We woke fairly unrested having had a disturbed night sleep due to multiple young teenage Bolivian girls who had taken up residence in the hotel and spent most of the night slamming doors, screaming and running down the corridors! As a result we got up quite late at about 9am and luckily managed to catch Scott's mum on skype for our first skype chat since we've been away. Shortly after we had a phone call to the hotel from the tour company informing us there was a problem with the night bus we were due to take tonight. Apparently there are major strikes on around Uyuni area and miners are blocking the road and rail links from La Paz. We either had to fly to Uyuni to start our tour tomorrow as planned or just hang around in La Paz until the strikes were over - but no one had any guarantee of how many days this could be. For the extra £65 each we decided to fly - so on the plus side instead of a 12-15 hour night bus we now get to spend another night in the comfy hotel and take a 1 hr flight instead. Hopefully it will mean we won't be tired for the salt flat tour and enjoy it more as a result.

Mid-morning we spotted the Australian couple, Clare and Bernie, who we had met previously in Puna and Copacabana. It's funny because so many people are travelling the same route we are starting to recognise about half of the people on the tourist buses! Anyway - we spotted the Aussies in a coffee shop and joined them for a drink which ran into a spot of lunch and a good chat.

We had an enjoyable couple of hours this afternoon at the Valley of the Moon or the Valle de la Luna which is about a 20 minute taxi ride out of La Paz. Incidentally it's not actually a valley but an eroded maze of canyons and pinnacles with a signed walkway between them, and some impressive views of the arrid red landscape surrounding La Paz.

This evening we stocked up on a few supplies for our salt flat tour (loo roll and toothpaste!) - sounds easier than you think as we spent a good 20 mins wandering the streets trying to find a pharmacy or somewhere that might sell toothpaste. We found mountains of small food stores, fruit markets, shoe shops and clothes stands and finally a tiny little shop with deodorant and Colgate - yippee! Afterwards Scott got his hair cut in a barbers and had a wet shave! (Everywhere seems to stay open until late into the evening here). It was intriguing seeing the barber sterilise the blades in a bunsen burner like flame! Scott's facial expressions were hilarious throughout the whole process. When the barber suggested I have my hair cut too he laughed at the look of horror on my face!

We had a yummy dinner in a Moroccan themed restaurant before turning in for the night. We've got an early start tomorrow as we have to be at the airport by 7am. We've had a lovely couple of relaxing days in La Paz - I've enjoyed its vibrancy and hustle and bustle much more than I had anticipated. It has a genuine feel about the place - like you're seeing the real deal and not a display for the tourist industry; and as such I have found myself fond of the place, and strangely chilled out despite the chaos.