We finally left Cusco in Peru, after our delayed departure not knowing exactly where we would end up. Rich & Gill had gone on the original planned bus the previous night and hadn't been able to make it to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca as the road was shut, and had instead gone onto La Paz. The day we were due to travel, there were protests in La Paz, meaning that buses might not have been running to La Paz. We set off on an overnight bus to Puno in Southern Peru, not really sure what our options would be once we got there. On arrival at 5.30am we had to negotiate with various bus companies, telling us various stories about the road to Copacabana and the protests. We eventually agreed to try Copacabana as after seeing the sunrise over Lake Titicaca at Puno, I really wanted to see the Bolivian side of the lake. We'd been told that the diversion avoiding the closed road would extend our 3 hour journey by about 2 hours, but better that than sitting amid protests in La Paz. In actual fact the road was open, meaning that we got to our intended destination in 3 hours, including another border crossing, and had time to then get out to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca.

The island is basic, donkeys carry loads of food and water up from the port as most things are imported from the mainland, and the locals work the land to grow what they can. It was worth the jaunt, the view across the lake to the snow capped mountains beyond was amazing, and we got to see the sunset 13 hours after we'd watched it rise that morning. Seeing the snow capped peaks made me long for the Alps! We found a tiny place to dine in the woods that boasted a gourmet chef, what it lacked in facilities (there was no electricity and the toilets were, well, the woods) it made up for in character. The menu was small but with the promise of freshly prepared meals, and a request for patience whilst they prepared them. Two hours later, when our patience had just about run out, the food came out, and I can honestly say, it was worth the wait and all 6 of us fell silent as we ate by candlelight. It was a brief one night stopover, but I'm glad we had done it, and set our alarms to wake up for sunrise which we watched from our beds before our journey to La Paz.

Demonstration free, we sped over to La Paz, crossing a short straight in the lake where we had to get off the bus, which went on its own ferry, whilst we went on foot on another boat. Until I saw the vehicle ferry it seemed unnecessary to disembark the bus, however having seen it listing on the ferry I was glad we were on a little passenger boat and not on the bus! La Paz is the World's highest capital city at 3500m altitude, and it sits in a valley below the plains. The approach into the city is spectacular as the road circles the city winding down the valley wall. We caught up with Rich & Gill who'd just done the Death Road bike ride which we were hoping to do the following day. However on inspection of the weather forecast, rain was due and we thought that there was enough danger involved on a dry day, never mind adding in a slippery surface to the equation. So we decided to fly up to the jungle instead, and planned to do the bike ride on the way back as we had to pass through La Paz again in any case. The plane was a 16 seater prop, probably the smallest plane I'd ever been on, but the 40 minute flight was fine and saved us a 20 hour bus ride on some pretty dangerous roads. Rurrenabaque airport is what I would describe more like a detached house. The short trip into town showed us the locals going about their daily lives in what appeared to be a bustling if somewhat small jungle town that reminded me of places I'd driven past in Tanzania.

Rich & Gill were on an earlier flight, so by the time we arrived in Rurre, from where the jungle trips departed, they'd done the research and we arranged a trip starting the next morning. The 6 Machu Picchu crew Rich,Gill, Arjan & Nanda the Dutchies, Kim and I were back on the road together again.

We'd chosen to do the Pampas tour, which consisted of a 3 hours drive on a dirt track, then a 3 hour boat ride in a long narrow wooden boat, to our 'lodge'. The day didn't get off to the best of starts. After meeting our companion for the trip, Michael an Austrian guy who was obsessed with snakes we then found out that our vehicle had broken down. The agency spent an hour finding alternative vehicles. Eventually one turned up, but it looked a bit small for the 7 of us, and we noticed another parked on the other side of the road with no rear or left hand windows or at least only covered by plastic, and a cracked windscreen. After joking that our new vehicle had turned up, this half windowless shed pulled up outside the office and soon became obvious that it was in fact our other vehicle. The chivalrous boys took the shed and the girls went in the better of the 2 vehicles, although once we'd set off we then had to traipse around town looking for fuel in various people's houses as the petrol station was out. Eventually we were on our way. The dusty track took us through fields that also reminded me a little of Tanzania and the 3 hours seemed to pass quickly - we also had our first sighting of a Crocodile in a pond at the side of the road. We arrived at Santa Rosa and met our guide for the trip, Luis, who had grown up in the area, and he took us to our boat for the next 3 days.

