OK so in a TV style 'previously on...', we left you with us having just completed our visit to Machu Picchu and were about to embark to our second country, Bolivia. Before we did set off for Bolivia, we had a couple of days to kill in Cusco, and these turned out to be two of the luckiest I've personally experienced.

The first day we used as a chore day and planned to take care of all the little bits which we needed to sort out; the first being to book our bus to La Paz. This is where lady luck first shined her warmth on us, as by quickly nipping into a travel agency which was previously shut, we managed to get a quicker, cheaper and more luxurious bus (the seats went fully flat and were huge!) than the ones we were literally about to pay for. Absolute score!

We spent the next day hanging out with two girls we had made friends with, relaxing on a balcony overlooking the main plaza, enjoying the sunshine and people watching. All very sophisticated. This was also the setting for my second piece of luck, as I didn't get charged for a pint of bitter which was priced at an astronomical level (it was the first time I had seen any draught beer out in SA, so I thought I would treat myself).

The third and forth pieces of luck are part of the same story - the previous day we had put our clothes in a laundrette and were told to come back at 5pm the following day to collect it. We arrived a tiny little bit late as we were enjoying the balcony too much, meaning the laundrette had shut... cue a load of panic as we were off to Bolivia in a couple of hours, so were fancying the prospect of only having the clothes on our backs. Fortunately, after a bit of persuasion, the guy who owned a shop next door to hers rang her and she drove back to let us collect our clothing. Again, very lucky. The biggest bit of luck, however, came when we were walking back to the laundrette to finally collect our clothing. As we had been in Cusco for about a week, I felt like I was learning the road network and thought we were walking along a one way street - I was wrong. As I stepped into the road to cross it, I impeccably timed it so I kicked the side of a car's front wheel and then had the wingmirror smash into my back, causing me to fly to the floor. Apart from a bit of a swollen ankle I was fine, and the lady driver was just happy that was the case and didn't seem to mind that I had just caused damage to her very nice car. I was very. very. very lucky not to find myself with a broken leg and having my travels cut short. But I didn't, so on to Bolivia!

We arrived in La Paz, Bolivia's biggest city, on the day when the students have some sort of yearly parade. Its huge, goes on all day and makes getting around La Paz a f***ing nightmare. Because of the parade, our bus wasn't able to get to the bus terminal, meaning we had to walk with our bags for about 20 mins to get into the centre of La Paz. Once there, we were not able to get a taxi to our hostel as the parade consumes the whole of La Paz's central road, causing the city to be split into two and we were on the wrong side for our hostel. Fortunately, a very helpful local showed us a bridge we could use to walk over the parade and finally reach our hostel.

La Paz as a city is horrible - it's basically your run of the mill big, ugly and polluted city - a far cry from the cultured cities we had got used to in Peru. The activity to do while there is to bike down THE WORLDS MOST DANGEROUS ROAD (as seen on Top Gear). I personally couldn't wait to do it, as I was dying for another adrenaline rush after getting a taste of one when being knocked over by a car.

The location of the road is pretty dangerous, with a massive drop on one side, but what makes it scary is the terrain, as it is rocky as hell. In our group there was two guides and for the first half of the ride we went pretty slow, but then the guides switched who was at the front and oh my life did he rocket. Jordan and I were at the front with this over traveller and we could barely be going any faster down the road. Travelling at over 30mph, on a road which is full of massive rocks, really gets the heart going! I did almost skid off the road at one corner as well. Jordan was behind me when it happened and says he thought I was a goner! Once at the bottom (I won), we relaxed by a pool for a couple of hours.

With the biking ticked off, the other key thing we wanted to do while in Bolivia was to visit the world's largest salt flats. However, I am hungry and want to enjoy the beach a bit more before the sun goes down, so I will leave that for our next update.

So chao for now,
Michael