Now then, we are here in Chile and I have a couple of weeks worth of stuff to update you all on. Zoe left you in LaPaz when she finished writing about our activities in Copacabana so I will pick up the baton from there.

We got a bus to La Paz which set off at 8am from sleepy Copacabana and dropped us in noisy, smelly, dirty La Paz in the heat of Monday 26th Jan. We took a room at a hotel that had been recommended to us in Copacabana and then set out to explore the town and find a company to take us down the famous Road of Death. This "World´s Most Dangerous Road" (WMDR) used to be the main throughfare from Coroico to La Paz until they built a new road on the other side of the valley a few years ago.

On the basis that you get what you pay for, we opted for a middle of the road company and hoped to get a middle of the road service - big mistake but more of that later. Having chosen a company we went off to meet our now long standing friends Sandra and Stefan the Germans. Dinner was a fabulous affair costing a grand total of $3 for Zoe and I and the food was not bad at all. Then off for beers to mark the fact that Sandra was leaving us to go back home and then a tranquil night in La Paz.

Tuesday we planned to go to the Valley De La Luna and that went without any problems. Bus out, saw the amazing lunar type landscape where the mud/rock has been eroded, bus home and job done. We took a trip to the bus depot to buy a ticket to Sucre for the Thursday after the WMDR and then we hit the hay early in order to be fresh for our cycle ride the next day. That night however, it was as if we were in a different hotel - noisy as f**k! The staff made most of the noise with TVs and radios and singing and generally stamping about the place.

After a very bad night´s sleep we were up at 6.30ish for our ride on the WMDR! We met the other couple who were riding with Radical Rides and then we met our guide and driver. Quick bite to eat and then we set off in the bus with the trusty Iron Horse full suss bikes on the roof. At the top of the road the bikes were unloaded and they did not look like the 1 year old regularly serviced bikes the guy described to us in the shop. First thing I did was snap the chaín on mine and the guy told me I was too strong - we all know that isn´t true! He repaired it only for it to break again along with the rear gear cable so that was me onto the spare bike - too small and no front brake!

Mine was the worst of the group (but none of the bikes were really any good) and the progress was sedate to say the least. We made it to the bottom eventually and I had resolved to get some money back when we returned to La Paz. The trip wraps up with food and a swim and then return bus to La Paz along the new road,but Zoe and I had requested to stop in Coroico for the night as we had heard it was nice. The guide dropped us at the Coroico turn off and said taxis/buses were frequent and cheap - alter an hour we hitched a lift on the back of a 7.5 tonne truck full of building equipment and tools. It was well worth it as Coroico was really nice, we found a hotel with a pool and a view up the valley. Good night´s sleep with a walk in the morning and we were back on a bus to La Paz.

Once back in La Paz we grabbed our bags, collected a 33% refund from Radical Rides, had dinner and then hit the road again on the bus to Sucre. This was a bad bus ride primarily because it took so long to leave the city and just seemed to be full of interruptions, but we got to Sucre on Friday morning and the "find-a-hostel" rigmarole began again. This time we got lucky with a marvellous double en-suite with cable TV for a good price and we signed up for 2 nights. We needed some grub so went to a café for 2 simple off the menú platters and we received the worst eggs that either of us had ever eaten - microwave welded onto a plastic plate - unbelievable!

We returned to the hotel so that Zoe could sleep for a bit and I went out for a wander. I found the Joyride Café where you can book any number of trips and tours including mountain biking to the "7-Waterfalls". This tickled my fancy and so when Zoe woke up we headed back there and signed up. We also signed up for a trip to the Tarabuco market on the Sunday as it seemed like a good idea at the time. We also discovered that at this time of the year the people of Sucre have a constant water fight with everyone who happens to be nearby in celebration of Carnaval. This resulted in me throwing one poor wretch over a hedge as he threatened me with a waterbomb.

Saturday dawned and we headed to the Joyride Café hoping to exorcise the demons of the disasterous WMDR earlier in the week. These bikes were Konas so I know we couldn´t go wrong and I was right! Apart from punctures from cactus spines we were up and away all day. The ride was a mix of up and down hill with a bit of single track but the highlight of the day came in the middle when we were at the waterfall. It had a pool at the bottom which was deep enough that you could jump off the rocks at the top of the fall and land safely (just like when we were kids out at Lynas). I pulled off the highest recorded jump as verified by our 2 guides of about 7 metres! The ride home was mostly uphill slog but the day was capped off with steak and beer so it was well worth it.

The trip to the market on the Sunday was a waste of time. We had seen it all before and so just wandered round to kill time before the bus home. The highlight of the trip however was a nutter who turned up at the café where we had lunch. Traditional dress together with flute and heel musical instruments which resembled cowboy spurs - he played music and danced and then wanted money so we gave him a couple of coins and sent him on his way. The other highlight was that our Canadian friends Marion and Peter were on the trip and we got to have lunch with them.

