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 managed this way for about 4 hours until the sun came up and we staggered into a taxi, cold and tired. The city is built in a huge bowl, surrounded by a high altitude desert and snow capped mountain ranges in the distance. On leaving the airport the taxi took us on a winding route that lead down into the city centre, passing the higher and poorer shanti style suburbs made of very simple brick and concrete housing, leading to the richer centre where high rise buildings became more common. We arrived at our hostel around 7am, and were informed that our room wouldn't be ready until 2, so sat around in the common room area drifting in and out of sleep. After over 6 hours of waiting with no news we were told by the reception that there had been a mistake on the system and our room was double booked...we were pretty peeved by this point and even had to argue with them to get our deposit back! Not the best start to Bolivia! Luckily we managed to find a cheap hotel around the corner which turned out to be far better.

Deciding sleep pointless at this stage as it was already the afternoon, but by now absolutely starving, we headed into town to look for food. Sophie had read about a legendary steak house in the backpacker quarter so we decided to head that way and it didn't disappoint! We ordered a meat platter for two which included pork ribs, 'Jack Daniels' marinated steak, llama steak, chicken, sausage, chips, and a salad bowl we could pile high. It turned out to be the best steak we'd eaten in over a year (pre Argentina of course)! It must also be mentioned that there is an English pub in La Paz that not only serves up a fairly good fry-up, but also has Tetley and PG Tips tea! Trevor enjoyed his first proper cup of English tea in over 10 months (OK, we should be trying to experience all the local cuisine, but on some occasions you need a few home comforts)!

For the next several days we relaxed, explored La Paz, and started to plan the rest of our time in Bolivia. Meandering around the often ramshackle streets of La Paz, we visited the so called 'Witches' market known locally as 'El Mercado de las Brujas', where the superstitious buy various ingredients for rituals, spells and potions. Outside some of the shops and stalls hung llama foetuses, used by the poor for good fortune and luck (the rich sacrifice live llamas...nice). We also took a trip on the newly built teleferico, which shuttles commuters cheaply from the higher, poorer outskirts of the city into the centre and vice-versa. The route takes you up and over the commercial centre, out into the residential suburbs, the buildings looking more haphazardly built the further you ascend. From the teleferico's pods you get a sneak peak of normal everyday life; women hanging out washing on roofs, children playing football in the streets and public parks and rove's of stray dogs chasing cars down the dusty winding streets. At the top we spent a bit of time taking in the sweeping view of the entire city and the plateau surrounding it which led up to the snow covered 'altiplano' range with peaks towering at over 6000m. We were now at over 4000m and you could certainly feel the altitude! Halfway back down we headed to a large cemetery, curious to take a look inside, as morbid as it sounds... Bolivia, like Peru and many other countries in South America, is mainly deeply religious Catholic, and the cemetery certainly reflected this. Built more like a row of terraced houses, tombs, often stacked several high above ground, filled the area in long lines. Each one was rented by a family for a certain period of time to contain the remains of their loved one, and was often fronted with a small window containing photos, gifts, and personal items which reflected the personality and families' memories of the deceased. It's was quite interesting to see but also very personal, with the cemetery very busy as many of the tombs receive regular visits from relatives and friends, and there were emotional funerals going on at the time. We wouldn't class ourselves as religious, but we could understand why some people find it important to have a place where they can go and remember their loved ones.

The next day we took a bus trip to 'Chacaltaya', a large mountain and what was once one of the world's highest ski resorts, but no longer receives snow due to global warming. At 5421m it was the highest point we had yet been on our travels (unless you include being in planes or jumping out of them)! After walking for about 30 minutes, the view from the top offered 360˚ views of the 'Cordillera Real' mountain range. On the bus we headed back down and visited 'Valle de la Luna', a very rare and bizarre formation of rocks resembling stalagmites, created some 4 million years ago by a lagoon that once covered the valley. Said to resemble a lunar landscape, Trevor thought it bared more resemblance to a large collection of termite mounds; either way it was pretty impressive and we spent a good 45 minutes exploring.

We booked our Amazon jungle trip on the 30th after having spent a lot of time looking into various different options. The most popular and cheapest was a 'pampas' tour, where the animals are easy to spot but the guides and companies have little concern for the animals or habitats they live in. The other option was a jungle trip which were generally more expensive but most of the companies are far more proactive in their efforts to protect and conserve the rainforest. The trips occur in 'pristine' jungle, with less chance of seeing animals but a real sense of being in the proper rainforest. Being probably the only time we'd ever visit the Amazon and one of the most important trips we would take in South America, we decided on the latter and booked a 5 day trip with 'Madidi Travel'. The reserve we were to visit was set up by 'Rosa Maria Ruiz', a famous conservationist who was heavily involved in the creation of the nearby 'Madidi National Park' and had appeared on several occasions in the 'National Geographic'. All the money the company receives from tourism also goes directly back into continuing conservation efforts. The itinerary was fairly flexible, and they agreed with our request to spend a night away from the lodge in the jungle, something which we were really curious to experience and compare to the rainforests of Borneo.

We took a short 30 minute flight the next day to 'Rurrenabaque', a small town bordering the jungle along the 'Beni River', which was quite spectacular. As we had started at a high altitude most of the journey was spent descending down over the Bolivian Andes, the sun reflecting off snow capped mountains that we flew extremely close to. Eventually we headed down through a dense layer of cloud, under which rainforest seemed to stretch to the horizon. Amongst the carpet of forest a small patch of clear land was Rurrenabaque airport. We landed with a few bumps glad to be back on terraformer and at sea level, the dense humid air one of the first things we noticed. The airport itself was no larger than an average detached house, and after some brief confusion on the location of our bags we headed in a shared collectivio into the town; a bumpy 10 minute drive from the airport. We hadn't anywhere booked so the driver took us to the backpacker popular 'Oriental Hotel'. There wasn't anything either of us noticed that was oriental or hotel like in nature, but the staff seemed friendly and it sported a garden with hammocks so we were content! The trip didn't start until the 2nd of August so we relaxed for the next day catching up with various tasks. We explored the small but character filled town and ate out along the river in the evenings watching beautifully red sunsets each night!