After a very interesting bus journey which involved us all getting off the bus and onto a tiny little power boat (20 people, 3 life jackets, pitch dark, slightly terrifying!) we finally arrived in La Paz and checked into the Wild Rover Hostel, little did we know we would not see light of day for a while as we did such cultural things as eat Irish stew, drink (lots)and chat to lots of lovely Irish people! We did manage to drag ourselves away to wander round the town as sonja showed us the sights of the witch market - mainly dried Llama foetuses (nice!) and lotsof nice souvenirs - I had to be restrained from the alpaca jumpers!

Sunday night was halloween which of course meant shopping for an outfit, meaning a trip to another of La Paz's markets where Val, one of the Irish girls, was almost mugged leading to a renewed vow of not going out after dark. on a plus point we did find outfits which was very exciting - me transforming into a bat with abnormally large wings, (which of course were loved in the amazingly crowded bar!) and Katy into a skeleton (she has a thing for white facepaint i have now realised!) Halloween night was very exciting, with EVERYONE dressed up and me and Katy got our first taste of South American nightclubs when we went out afterwards with the hostel - being incredibly drunk we managed to be the proud owners of rather a lot of fake notes by the time we left the taxi - Katy then spent the rest of the night relentlessly try to fob them off on the girl at the bar. At the same time she found a fellow Yorkshire man and reminisced about how its the greatest place on Earth. Said boy then got so drunk he lay on the floor outside and smitten Katy very lovingly bundled him into a taxi to return him to the hostel -awwwww!!!

The next day after much debating we finally booked our Pampas tour with Grainne, Tom and Melissa and headed off the following day to the jungle in a plane that barely looked like it would manage to stay in the sky! The views as we flew in were stunning and we were all very excited about our tour! After almost leaving our bags in the tour office we finally boarded our jeep and met the other two girls on our tour - Emma and Dayna - and became the 7 amigos! After an amazingly long jeep ride that was made longer by the fact the other cars kept breaking down and apparently or driver was the local mechanic we arrived at the river to meet our guide - Juan Carlos (who we afectionatley renamed Mogli) and hopped onto our little motorized canoe which i grew to love! The boat ride was amazing and we saw lots of wildlife - Capybaras, turtles, monkeys, birds... oh and a couple of thousand alligators and a couple of Cayman (big, scary, hungry alligators) !!! After arriving at our lodge in the middle of the jungle we sat and had a beer while watching the sun go down, had tea and then relaxed in the hammocks (its not easy to get out of a hammock let me tell you!) Then it was time for the most hair raising part of the trip - not searching for a deadly snake or fishing for vicious pirahnas - but BED. Bed which in my case was full of some oversized flying beetle which despite being removed several times were apparently rather attached to me and would not get the message and leave. Eventually i gave in a cocooned myself in my sleeping bag and baked for the rest of the night while Katy snored away in a nice beetle free zone!!! The next day was a very exciting search for an Anaconda, which we eventually found curled up in a tree after hours of trekking through a bog and peering into every hole we could find in the blazing heat! After lunch was my favourite part - Pirahna fishing - who new fishing could be so exciting! With a huge alligator sat right next to the boat, we tried (in vain) to catch a pirahna but all we basically did was feed them since none of us could get the hang of actually catching them! Dayna got a pretty decent sized fish (unfortunately not of the man eating variety) and Katy caught a cat fish but I entertained the whole boat as well as Mogli when i screamed murder after catching the tiniest Pirahna in the river and screaming like a girl when it flopped around on the bottom of the boat snapping its little teeth in the direction of my BARE feet! This caused a knock on effect to Katy who practically pushed Tom into the river with the alligator in her efforts to move down the boat until eventually Mogli came to my rescue and much to his amusement rescued the fish and (after a photo of course) set it free to grow into a full sized man eating, vicious creature! We then waited until nightfall and got back on the boat to see the river in the dark which involved us all shinging a torch at the river bank and waiting to see how many alligator eyes seemed to be staring back at us ready to pounce - during this Tom and Katy were particularly funny as they practically sat on each others knees and freaked out at every splash!Day three meant swimming with the pink river dolphins (which we passed on on account of the alligators we would also be swimming with!) and then a ride back down river and back into the jeep. The highlight of this day surely being the cold shower once we were safely back in our hostel in Rurrenabaque!

We went back to the Wild Rover vowing to stay only one night and me and Tom started the great debate - To cycle death road or not!!! After much debating we eventually bit the bullet and booked the tour for the next day with the girls and then spent the rest of the night panicking while Katy sat with a smug look on her face knowing she was in for a nice relaxing day in the hostel having been the sensible one and not risking her life for an adrenalin rush! Next day was the dreaded bike ride which was definitely worth it despite being the most terrifying thing in the world. Luckily we had a very nice guide who gave me his full suspension bike when i must hgave looked on the verge of packing it all in due to the sensation that i was surely about to fall off going over one of the millions of bumps and meet a certain death! We all survived however (me at the back the whole way, holding onto the brakes for dear life) and only later do you hear all the horrific stories of the people who havent been so lucky!

After returning to la Paz it was time for us, Grainne and Melissa to leave and head to Potosi. Even this was of course not as simple as you might think when we arrived at the bus station just in time to board the bus and Katy realises she has left her handbag at the hostel with both of our bank cards in it. Cue a mad rush back to the hostel where it takes us a while to find the bag (we eventually do) and we have by this time surely missed the bus. True to our vow only to stay one night though, we raced back to the bus station to find the bus had already left! Fear not, this being us we were then bundled back into a waiting taxi and were driven to the next stop of the bus where Grainne and Melissa were amazed to see us climbing onto the bus!

Potosi here we come!!!!