So far things in Bolivia hadn't gone well. The scenery was fantastic but this was marred by poor food, headaches, lack of breath and sleepless nights (altitude), blockades, food poisoning, sickness, the trots and so on. We hoped to complete the El Choro trek, return to La Paz, do a high-level trek, return to La Paz, climb a 6000-metre peak (proper mountaineering), return to La Paz, cycle the death road. The first hurdle though was a good El Choro trek. We chose...

As we boarded the night bus from Potosi, we noticed all the Bolivian passengers had brought blankets with them. We had sleeping bags and Down jackets but they were in our big packs in the luggage compartment. The journey was freezing, it seemed to go on forever. We could see street lights in front of us and way up in the sky! We were entering La Paz - built in a canyon, with hills towering around it, most of which the city had covered with ramshackle housing. W...

The plan was to have a good meal then get a night bus to Sucre from Uyuni (where our 4WD tour ended). We were dropped at the bus terminal and tried to buy our bus tickets before finding a decent eating establishment. There were no buses to Sucre. In Bolivia when the populous disagrees with government they blockade towns - no one goes in or out. Crossing the line is not recommended! We knew there had been problems in Sucre but thought they were over. We certainl...

Last day of our 4-day wilderness safari. We left at 5.30am and drove over the 'Salar du Uyuni' salt flats. We were headed for Isla Incahuasi, a volcanic lump of rock strewn with cactus that stands above its dead flat surroundings. We paid our entrance fee and made our way to the summit before the sun appeared on the horizon. We were not alone, one 4WD after another parked up at the base. White, flat, barren landscape for 360 degrees. You could be forgiven for t...

We awoke on day 3 of our 4WD adventure feeling exhausted. No time to lie in though, up and out. Cold start at 7.30am but soon the sun's rays were warming us. We stopped for photos of us riding camel rock, then a short drive to a maze of rock formations known as the lost Italian city. The origin of the name is hard to determine, one version is it resembles the winding streets of an Italian City, another is it was named after an Italian tourist who accidentally g...