La Paz - First impressions were "Phew what's that pong!" on arriving at 5am in the cold city. By day the weather was good to us, we strolled around the town, ate at a gorgeous café, found Bolivia's answer to Trafalgar Square (only the pigeons weren't as fat!), where me and Emlyn fed the million pigeons (I fretted that one of them would poop on me, and prayed if one were to poop it would be on Emlyn but we both got away poop-less!). We arranged to go along the Death Road - a knuckle-whitening ride down narrow and winding roads with no sort of barrier along the side which dropped down 4900mtrs. Ant, on thinking it was the Tour-De-France skidded off his bike whilst racing Emlyn down the gravity assisted bumpy "roads", but thankfully managed to stay on the track to continue his race! 15 mins of fame for Emlyn as he rescued one of the guides from being run over by a reversing truck, (the roads were incredibly narrow, one truck barely had enough room to ride along, let alone for two passing trucks) but paid the price of his heroic moment by losing his bike over the cliff-side, only managing to sacrifice one of the handles! Luckily we had a brilliant and well organized (with the acceptation of the adrenaline-junkie guide who nearly got himself run over just moments before) tour company and another bike was proved for Emlyn to carry on. After only half an hour we were already caked in mud, and drenched. It was pouring and we road through low clouds which made it almost impossible to see the sharp bends. Along the way we saw a lot of crosses and flowers which people put for their loved ones where they had died passing throught the road, it certainly got me gripping my breaks even harder than I thought possiable. At end of the road we were overjoyed, tired, wet, sore arms and hands (I had to praise my fingers off the brakes as they'd been firmly gripped all the way, superglue wouldnt have done a much better job! Not sure what difference the brakes made though!) We were given a shower (cold!!!), dinner and a free tee-shirt (That was my main purpose of the ride, all the way thinking "C'm on: free tee shirt!") Back in La Paz we went to look for the Prison, hoping we would get in somehow (I'd looked on a website of the prison (www.marchingpowder.com) for a name to give to the guards on entry and found "Thomas McFadden"). First attempt to get in were hopeful, we were given a list of names to choose from as to who we wanted to show us around but on being shown the main door, the other guard was stern and refused to let us in. He even threatened to give Anthony a one-way entry to the prison when he tried to take a photograph. A prisoner on the inside must have seen us and passed through a note with his name and number on to call and arrange a visiting date, but we had planned to leave that evening so no such visit took place. A 14 hour bus ride to Rurrenabaque, a tiny little hot town in the middle of the Amazon, where nearly everyone rode around on motorbikes and scooters. For the lift from the bus station to our hotel, we got scooter taxis: not sure how we all managed to fit our massive backpacks onto the wee motorbikes! We set off in an oldish 4X4 (had no glass in one of the windows!), a 3 hour bumpy journey to the Amazon river, stopping off only to spot an aligator and to have lunch. Due to the sandy roads and the lack of windows we were all coverd in sand and dust by the time we arrived. We introduced ourselve to our tour group, who were all from different parts of the world (Finnish, Spanish, German, Irish, English, and Italian) so on forgetting their names or not being able to pronouce them we referred to them by what country they were from! We also had a wikked tour guide, who was tubby little fella that Emlyn loved to wind up (fresh blood!). The first day on the Amazon was amazing we had a wonderful lazy day floating along the river, watching for wildlife, even got close enough to some little yellow-coloured monkeys to feed them bananas and biscuits. (so cute, I had to redist temptation to kidnap one in my rucksack!). We stopped at a riverside "pub" to watch sunset: lots of beers went round especially between Ant and his fellow Irish friend! "C'm on us Irish are 'ard!". I think they were trying proceed the Irish's drinking reputation! Evening dinner was by candle-light, and not in the romantic sense as there was no electricity! Took the boat out after dinner to watch for alligators and their evil red-eyes (but it think we were dreaming of bed in our beer-hazy daze!). Next morning woken by our guide to see sunrise: only Ant and Emlyn stubbornly refused to get out of bed in time (okay it WAS 5am!). Emlyn's words were "I've seen it before" yeh right! I just managed to drag myself out of bed, hair still all over the place and cursing the boys for not joining in with my suffering! On seeing the beautiful sunrise and the waking up of the animals my cold nose and the boys snoozing away were long forgotten: their loss! After breakfast, dressed in massive Wellington boots we set out for a along the river to the swamps where we docked our boat to search for snakes. At first I was worried one of us would accidentally step on a snake and get bitten, but half an hour later we were still slogging through the swamps, sun blazing down and mosiquos buzzing around us (we unnecessarily brought 5 bottles of insect repellent and used it regliously, so it wasnt just insects we were repelling!) we still hadn't spotted anything. Emlyn found entertainment using the guide's massive knife (which caused silly bickering later on between the boys as to who's turn it was to carry it; now, now