From Puno I crossed the border into Bolivia and onward to the madhouse that is La Paz. As luck would have it Kev, Claire and Fabien were in town so I dropped my bags off and hooked up with the gruseome threesome for a night on the spaz in downtown La Paz. This time we hooked up with some local guys who were determined to show us the 'real La Paz' . This involved a nightclub and some bizarre Morris style dancing, complete with hankerchief waving, stumbling and ge...

The journey from La Paz to Copacabana (no, not the famous beach in Brazil) was uneventful, and I reached Copacabana to find a small town (smaller than I was expecting, which was good) laid out on the shores of beautiful Lake Titicaca, a welcome relief after the madness of La Paz. At 3800m above sea level, Lake Titicaca is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world. It is huge, the remnants of an ancient sea, and now a popular stop off from travellers bound ...

With a belly full of Immodium (and anything else that I had not squirted out in the last ten minutes) we boarded the overnight train from Uyuni to Oruro, from which it's a further 3 hours bus ride to the Bolivain capital, La Paz. By now the group consisted of just Natalia, Fiona and myself, the other guys were headed in separate directions. Bolivian trains are OK, we paid an extra $5 for the 'executive class', I'm not sure I could have slept in the cheap seats. ...

So, we had arranged a three day jeep tour across the border from Chile into Bolivia, taking in the high desert, altiplano and eventually the main attraction - the vast salt flats of Uyuni. We selected an operator from the myriad available and, mindful that none are recommended, headed off for the Bolivian border where we would pick the tour up. I have to point out that Bolivians are nearly as notorious for their driving as they are for the ugliness of their wome...