We set off for the camp which was about 3 hours away and immediately saw Crocodiles, well Cayman to be precise & Caipibaras, pig sized mammals that had faces like Guinea Pigs. About 10 minutes into the journey my tummy started churning. I tried to use mind over matter, but after about 20 minutes I had the shakes, felt sick and it was clear that I would not last the 2 and a half hours journey, I really had to go to the toilet. Talk about bad timing, my dilemma at this point was this: did I somehow try and go on the boat, or hang over the side or something, bearing in mind there were a few other boats on the river and the guide and 6 other people on our boat, this wasn't really an option. Therefore I had to go on the land, and given that we'd just passed lots of not so small crocs on the river banks this was not ideal. I told the guide that I felt unwell and needed to go and he said I could go on the land. I felt a bit of an idiot asking if it was safe, but he assured me it was and found a spot with no animals in sight and accompanied me up the river bank to my al fresco toilet. I was half relieved at being able to go, but also wondering what I would do, pants round ankles, mid dodgy tummy episode should some of the local wildlife come to say hello and I was left face to face with a Cayman! Fortunately that eventuality did not materialise and I was left to go in peace and we carried on our way with me much happier and able to enjoy the scenery.

Our 'lodge' consisted of 3 wooden buildings, the bedrooms, toilets & showers and kitchen & dining room, this was relative Pampas luxury considering we were a couple of hours boat ride from the nearest town, we even had beds, complete with mosquito nets to sleep in! Once we'd dumped our bags we quickly got back in the boat to go to the sunset bar upstream to watch the sunset before heading back to camp for dinner. After dinner we tried playing cards with the guide and Bolivian guy who looked after the camp. We asked them to teach us some Bolivian card games, but as they were very sketchy on the rules, much like our Machu Picchu guide and his card game lessons, none of us really knew what we were supposed to be doing in their version of rummy. I mean, you could have a run of 3 even if you were missing the middle number, what sort of run is that?!!!

The following day we got up at 5.30 to go and watch the sunrise and then after breakfast was the anaconda hunt. We boated a short way down the river and then walked across a field, through waist high grass and then along a stream/ditch looking for the elusive anaconda. Our Austrian companion had really only come for this reason and we ended up walking further than we would have done had he not been there. As by this time he had managed to offend pretty much everyone else in the group with his condescending superiority, we were half wishing that we wouldn't see one.

However our efforts walking probably about 6 miles in total in searing heat were duly rewarded, none of us would have predicted what we eventually came across. The guide was walking in the ditch that was only about 2 metres wide and full of muddy water, and pointed out what I could have mistaken for a small branch under the water. He said that it was an anaconda, but what I couldn't work out at first was what was the scaly looking leg doing there. What we had come across was an anaconda wrapped around a cayman. The guides tried manoeuvring them to work out what was going on with this battle of wills. It seemed that the snake was winning as the cayman wasn't moving much. We sat and watched for a while and the snake kept trying to get away but couldn't as its tail was trapped in the crocs mouth. Eventually the guides decided to intervene and found a big branch to try and move the cayman which they suspected was dead as it had been underwater for at least half an hour, although I disputed this as I was sure I'd seen its little toe move. When they pushed the cayman body it was not dead, in fact it snapped at the branch and thrashed about, we all jumped out of our skins, this was happening right in front of us. The anaconda escaped and came towards us, the funniest part being that Michael the snake obsessed Austrian was the first and fastest to run away from said anaconda. It was amazing, it was only 1.5 metres long but had been faring quite well against the 2m long cayman. We had been very privileged to have witnessed what we saw, and went away happy that we'd saved both animals and no tourists were harmed in the process!

In the afternoon we went out on the boat again and were joined by pink river dolphins before fishing for piranhas, apparently this species don't eat human flesh but never the less I let the guide unhook the 2 I managed to land.

On our last day in the pampas we had the opportunity to go swimming with some more river dolphins. It took some time to pluck up the courage to get in the river along whose banks not 100m away were basking crocs. There's an Indian legend that says if the dolphins are in the water, the cayman will stay away. I certainly hoped so! I should point out that river dolphins are not like saltwater dolphins in that they are not playful around humans, they were in the water with us but at some distance. It was still good fun and I was glad we'd done it and survived!

After lunch we got back in the boat to speed back to Santa Rosa to then transfer back to Rurre. Kim & the Dutchies were heading to Uyuni the following morning whereas Gill & Rich were considering doing a tour into the jungle. I spent most of the way back contemplating which option I wanted to take. When we got back I found out that there were no seats left on the flight the following day, so that made my mind up for me, I was off to the jungle too. We had a night in Rurre to shower (the water was off for most of our stay in the Pampas!) and go for a nice dinner before saying our farewells before heading our separate ways the next morning.

