square nearby where I waited to be picked up by the bike tour, the square was full of police and military and riot tanks just driving around the square, it was a bit unnerving but it just seemed to be a rehearsal of some sort. I got picked up and there was 3 couples on the bus already, 2 Bolivian and 1 american. One of the Americans was also of Bolivian descent so they spoke in Spanish a lot of the time.

We drove to the starting point where we got kitted up with pads overalls and helmets before setting off down the new death road, the one built so people didn't have to use the real death road. This was a nice smooth tarmac road and was just a practice before doing the main one.

After about half an hour on this we got back in the car and went to the starting point of the death road. This was all gravel so was really slippy, and only about 3m wide. It was scary, there was a sheer drop of about 600m at the edge with nothing to stop anyone going off the edge and straight down. There were crosses everywhere which marked places where people had died, there were chucks of road missing from landslides and rocks on the road from landslides above the road. It was really really good fun and lasted about 5 hours from the top to the bottom including stops and lunch. It was about 40 miles and we went down about 1000m of winding road and the landscape was really beautiful with a lot of waterfalls and mountains.

We got lucky as it didn't rain at all and the road was dry, although one guy did fall off and got concussion, and another girl broke her ankle. The tour leaders said that two years ago someone on the tour went over and died, and because the ambulances were so slow he died, but his dad then bought and donated a new ambulance to the death road.

After the ride we had lunch in a hotel before the 3 hour journey back.

We got dropped back at the office in La Paz where we got the t shirt and the DVD and then had to make our own way back. I walked to get a taxi, sticking my hands out to empty taxis, none of them would stop at all so I went up to a few that were stopped at traffic lights, all of them said that it was too far and wouldn't take me. How can a taxi driver refuse a fare because it was too far, when that's their job and I would pay to go that distance? It didn't make sense so eventually had to walk back all the way at 10 at night, I found my way and got back safely no thanks to Bolivians that didn't want to do their jobs.

The next day we walked around La Paz and saw the sights, we bought some Al paca wool jumpers, gloves and hats for the cold south. Later we checked out and after arguing with the hotel for trying to overcharge us, we walked to the station to get our bus. We had to check in our bags at the office, but no one working there wanted to check any in, so there was a big crowd at the desk while 3 people just sat there doing nothing with their backs to everyone, until eventually 5 minutes before the bus was due to set off they started checking them in. It seemed like Bolivians didn't want to work at all and they didn't want to sell their products at all, but then you can't help but think they wouldn't be the poorest country in south america if they actually tried to sell things and appreciated it when people were actually trying to give them money for stuff. You always felt like they didn't deserve your custom.

The bus we got was a fully flat reclining chair in our own compartment. We hoped to get a good nights sleep but they had a horror movie on really really loud (despite the amount of children on) so loud the speakers were just crackling all the time and we could even hear it with our headphones in watching a film. We stopped for a toilet stop at 3am, because the toilet on board was locked???? We hadn't slept at all because of the poor roads. Luckily we were quick as the bus just suddenly pulled out and set off without even a beep or a passenger count making sure people were back on, even though they didn't even tell us how long we were stopping for to start with. No wonder people always get left behind in Bolivia.

So so far Bolivia was not very welcoming and Bolivians definitely lived up to their miserable reputations.