Next stop in Bolivia was the Salt Flats, something we'd both had ear-marked on our 'must do' list from the start. After looking around La Paz for good tours, on a trip that has notoriously bad safety records for drunk and speeding jeep drivers, and poor accommodation and food, we settled on one of the many Spanish speaking only, guided excursions with 'Esmerelda Tours'. After purchasing a large bag of medical supplies for Sophie to continue to change her nose dre...

On the morning of the 2nd we headed to Madidi's office in Rurrenabaque before being escorted to a small wooden canvas roofed motorboat moored by the muddy river bank. There we loaded on our bags and were introduced to our guide 'Alejandro' (Alex). Large knife strapped to his waist and bandana around his head, he looked like a young Bolivian Rambo! We spent just over 3 hours on the boat heading further into the jungle, Alex fuelled by an obvious addiction to coc...

We landed in La Paz, Bolivia, one of the least developed countries in South America, after taking a 3 hour flight from Colombia. Arriving early in the morning we thought we would save money on accommodation by sleeping in the airport for several hours. La Paz is one of the highest cities in the world with the airport located at just under 4000m above sea level, and at 3am in the morning it was a pretty cold uncomfortable place to sleep on a metal bench... We mana...