The jungle trip was a different trip altogether to the Pampas, and in a way I wondered if we'd done it the wrong way round. With the exception of the 6 mile anaconda hike the Pampas trip was very laid back, with lots of sitting on our bums and watching the monkeys, birds, caymen, caipibaras, turtles, dolphins etc. In comparison, the jungle trip started similarly as we took a 2 hour boat ride straight from town into the Madidi national park, but then hiked into the jungle with all our kit.

On the boat ride our guide Miguel and cook Cristian introduced us the world of coca leaves, jungle style. We'd been used to drinking mate de coca, basically coca leaf infusion which is supposed to help combat the effects of altitude, but this was a new form of taking it altogether. They chew a small piece of stick which is a little bit like natural liquorice and then spit it into a handful of coca leaves. They then add a dash of bicarb of soda and place some more coca leaves on top and make a little coca leaf parcel which is then tucked away inside the cheek so you look like a lop sided hamster. It sits there for half an hour or so as the bicarb of soda gets to work and makes coca leaf flavoured juice. Once we got the hang of it we soon looked like locals, well kind of.

The trip was intended for guests to spend the first night at their campsite which had beds, before sleeping rough on night 2. We opted to go the whole hog and walked 2 hours into the jungle as soon as we got on dry land to set up our own camp. We had to clear the ground of roots and leaves, set up the wooden frame over which our plastic sheets were going and then search for firewood. We had cheated a little bit as we used a site that had been used previously so some of the wooden frame 'beams' were already there, but everything else we did from scratch. En route to the camp we'd stopped to watch a herd of wild pigs pass by and the guide made us fans by plaiting a type of palm leaf. Although we'd zig zagged around the jungle a bit and in fact were no more than an hour from the 'proper' campsite, cooking dinner on an open fire with our mosquito nets hanging up under the plastic sheets felt much better than staying in another albeit basic building. That night after a delicious Spag Bol we sat around the campfire and got to know our guides. We also gave offerings to Pachamama, or Mother Earth, a really important process for the guides. This involved digging a small hole, placing a few coca leaves and cigarettes in it and each person in turn dripped a few drops of alcohol over them, taking a sip and asked Pachamama for whatever you wanted whilst the guide blew smoke over you. It was obvious how seriously Miguel and Cristian took it and I actually found it quite a spiritual experience.

At my bedtime trip to the 'bathroom' like a proper jungle newbie I forgot to check my location out properly. I was just about to pee when I felt a bite on my bottom and realised that there was an ant on my bum cheek. I shot up and tried to remove said ant(s) but I actually got it caught in my pants as I pulled them up as I could feel it/them continuing to biting me. In fact there were a few ants caught under my trousers and I spent the next 5 minutes trying to get rid of them all, but not before they'd had a good nibble at my legs and arse. I now truly know the feeling of ants in my pants, one I hope never to repeat! Whilst walking in the jungle the following day Miguel showed us a tree which had long thin, to be honest rather phallic looking fruit growing from its trunk. He cut one off then cut the tip of it off and it oozed a clear sticky substance that has a natural soothing effect. Within moments I'd whipped down my trousers and was applying the liquid to my bitten bottom, all my dignity has been long since gone on this trip, and I must say, the remedy worked, for a short time at least, and stopped my unsightly bottom scratching for a while.

It was a really wet day on our second day, and after our walk about the jungle in the morning, we returned to camp and spent the afternoon making jewellery. Not what I'd expected to do in the Bolivian jungle, but was fascinating to see how the natural resources become rings, twine, bracelets necklaces etc. It was really satisfying to make things from scratch from seeds and beads collected from the jungle, vines that make twine and coco bean rings. The guides were turning out to be dab hands at everything, sewing (they helped fix my backpack), general jungle survival including showing us edible plants, oh yes, and I tried eating termites which tasted of wood, jewellery making, campfire building, you name it, they did it! After dinner that evening we went on a night walk to see if we could see any nocturnal wildlife. The jungle was home to Pumas and Jaguars, but sadly the only wildlife we managed to see was an Armadillo, which was still pretty cool. Being an outright westerner who likes showers, hot ones, every day, and comfy mattresses I was quite surprised to find myself really sad to leave the jungle on the last day and could have happily stayed another day or two. When got the boat back to Rurre and had a night out playing pool with our two guides on possibly the worst pool table I've ever played on, and I'm pleased to say the girls held our own and only lost on the last ball.

Next morning it was back to La Paz, a quick stop off to do Death Road before heading south to the Salt Flats of Uyuni. Death Road is a mountain bike expedition on part highway, part dirt track that hugs the mountainside from La Cumbre to Corioco a descent of 3500m altitude over 60kms. It is named Death Road as the dirt track part of the route, about half of it, has a severe drop off the side and was once the main vehicle route down. If you went off the side the chances of survival were incredibly slim. Thankfully now there is very little traffic that uses the road, so the only thing to worry about was not riding off the edge. We were fortunate with the weather, the scenery is stunning, and as we set off in the snowy mountains, it made me long for the French Alps again. Once on the dirt track however I was less interested in admiring the view than staying alive and I concentrated on the way down. It was an exhilarating ride and made me want to do more mountain biking.

