Lets begin where we finished... arriving into Bolivia.

We thought everything would be ok, we got our exit and entrance stamp from Brazil & Bolivia and got a taxi to the bus station to pick up our tickets we had bought the previous day in Corumba by a company that had been recommended to us by the guy we booked our pantanal trip with... but no!! far from it!!!!!

We gave in our receipt and they said they had never heard of this company before and that the tickets weren´t real... we had paid 80 Reals (22 pounds) so were like... WHAAAT!! we made a nuisance of ourselves by not moving and after about an hour they went and found a Polish girl staying with one of the bus´s workers who spoke english. She was able to translate for us... what a life saver!! she was soooo friendly, her name was Alijca. 2 people from the bus company went to BRAZIL and the company where we had booked the tickets to sort out the problem... after about 2 hours they returned and said WE GOT OUR TICKETS!! wahoo.... we said thank yu (alot of times haha) to Alijca and boarded the bus at 8pm. What a first day in Bolivia.

Santa Cruz 7 - 9th Feb

We arrived into Santa Cruz at 5:30am, it was still dark and we didnt have a hostel booked... so we sat at the bus station for 2 hours waiting for the sun to come up and for it to be a reasonable hour to turn up at a hostel without a reservation. We had heard of a hostel, Jodangas, which was meant for backpackers so we got a taxi there... and they said we would have to wait for 5 hours before they knew if they had space or not... so we waited in their lobby and luckily they had a twin room for the 2 nights. We checked in and RELAXED!!! The rest of the day we headed into the main plaza to have a wander, climbed the cathedrals bell tower and met a Spanish guy, who we met up with later that day for drinks. I kepty thinking about Taken when we got back to the hostel haha!! The following day we went to Guembe Biocentre, for a chilled out day. Here they had a butterfly sanctuary and an aviary along with natural pools and a swimming pool. Was so nice to just chill for the day and lounge in the pools. We also saw a SLOTH!!! Blimey they are S-L-O-W!!! The next day we got the bus to Sucre.

Sucre 10 - 13th Feb

WOW the bus journey was awful haha!! People standing in the aisle for 12 hours, only one loo break in 16 hours, speeding buses and crazy narrow twisty roads... but we made it :) phew!! We headed to the hostel and checked in. The owner, Ricardo, told us it was a National Holiday in Bolivia from 8-12th Feb. We decided to head into the main plaxa bit and we just walked out the door and BOOM a water balloon in the face. Their National Holidays mean lots of bands walking the street and even more WATER BALLOONS!!! we got drenched!!! it was definitely attack the gringo attitude!! we decided to fight back and bought some water balloons and joined in with the locals... they were less willing to throw them at us now we were armed with our own balloons!! We bought some ponchos (best 50p ever spent) and walked round the city. The next day we went in the souvenrir shops and booked our accomodation for Potosi... had to ring them and one only spoke spanish which resulted in a 10 minute conversation of dd random words i knew until the lady put the phone down on me hahaha!!! Tuesday 12th - Bolivias national holiday. We thought we could venture out down the back streets... by the time we got to the end of the hostels road we had 2 buckets of cold water thrown over us and a water pistol in the face. We quickly aborted all plans and legged it back to the hostel, to the amusement of everyone there haha!!! We stayed in the hostel for the rest of the day and throw water balloons at passer bys.... got to get into the spirit of things... one girl was getting so angry and i was like woah chill... youre in Bolivia and its their tradition, go with the flow!! anyways, we didnt spend too much time with them - silly girl!!!!

Potosi 13 - 14 Feb

The worlds highest city at 4,090metres, and man could we feel it. Everything was an effort, especially walking up hills. We went to the main plaza after we arrived and wandered around taking photos and looking at the markets. I also booked my tour of the Potosi mine for the following day.

The mine tour - wow what an experience. Loretta didnt do it as she doesnt like small spaces so for the first time i was walking alone!! We headed to the warehouse to get changed into overalls and after a visit to the miners market where i bought real dynamite and coco leaves and a trip to the refinery mill we arrived at the mine. We first met 2 miners who were following a new mineral line, we gave them the dynamite we had bought at the markets, they prepared it... lit it and then we all ran back down the tunnel before it exploded.... more miners die from cave ins every year due to exploding new area of the mountain, which they have no structural information about. With more miners going deeper into the mountain and digging more channels, the support structure of the mountain is weakening meaning the chances of a cave in are growing everyday - if there was a cave in, we would have been just as stuck as the miners - there was no quick emergency exit!! so, after the explosion we headed deeper into the mine, having to scramble down a narrow tunnel to get to the lower levels. A miner passed us carrying rocks on his back, the only way to get rocks out of the mine - carry or push in a cart!! We were in in the mine for 2 hours and desecended a total of 55metres. It was hot/cold and the tunnels were small, flooded and at times had to crawl or stoop to get through. Had to keep reminding myself people work here everyday, with a life expentancy of 10 years after entering the mine. Along the way we met more miners, one who had 10 children worked 6 long days a week for a total of 1000Bs.. 100 pounds a month!!! We met the Devil, the miners worship the devil to protect them whilst they are in the mine and carry out rituals infront of him. The miners drink 97% alcohol every friday infornt of the devil. Really glad i did the tour, was an amazing experience but wasnt as bad as what the reviews on tripadvisor make it out to be.

Next stop - Uyuni and Salar de Uyuni - The Salt Flats