Thankfully the bus arrived on time to wisk us back to Sucre and away from the market town. In Sucre we got our bags and went to the bus station to head off to Potosí. Our bus ticket was for 6.00pm but we were met at the Terminal by the woman from the travel company who had sold us the ticket - turns out the ticket should have said 5.00pm! She bought us tickets on the only other available bus,scheduled to leave at 6.30pm but which left at 7.00pm. We got to Potosí at gone 11.00pm and found a hostel for the night.

Monday morning and ready for a lie-in (as you can apréciate we might) a dog of some description set up barking at about 6.00am. With the lie-in out the window we got up, negotiated a 20% discount on the room because of the dog and then left to find another hostel. We had been recommended a place by the woman from the bus in Sucre c*** up so we gave it a look. It was excellent, we got a little room up a spiral staircase with a view of the mountains for a good price.

Our reason for going to Potosí was to see the silver mines, so we booked a trip for that afternoon and filled the morning by walking round town and by climbing a minor mountain to see a monument (Zoe and I respectively). The mine trip commences with a stop at the miner´s market to buy gifts for them. These include 96% alcohol, coco leaves and dynamite. Laden with presents Zoe and I descended into the bowels of the earth for 2 hours to see the mines and the guys who work there. We saw no women or children there but met a guy who had been down the mine since he was 14. He is 23 now but looks 40++. Alter the mine we went back into town to collect our bus ticket for Uyuni leaving the next day at 10.00am.

Tuesday then, we went to the bus stop and boarded the local bus to Uyuni. This was the worst bus journey of the trip so far on an overcrowded bus along a dirt road that is still being worked on lasting for over 7 hours. The last hour or so I had the fat arse of a local woman resting on my arm or pressed in my face depending on whether she was standing straight or bending over to look in her massive bag.

We eventually arrived in Uyuni and what a s*** HOLE! Our only reason for being here was to book a trip to the Salar and we had the recommendation of a company called Esmeralda Tours. Did we use them - of course not! We were taken in by the promise of an English speaking guide and the promise of a sober driver at another tour company. That proved to be a big mistake with another one soon to follow when we asked to be taken to the Chilean border and then onward to San Pedro De Atacama after the tour, rather than going back with the truck to Uyuni. Anyway, as we dined on fried chicken washed down by Vin Up (a wine and vegetable extract based mildly alcoholic drink) and then went to bed we had high hopes for the next few days.

We turned up at the office of the tour company and the lady owner of the company gave us each a beer at 10.00am - no drinking my arse! Our guide/driver could not speak a word of the Queen´s English and the other passengers on the trip didn´t have much more conversation for us (2 lads from the Basque Country near Bilbao in northern Spain and a retired French couple, the guy was in the foreign legion).

The trip is more of a procession really, 40 or more Land Cruisers travelling across the salt and the desert stopping to look at famous landmarks, take pictures, cook food and sleep. Our first day´s sights included the railway graveyard, the flats themselves, islands in the salt with 10m high cactuses, an old hotel made entirely from rocksalt and then our own hotel made entirely from rocksalt.

Thursday´s sights included a lot of desert (like Luke Skywalker and the Sand People should have been there), lakes with flamingos and the Arbol de Piedra (rock that has been eroded to look like a tree). Our residence for the night had been described as basic before we set off - they should have said basically about to fall down. We had an awful meal followed by a terrible night´s sleep as the Foreign Legion man needed to get up every 5 minutes for the toilet. Anyway, up at 3.30am for an early Start to look at the geysers - or not!

Friday´s early start began with our guide reversing the Land Cruiser into a small mud-brick building and nearly demolishing it and then laughing like a drunk person would. He then spent over an hour trying to fix another truck that wouldn´t start and then we finally aborted that and hit the road. The geyser and steaming pools were exactly that but with loads of people all around them as we had missed our early start, the hot spring also lived up to its name and also was filled with people. I still went in and it was f**king freezing when I got out to air dry and go for breakfast. The last part of the tour was the green lake which was a let down as apparently it doesn´t attain its fantastic green colouring until much later in the day when the sun is high in the sky!

Our guide looked a bit miffed at his lack of tip as we got out of the Toyota at the border but he was crap and didn´t deserve the time of day let alone any money. It was a shame to leave Bolivia on such a sour note but we set off on the bus into Chile looking forward to new challenges in San Pedro and a swift transfer to Salta in Argentina. After a bit of an ordeal at passport control at San Pedro we commenced the now familiar routine of hostal finding and town familiarisation. We found a hostal, bit more expensive than we had anticipated, nice and clean though. Now off to get our bus ticket to Salta in Argentina.

Oh cock! All booked up for the next week and a half! We did a lot of thinking that Friday afternoon as we tried to decide what to do next. If we had gone back with the truck to Uyuni we would have been laughing as transfer to Salta is easy from there but we were stuck and unable to go East. We decided instead to go south to La Serena and spend some time on the beach.

That is where I leave you and Zoe will resume when she gets the chance. It might seem a bit doom and gloom from what I have written above but we are still having an ace time. Two weeks in Argentina will end our south American Odysey and New Zealand beckons at the end of February.

Hope you are all well and get some comments and emails coming. It´s great to hear what everyone is up to.

Bye for now.