Then it was the night bus to Uyuni, not my favourite 11 hour night bus of the trip as about only half of the route was surfaced with tarmac hence making sleep somewhat difficult. As we bumped through the Bolivian desert I wasn't sure if I would stay awake if I went straight onto a Salt Flats tour the following day. On arrival at Uyuni I quickly realised that tired or not, I didn't want to spend a day there and wanted to get out ASAP. By a twist of good luck I bumped in Rich & Gill who'd left for Uyuni a day earlier than me and had already booked me on a tour with them. It was only by good fortune that I saw them as I hadn't received their e mail the night before telling me where they were staying and where we were booked on a tour, when I saw them I was in the process of booking a tour with a different operator! We were joined in our jeep by 3 girls, 2 of who had grown up in New York and one in Bolivia, the 3 of them were cousins. There was also another jeep run by the same company on the same trip with which we kept crossing paths at the various stop points on the tour and the 5 in that jeep were also staying at the same hotel.

On our first day we saw the train graveyard, a collection of abandoned steam trains just outside Uyuni before heading out to the salt flats themselves. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, created when a tectonic action hundreds of thousands of years ago created the previously underwater Andean range and a salt lake, high up in the Bolivian desert. The salt water has long since evaporated leaving the 12000km2 salt flats where the salt cap is between 10 and 15m above the rock below. The locals working on the flats to remove the salt for processing do everything by hand and we first stopped by salt that had been scraped into small piles which were then hand loaded onto wagons. It was our first lunch stop and rather a nice place to open out the picnic stools and take in the white surroundings and bright blue sky.

We then moved on, away from the workers to find a more remote location for our photo session. Due to the white background of the floor, hours of entertainment could be had creating photographic masterpieces using the illusion of perspective, see the album! Once we'd exhausted our options with the few props we had, we moved onto the cactus garden, a rock in the middle of the flats with cactus' hundreds of years old on them, a rather strange sight in the middle of the white salt flats. We then moved onto another rock with a cave where we could see the salt stains on the roof which occurs after rainfall. As we took our seats at the cave entrance and looked across the salt flats, it was a very special place to watch my latest sunset of the trip. Time for some sunset photos before the hour long journey to the edge of the flat to our hotel. The hotel was made of salt....salt bricks, salt tables and stools, salt bed bases and crystals of salt in lieu of carpet. The other group were already there and the 11 of us played cards and were amazed at the feast that was put on for us given our remote location.

On day 2 we headed uphill to see some beautiful mountain scenery (once again the Alps sprang to mind), rock formations, lava fields, lagoons, flamingos and covered some serious mileage in the process. Our second hotel was brick built, and some may call basic, but was comfortable and fortunately had plenty of blankets as we were staying at an altitude of 4300m and once the sun went down it was bitterly cold. We were up for a 05:00 departure the following morning, complete with 5 layers of clothes and saw sunrise en route to the geysers spitting out hot air at almost 5000m. The hot air coming out of the geysers, that was evaporating moisture in the air so that steam was shooting up and bubbling volcanic mud made the place look like something from an episode of Doctor Who. Back in the jeep and as I had the only charged iPod became the music maestro for the day and quite enjoyed playing to the crowd, starting with some appropriate morning music (Boo Radleys, Wake up it's a Beautiful Morning, U2, Beatuiful Day, Elbow, One Day Like This etc) and then some sing along classics! We then moved onto the Green Lagoon which was perfectly still and provided just stunning reflections of the mountains beyond. We then hot footed it to the Chilean border to catch our connection to San Pedro de Atacama. En route the jeep was not feeling great and I wasn't sure that we'd make it. As we pulled up at the border and got out it was apparent that the radiator was not in the best of states, spewing water & steam, and we felt grateful that we weren't heading back to Uyuni some 7 hours driving away unlike the other 3 girls in our jeep.

So that was another country done and a brief trip into Chile ahead, country number 12. Bolivia is probably one of the poorest countries I've visited and especially in La Paz I felt the poverty all around. The countryside was varied and I loved all the trips I did there. I will also remember it as the place that I had my first Skype chat with Sarah & Ramil and their beautiful and only 12 hour old daughter Tess. I have only a month left and feel like I will be ready to come back by then as the draw of home comforts is becoming stronger and I also miss my family and friends. I had better make the most of the next month then as I'm sure it will fly by!