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...

23/5/09 After a five hour journey from Bonito we arrived at the Pantanal wetlands, an area the size of France. We were dropped off at a place where we had a late lunch, and then we transferred from the minibus to the back of a truck. We drove for an hour and a half to get to our lodge, and passed all kinds of wildlife! The wet season is overdue so a lot of the lakes and streams were dried up, but we also passed some which hadn't. We saw caimen (South American cro...

21/5/09 We arrived in the morning, after a long overnight bus journey. The reason why people come to Bonito is because nearby is officially the best freshwater snorkelling and diving site in the world. The owner of our hostel told us all about it when we arrived, and it sounded absolutely amazing, but it was expensive and we didn't have the cash to spare, so Dave and I decided not to do it the next day, when everyone else would be. We had nearly all day to do th...