boys!) to cut down the leaves whilst the rest of us kept well away in fear of getting caught accidentally by the blaze! Eventually someone shouted that they'd found an anaconda, we all ran as fast as we could (try running in water-filled wellies, hard work!), Anthony very nearly lost one of his wellies to the swamp. On arriving at our destination Emlyn and Anthony were sorely disappointed that the snake wasn't big 'nuff! But it was big enough for me, and this time I finally found courage to hold it (I have a picture to prove it!). After enjoying an afternoon siestas in hammocks over looking the Amazon river,our guide took us to fish for our dinner: piranhas! After an hour or so of trying, (my rod had broke ages before as I tried to fish out a tree which caught on my hook, so I got the privilege of being able to lie down and stoke up the sun whilst watching Emlyn and Ant struggle to get a "Big One") and a few tiny piranhas later a frustrated grunt from Ant and Emlyn shaking his head "these fishes are professionals!!". Excuses, excuses! Back to the camp we had dinner (piranhas and spaghetti!) then lit a camp-fire which we enjoyed to early hours, sharing beers, teaching sign-language, as well as inventing sign names for each one of the group, which they loved (apart from the swedish guy who we thought might be gay but wasnt! Dont need to ask what sign name we gave him! Ops!). Final day we went swimming in the river with dolphins and god knows what else! Poor guide falling victim to one of Emlyn's practical jokes was pushed in the river fully clothed! After a few minutes of trying to figure out if the thing floating in the water was as aligator, we finally concluded after persuasion from the guides that it was in fact a log we dived in to join in the fun with the dolphins. Managed to get pretty close, everytime a dolphin made an appearance we swam in its direction in hope of a ride: but no such luck! Back to Rurrenabaque, we met up with our tour group again for a last drink but Ant was too ill so went to bed. The drink soon turned into many drinkS, with me and Emlyn getting lost in the tiny town of Rurrenabaque and not being able to find our hotel. The next morning we discovered we'd probably passed the hotel at least twice the night before! 16 hour bus ride back to La Paz, along the death road AGAIN! The bus broke down on the way due to some damage to the water thingy, didnt give me much confidence we would make it along the death road again! Half way Emlyn realised that we had left the charger back at the hotel with the battery charging! We debated whether to go back or not, but decided against it. Back in cold La Paz, in the very early hours of the morning, all of us grumpy and suffering from some sort of illness or another (i.e hangover maybe?!). We stayed in La Paz another day, and booked our bus to Uyuni. Arriving in Uyuni it was -15 degrees outside at 5am in the morning. Our noses were red and cold, feet were dead, I was having visions of frost bite, hoping I wouldnt have to have my toes amputised! Sleepy and cold, we went to a tour office (the lady was at the bus station taking advantage of sleepy, freezing, tourists who only wanted food and warmth to book trips to the Salt Lake with her company). After booking our trip, we were offered a mattress on the floor (I can now empathise with squator's living conditions) in the back room and sofa to sleep on til 10am in the back room; not much warmer than outside! Just before 10am we dragged our still-cold feet out of bed, had a quick breakfast and set out in our land rover towards Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat at 12,000 sqkm. Stopped off by some old carrier trains, which used to be used for transporting salt to Uyuni for export. Further on we we greeted by MILES of brillant white plains of salt: incredibly BRIGHT (was grateful for buying the no-so-cool sunglasses last min to replace the ones I'd lost). We droved towards some islands which were covered in cactus, one on the island we stopped of at was 1, 002 years old! Stopping off at one island, we climbed up, where the views were phenomal. Back down to the bottom, lunch was Llama! Wasnt as tasty as I'd thought, it tasted like lamb but had the texture and roughness of beef: it was deep-fat fried which I'm not keen on. Ant loved it, and Emlyn soaked his in tomato ketchup, so he could have been eating anything! Stopped at a hotel which was made of Salt, we were hoping that it was our accommodation but we drove on. Miles of brilliant white later were greeted by the beauiful sight of pink flamingos drinking out of the water and lots of Llamas (Made me feel gulity for eating one only a few hours before!) on arriving at our destination. Our accomodation wasn't as nice looking as the salt hotel, but had clean toilets, food, and beds ( the Lonely Planet book had warned us of the high competition between tour companies which lead to cutting corners so we werent totally unprepared). Before bed we took a little walk outside, the skys was a blanket of stars, beautiful but cold so we ran back in a few minutes after to a no-much warmer room! We slept fully clothed (I had two fleeces on, two pairs of trousers and two pairs of socks!) with 3 blankets to survive the minus 20 degree night. Next morning, up and ready for another ride in our 4X4 only for the guide on pointing up towards a Volcano in distance, to tell us that we were going to walk it! The Inca trail had put me off trekking for quite sometime! Our tour group was made up of 5 women, quite a lot older and a young plump boy so we walked ahead not realising how slow the others were following, so