So after our celebratory lunch and bubbly, we boarded the tourist train to take us back to Ollantaytambo which was an experience in itself. Bearing in mind that most people on that train just want a shower and a warm bed after 4 days of trekking, the last thing we expected was a crazy clown dancing down the aisles as well as the drinks trolley staff modelling the latest alpaca knitwear like on a catwalk - only in South America! Back in colonial Cusco we had a m...

I ended up spending five days in La Paz with Simon and the Swedish tigers, Marten and Viktor. It's a lively city with lots of steep streets and a beautiful back drop of snow capped mountains. The first evening we were there, we went to the Cholitas Wrestling which happens every Sunday. It was a very bizarre experience, like WWF with a twist. Try to imagine lots of feisty Bolivian woman dressed up in their traditional heavy skirts wrestling with Bolivian men dre...

I'll start where I left off in Potosi which was definitely one way of getting acclimatised to altitude - start in the highest city in the world! Headaches and shortness of breath were a problem - even putting a jumper on tired me out! Potosi is most famous for being a mining town, mainly silver. When I first arrived it seemed to be quite a sad place, with lots of dark narrow streets and high walls set at the bottom of Cerro Rico, a huge mountain looming in ...

So after two internal flights in Brazil, three local buses, an 8 hour bus ride, an overnight stay in Corumba and another bus to the border, I finally made it into Bolivia. Then it was straight onto 'The Death Train' for the overnight journey from the border to Santa Cruz. Thankfully it gets the nickname from when it was used to transport yellow fever victims many years ago, and not for it's current safety record! In fact, it was quite luxurious with wide reclinin...

Sadly, this is my last update from Brazil as I'm finally heading into Bolivia tomorrow. However, I've definitely ended on a high, spending the last couple of weeks on the beautiful north east coast. I enjoyed a week in Natal with an old student of mine (Ligia) and her family. They could not have been more hospitable and welcoming to me, everyone rallying round proud to show me their hometown and the surrounding areas. I even got taught some forro (a popular Bra...