Bolivia, the most diverse and beautiful country we have visited so far. Where do we start?....

We arrived at the border at the unearthly hour of 6.30am but unfortunately the customs office didn't open for another 2 hours so, huddled in a little mud hut room we waited. We weren't alone and this was our first encounter with Bolivian locals. The Bolivian dress is very distinctive, especially for the women and although it certainly gives them identity we cannot for the life of us figure out how it can possibly be practical. They wear layers, fair enough because it gets cold but these layers go on and on: a puffy skirt worn over trousers worn over leggings; cardies over jumpers over more jumpers topped off with a big apron and a little top hat that belongs on Little Miss Tidy's (from the Mr Men books) head! If they are still cold they wrap themselves in thick llama blankets and shawls - these people are tiny, how on earth do the move with all that on?!

Anyway despite the fact that yet again we had no currency or plan, when the office opened we crossed the border without incident (thanks to Ian and his obsession with the BBC website we were very, very surprised to be still living!) Our facination with the people kept us occupied all morning as we sat in Villazon plaza people watching which was a good thing seeing as the twice weekly train didn't leave until 4pm.

The train was fun. People sold us their wares through the windows at random stops, passengers jumped off with their bundles of brightly coloured cloth seemingly in the middle of nowhere and we made friends with some likeminded travellers, Angela, Louise and Taylor. Eventually we arrived at Tupiza.

We planned to take a four day tour to the salt flats of Uyuni from Tupiza and now we had met our new friends we almost had a full group. The five of us were joined by two Swiss French girls (making conversation interesting...try mixing English, Spanglish and French and not getting confused) Eva and Valerie. What with the addition of our guide, Oru and his wife/ cook, Vicky, our eight seater jeep was certainly cosy! For poor Taylor who must be nearly seven feet tall it was cosy to say the least, head wedged sideways on the ceiling! To be fair we were given the choice between a comfier journey and no cook or to be a bit squished and be served yummy food....umm let us have a think about that one....FOOD!!!!!!

The tour was fantastic, we passed stunning countryside, beautiful rainbow coloured rocks, fields of llamas and donkeys; we visited little mud hut villages where the adults were all looking after the llamas or working in the mineral mines and the children looked after themselves. In one of these villages Cheryl started teaching her new game 'mas rapido' consisting of picking the kids up and spinning them round. This of course went down a storm but we hate to think of the increased potential for broken limbs we have left in our wake! We ended up staying the night in one of these villages where the electricity ran of what looked very much like a car battery and the kids liked to play basket ball. Ever wanting to please we entered this game with gusto forgetting we were at 4500 metres altitude - we dropped like flies within minutes much to the kids' ammusement! The tour also consisted of seeing smoking vocanos, huge deserts scattered with cacti with the odd mini dust torpedo sweeping across the horison and huge lagoons of turquoise and bright red scattered with pink flamingos. By day it was warm (warm enough to take a dip in the hot spring) but by night it was freezing! Yes mum, we know you were right, sending home our ski jackets was not our smartest move!!! Eventually we reached the salt flats. These were amazing! We slept in beds made of salt (surprisingly comfy), got up early enough to stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a flat desert of salt for as far as the eye could see to watch the sun rise. We then drove to a little cacti island for a breakfast of pancakes with dulce de leche (thanks Vicky) before visiting the hotel, made entirely of salt (naturally). After a stop off at the train graveyard??! our tour was sadly at an end but we had reached Uyuni and had aclimatised to heights of 5000 metres, well done us!

The fun did not end there...next moring we all (us, Angela, Louise and Taylor) borded a rather sketchy looking bus with all our worldly goods perched rather procariously on the roof. The bus was driven by no less than a raving lunatic - motto: see something (child, stray animal, cliff edge) honk and drive faster. It wasn't long though before the driving came to a standstill, 4500 metres up a mountain side. Why? Of course, a political blockade held by miners with a fettish for dynamite. It became a game of dodge the explosion (okay so that is a slight exageration but it felt like that and it was scary!) At first it was 'a Bolivian experience'. Six and a half hours later it was a case of you darned Bolivians, we're hungry! By night fall it was not funny. No food, no security and no warmth=grumpy Liz and Cheryl. Taylor, bless his heart sensing female hormonal reflexes escaped down the valley in search of food and shelter for all. However....as soon as he left the blockade came unexpectedly to an end...oh dear. We, our possy, plus every person on the bus started yelling 'Taylor!' (or for those who couldn't pronounce his name 'Aya!' or better still 'Vamos chico muy alto!' aka 'we're going very tall boy!' All was not lost when Cheryl whipped out her neuro torches (stolen from the NHS naturally) to guide him and the egg sandwiches for all up the mountain side. Vamos! In our excitement we had forgotten the antics of our driver who considered it necessary to drive even faster in the dark. Needless to say we got off three hours early instead of in desired, Sucre, Potossi. Life over location!

Potossi is renouned for its silver mines, instead of risking our lives (the miners mostly die at 40) we people watched in the plaza, played jenga over a cup of tea and moved on to La Paz in a very luxurious camma bus (new discovery for us - the seats go right back especially when it is broken like Liz's, much to the man behind's disgust!). here we walked up and down the streets turning our noses up at the expensive accommodation until we stumbled across a great find, where we were given none other than the pent house. Dining room table, 3 ensuite bedrooms, kitchen, utlilty, TV and stereo system included! It was all a bit overwhelming so we took ourselves to the markets christmas shopping to calm ourselves. Any excuse to shop!

Last stop, Copacobana, Lake Titicaca and the Isle del Sol. We LOVED it here, a bargain brand new luxury hotel to stay in over looking the lake and sunset, a holiday feel all round and of course the blessing of the cars outside the cathedral to entertain us. Seriously, it was a full on naming ceremony with fireworks, posh dress, photos and everything. Ammusingly the priest puts holy water in the bonnet, obviously that stops all accidents!

Bolivia was a delight but a bit scary at times so we were glad to be crossing the Peruvian border (Ian we do NOT want to know if we are going to die!)