we soon lost them. We observed that the other tour groups got a lift in their 4X4s to the highest point possible (mmhh our tour company were definitely cutting corners, they'd rather make us lot suffer than pay out money for a wee bit extra petrol!) losing hope of hitching a lift we carried on. Eventually we went off track through the valley which lava had flown through, a much more interesting route, climbing up and over the rocks. All the actitvites and McDonalds meals (sorry Mum!!!) had taken a toll on our worn out bodies as half way up we were knackered. Some encouraging pep-talk from Ant got finally got me and emlyn off our knackered bums and up a bit further (we "helped" each other up by taking turns pushing from behind, til I obviously got too slow for Emlyn and he took off to join Ant, leaving me huffing and puffing behind!) until we finally reached the top! Relief seems too mild to describe the emotions I felt that moment when we collapsed on the rocks near the volcano's mouth. Recovering from our exhaustion, we realised that our tour group were obviously not planning on coming all the way up, we set off back down, hoping and praying that the tour guide would meet us in his 4X4 half way down. Trying to get down as quick as possible we ran down, Ant going far too fast to stop when his foot caught on a rock leaving sand, dust and flying stones in his wake. Fortually he escaped with a few stratches and we all continued to climb down a bit more carefully! We bumped in to a local man who showed us a cave, which at first we thought was his house but turned out to be a tomb with 5 skeltons inside, quite freaky, as it was dark and the only light came from the cracks in the rocks. If you stared at the skeletons for long enough, you could have sworn they moved!! Back out we finally bumped into our guide, minus the 4X4! He'd come up to check if we were okay as we'd missed lunch. Grrr! Back down was cold lunch, a quick game of cards then off back to Uyuni. The guide's son or nephew sat on my lap all the way, I tell you its hard work keeping a 6 year old entertained for 2 hours! Uyuni, first stop was dinner: pizza, best meal we'd had for the last few days! South American food isnt for fussy eaters! (points towards Emlyn and Ant). Seriously, we have all being doing well, Emlyn has started to eat vegetables (mainly soup) and Ant loved the Llama! Most food I try once, whatever the look or smell but don't indend on eating again i.e pirhana! Bus to Avaroa the board of Chile isnt due to 3am, so we book a hotel room to rest our tired little heads. Waking up at 2am to go out in the FREEZING cold, is NOT nice! Thinking we were late (we'd delayed getting out from under the warm covers til half past) we ran to the bus station only to be told the bus was at 3.30am. We waited near the warmth of the gas fire until the bus arrived. On the bus I shared seats with a sweet old man that kept muttering spanish to me, (I'd tried to tell him that I dont understand, but he seems to insist on repeating until i nodded my head in agreement to whatever he was saying!), he kindly shared his blanket with me; which i was greatful for. Teething-clattering 5 hours later we stopped off in Avaroa next to the railroad to get our passport stamped out of Bolivia then change buses at the border. During the changing of buses, tired, hungry (we went without food for 24 hours as we had no Chilian money to pay for food!) and trying to keep each other warm during the hour wait we left our second tent which we'd successfully carried all the way from Peru behind. We weren't having much luck with holding onto our things!! After being stamped into Chile (our 6th Country!) we got the coach to Calama. When we arrived in Chile the first thing we noticed was "Where are all the Inca people gone?" Everyone was white, dressed in trendy european clothes, putting our dusty selves to shame. Dying for a drink and food we rushed around for the bank, on finding one we thought our luck was going to change but Anthony lost his bank card to the greedy machine. Emlyn went off to look for exchange, when he returned he was carrying three cold lovely bottles of cola colas and a massive grin on his face! Arranging for Ant to have his card sent to Santiago, three of us in better spirits went off for food before bus to Iquique. The journey to Iquique was a very comfortable ride, we slept soundly all the way oblivious to time. Iquique wasnt what we'd expected, bulidings looked like they'd had their day, the surf looked too cold, and didnt seem like much to do. Main task was to look for a charger and battery for Emlyn's camera (seems to be becoming one of our usual tasks in each place we go!). The shops were full of gadgets, computer bits and bobs, latest technlogy, no clothes for me!! The evening we explored along the coast coming accross a very posh looking casino, not thinking we woul d have any chance in heaven of getting in (our clothes were very "backpacker": cheap and dirty!) we tried anyway and got in! We didnt go on the slot machines, no way, headed straight for the cards (Blackjack), plonked ourselves on the seats next to the rich-cigar-smoking men. Empty pockets, (I did quite well til my beginners luck ran out!) 4 piscos and sprites, and 5 hours later we left feeling very worst for wear. But we managed to get ourselves back to the right hotel! Next morning, still feeling the effects of pisco we headed off for a 24 hour bus ride south to Santiago: Chile's capatial the smoggy city! This is where I shall leave off now and hand the reporter's job over to Ant Sinclair who will tell the tales of our Chilan Adventure!