hi there, heres the latest installment. before i left cusco, i tried the local speciality, of cuy, which is guinea pig. what can i say? ive done you all a favour. save yourself the time, money and effort, and avoid this dish at all costs. what i got was all skin and bone, and though i was tempted to persevere with it, i was finally put off completely by the paw i saw attached. i couldnt do it. i left almost all of it untouched. but i dont feel bad about it. i then headed back to la paz, where i only stayed one night, before heading north, via the "worlds most dangerous road". but i didnt take a bus, that would have been too easy. instead i opted to mountain bike down the road. what makes it so dangerous, other than it being unpaved, and covered in several inches of dust, is that its really only wide enough for one bus, and on the other side theres a vertical drop of several hundred metres. this has to have been one of the worst experiences of the whole trip! i absolutely hated it. but i got the end without incident (other than a LOT of swearing) and didnt get the bus the last part of the way down. but i would NEVER repeat this, and wholeheartedly recommend not trying it yourself. so to recover from the ordeal, i spent a few days lying by a swimming pool, in coroico, which was really relaxing. and then took a not very fun bus journey on to rurrenabaque. this journey continued along the dangerous road, though fortunately not too far. there, i hooked up with an australian couple, and we arranged to go on two tours together. the first, was to the jungle. we set off early, and had been heading up river for several hours, when suddenly the propellor fell off the boat! there was nothing we could do but drift slowly back towards where wed come from. our guide fashioned an oar from one of the boats seats, using his machete, but it didnt make much difference to our speed. so that trip got off to something of a false start. the next day, we tried again, but headed instead to the pampas, where saw lots of wildlife, plenty birds, alligators at every turn, dolphins, but unfortunately (?) no anacondas. we also got to hold a baby alligator. i went swimming with dolphins in alligator infested water, and managed to catch two piranha, which i ate for dinner that evening!!! after that trip, we again ventured into the jungle, this time a lot more successfully. there was a lot less wildlife this time, though more mossies, mainly because the weather had turned bad. but we saw a jaguars pawprints, and met someone whos seen a baby jaguar. we learned lots about the trees and flowers in the jungle, i think i understood most of it, which is pretty good, as it was ALL in spanish! and so now in back in la paz, after a few weeks at normal altitude, and suffering again. but im heading off later today, to lake titicaca, and then probably back to peru. ill keep you posted...