The first stop in our second South American nation was the small town of Copacabana on the shores of one of the highest lakes in the world - Lake Titicaca.Not much to the town here.Lacking from the town are such things as ATMs and electricity during daytime hours both of which make it impossible to obtain cash.It is however the launching point to some beautiful islands on the lake and home to some good restaurants serving the local specialty, lake trout - delicious.With no more than $20USD in our pockets, we headed off to Isla del Sol for a night and a day.Upon arrival, we hiked straight uphill for about an hour hike to the closest hotel.What this place lacked in lavishness, it def made up for in a spectacular view of the lake and distant snow capped mountains.$10USD bought us a night at the hotel, dinner, a large bottle of water and breakfast in the morning.We would've been better off skipping the dinner as Greg lost his that evening.At about 4000 meters above sea level, we had finally succomb to altitude sickness.This made the next day's downhill hike, 1.5 hour boat trip to Copacabana, and subsequent 4 hour bus ride to La Paz quite an adventure.Our final 6 Bolivianos were spent on a bottle of 7-Up for the bus ride, so a nice Aussie named Tim was nice enough to pay our fare for our surprise river crossing portion of the bus journey. (We would repay him by means of a cold cerveza a few days later)

La Paz is a busy, noisy polluted city with narrow streets and lots of honking minibuses which all scream our their destinations while driving all in the same monotoned voice.It is, however, in a beautiful setting in a valley between towering mountains.It has the designation of being the world's highest capital.Our time here was spent largely in recovery mode from our various illnesses which took the majority of 4 days.Upon our return here from Rurrenabaque we will venture our chances on cycling down the world's most dangerous road.

The flight to Rurrenabaque was the most beautiful but scariest 40 minutes of our lives. The scenery went from snowy mountains to thick jungle in a matter of minutes. The plane was weaving inbetween mountains and was not pressurized like it should be, and the turbulence had us thinking that sooner or later we were going to plunge to the jungle below us. But our only other option was a 15-30 HOUR bus ride, depending on the weather!Once we landed safely, in the middle of a grass field, we took a 4X4 along a dirt road to the town, where we spent most of the day adjusting to the hot weather. The following day we embarked on our jungle adventure. We were unfortunate that our group was us and a old, unadventurous couple, not what we had expected. After a very uncomfortable 3 and a half hour drive along a wet dirt road we arrived at our lodge. It was a pleasent surprise to see that we had a bed and mosquito net, we thought more tent and ground. We spent the afternoon out on a dugout boat to look for wildlife. And wildlife we saw, from river dolphins and turtles, to monkeys and crocs. We also had the privilege of viewing the world's largest rodent (looked like a hamster on steroids).The dolphins were swimming around the boat and we were going to venture in for a swim with them until we saw how many crocodiles were in the same water! Crocodiles that were up to 4 meters and could eat us alive! It was amazing to see them up so close in the wild. They would be basking on the shore and start walking towards the boat before disappearing into the thick muddy waters, and then we would haul ass out of there! The following day we were back on the boat to look for monkeys and in the afternoon Greg and I went with our guide and his friend to go fishing for piranas. Apparantly it is difficult to do, but Jo caught 3 keepers and Greg got 1, must be the luck of the Irish. The teeth on these things are unreal! We returned back to the lodge with 6 Piranas and 3 catfish, which we cooked up for dinner. Piranas don´t taste so good. Lots of teeth and not much meat! That night we boarded the boat again to see the nocturnal animals. We didn´t see much apart from lots of red crocodile eyes peering out of the water; but the night sky was awesome. The third morning we went looking for anacondas. These snakes can eat cows and we were walking through grass that was up to our shoulders, it didn´t seem like a good idea to me! After 4 hours of nothing, we gave up. On the way back we saw local workers that were moving a huge anaconda that was under a wooden brige that they were fixing.OK, good enough for us! Later we took the jeep back to Rurrenabaque to fly back to La Paz the following day. Well that was the plan. It started to rain during the night and here that means no electricity and lots of flooding. With the runway being a grass field, we could be here for a while. We can leave when it stops raining, and we have a day of sunshine to dry the runway.Keep your fingers crossed for us...