4/6/09 Angela had told us the night before that if the strike didn't end in Uyuni like expected the next day, then she would wake us up at 4.30am and we would travel to La Paz by sneaking out in the trucks (some of the others had flights to catch in La Paz later the same day), but if it did end then she would let us sleep in (apart from those people with flights to catch, who would travel out in the early morning whether or not the strike ended), because the buse...

31/05/09 Potosi to Uyuni. The journey took six hours, but I was glued to the window almost the entire time; the scenery was so endlessly diverting that there wasn't a chance of getting bored. A journey of only six hours is a piece of cake for us now in any case, at this stage of our travels! The Bolivian altiplano really is extremely beautiful. We passed by mountain peaks with snow on, narrow sparkling streams, grassy hills, dusty plains, red rocky outcrops, tiny...

30/5/09 We had to leave Sucre early, because there was going to be a sports car race around the main square on that day (there had been on the evening before as well) and we had to leave before the surrounding streets were closed off. The bus climbed up and up into the Bolivian Altiplano, part of the Andes. Eventually we arrived at Potosi, the highest city of its size in the world, and from the moment I stepped off the bus I could feel the altitude. At this poin...

27/5/09 We didn't do much apart from catch our local flight from Santa Cruz to Sucre, meet up with the new people in our hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon, before all going out for dinner in the evening. The new people were Wai Ling (Canada), Ann-Louise, Charlotte and Anthony (all Brits), and Tanya (Australia.) For dinner I had a traditional Bolivian dish made up of dried, shredded and fried meat, 'Bolivian white corn', two pieces of white cheese and ...

26/5/09 After a night of only on-and-off sleep (in my case), we were given breakfast on the train; a pot of yoghurt, a cheese and ham sandwich and a drink. Then a couple of hours later, we arrived in Santa Cruz. It's one of the biggest cities in Bolivia but has a relatively small centre, and isn't really on the tourist trail. We were only there for that day, so all Dave and I did until the evening was wander round the main square and surrounding streets, and go o...