My first 3 days in La Paz were spent trying to get better from some sickness bug I had...I managed to check out the city by joining the "Red Cap walking tour" which, compared to other walking tours I have done, it didn't really meet expectations but it was nice nevertheless...one morning when I was feeling a little stronger I explored more of the city and went to Mirador Killi Killi which had incredible views of the city. I was pleased to have made it to the top as the walk was tough - so many steps and along many different small cobbled streets, I didn't quite know where I was heading. I don't know how the locals walk around here so much it is so tiring. La Paz is almost set up in different levels, The rich residents live in the lower part where it is warmer and so the poor are left living high above the city, which can be as high as about 4000m. In all honesty, I think I would prefer to be poor and live up high as the view of the city is purely magical. I'm not sure why most tourists don't like La Paz, because I think it's a very special city, very cleverly built in the mountains. The centre of the city is tiny and very touristy, but if you step outside of the main area you meet really friendly locals who greet you with a big grin and you get to see them enjoying life around the city. Ok the place is full of buses, micros & cars hooting their horns 24/7 and yes you can find yourself surrounded by people in the streets bumping into you, but hey, you get that in every city.

After 3 days of trying to recover I needed to get out of the city and do something (getting a little lonely and depressed!) So I booked my 3 day hike up Huayna Potosi with Travel Tracks and started the trip on Wednesday. No one else had booked with the agency by the time I left so it was just me and my guide...cool! The first day was purely a practise day using all the gear they had given me including crampons and an ice axe. Apparently I was quick and confident using them so my guide was very happy and decided to let me climb the ice and abseil a little down. It was great fun, I wish there was more climbing & abseiling opportunities here. After that I returned to Basecamp where I met 8 others who had booked with different companies who were also planning to climb the mountain (we had a good fun mixture of people - an Ozzy, a Kiwi, 2 British girls, 2 German guys & an Italian guy). We spent the afternoon eating, talking, playing cards and drinking lots of tea to stay warm! That night we were 4900m high and luckily everybody was feeling fine with the altitude.

The next day we were up at 7.30am and hiked 3 hours to Highcamp with all our stuff. The hike probably would have been ok, but to carry about 15k up a steep mountain was pretty damn tough and by the time we arrived at HighCamp I was really worried I wouldn't manage the hike the following day. We arrived about midday so had the entire afternoon and evening to try and stay warm/chill. It was extremely hard to stay warm...we could see our breath and could not warm our feet! The accommodation was a brick building but with no fire or heating so it was up to us to drink tea, eat hot meals and jump around like crazy people to stay warm. We all tried sleeping that afternoon and evening, but I am not sure any of us had very good night sleeps. I'm not sure I had more than 1 hour sleep before we had to get up to start the hike at 1 in the morning. Tired and FREEZING, we all got up, had a small breakfast and set off in the dark with our head lamps. We put our crampons on and each had a safety rope attached to our guide. We all set off together as a big group but we were all walking at different speeds so Andrea (Italian guy) jogged on ahead, and I followed behind. This may have been the hardest physical challenge I have had to do...there was so much against me- lack of sleep, a high altitude, 5 hours of solid ascent in the snow which at times you sunk into every step. At times I was glad I had my own guide as I could go my own pace, but he definitely pushed me...I was exhausted and at certain points I had to just grunt at him to say I needed to stop to catch my breath. He never asked me how I was so it took a lot for me to talk to myself to say 'you can do this, keep going, stop and take deep breathes'. Several times near the top I wanted to cry but I kept going. I was half an hour from the top when I was so physically exhausted I couldn't hold myself together anymore and just started crying. It was then I was wondering if I could really make it to the top...but my guide gave me a hug and said we were nearly there...30 minutes left. I could even see the top, I wasn't going to give up then! Somehow I managed to gain enough strength to pull myself to the top where Andrea was waiting (he needed a photo taken, and didn't have a working camera so had to wait about an hour for the next person to get to the top...which was ME J) After my guide took some photos for me (I was too exhausted & cold to even try and take photos!) we started the descent. As Andrea described me...I was a walking zombie! I couldn't walk in a straight line, my head was telling me too, but my legs were not helping very much. We eventually arrived back at HighCamp...exhausted and with a headache I jumped into my sleeping bag to rest for an hour. Then I said hi and bye to the others and my guide took me down to basecamp. I wasn't too impressed with him at this point...I had a heavy bag, I was exhausted and he just ran ahead infront of me and never waiting. It was dangerous clambering on the slippery rocks too...all I wanted to do was rest. But eventually I made it back to basecamp and jumped in the van back to La Paz. In the evening I met up with Andrea for dinner and chilled for the rest of the day...