We headed off down death road once more but this time on the new improved one, its still classed as one of the most dangerous roads but its paved and has crash barriers in places so its not so bad. It took us 16 hours on mainly unpaved roads to get from La Paz @3,660m to Rurrenabaque @ 150m. I have to say the heat of the Amazon basin was a welcome treat. After 5 months in 25*C + and then 3 more in cold winter climates of 15*C or less it was great to put on shorts and flip flops [View Full Entry]

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I arrived back in the Hostel and had a few beer after Huayna Potosi then went to bed and got a solid 12 + hours sleep, well deserved I might add. Next day we were back on it, most of the guys were still in the hostel I felt like celebrating and thats a good a reason as any I suppose so we all decided to go mad, as if we all weren´t anyway. The Wild Rover being Irish owned was havig a big party for Aurthurs day and the fact that its half way to St. Patricks day. So that [View Full Entry]

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I´m not joking with the title I really thought I wasn´t going to make it at one stage. Mountains are no joke... Bolivia has some of the highest mountains in the world and also the most accessable. I had talked to quite a few people who had tried to climb some of these peaks and decided to try one myself. To be honest I wanted to climb a volcano from San Pedro de Atacama that was 5,480m and only took 5 hours return but it was too expensive. I was told to wait till La Paz were it was much cheaper. [View Full Entry]

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Our bus ride from Potosi to La Paz should have been one of the nicest ones we had so far. We had booked a full Cama bus which declines way more than usual and even for me at 192cm (6´2") there was loads of leg room but it wasn´t to be. We got stuck in between a group of Bolivian drunks. This group smelt like they slept on the street and nearly made me sick and that really isn´t easy!! The guy behind me kept thinking I was his mate and patting my head I was nearly shouting at the bloke [View Full Entry]

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Like a lot of places in Bolivia Potosi starts with "The hightest ...... in the world". I dont really have much to say about Potosi, it's an old silver mining town that still has active silver mines where tourists can do tours. We didn't bother doing any tours because we heard enough of the stories about the conditions from other tourists and after our 4WD tour we needed a break. So this entry is really just so I dont forget that I visited the city. I dont even have any photos we just took in Bolivia. The locals wouldnt let us [View Full Entry]

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We all got up early for our 7am pick up, all five of us piled on too our mini bus and headed for the border. I think everyone was hungover, the 3 Finish girls had been doing 4am and 7am tour starts the last few days so they were definitly tired. Everyone was a little apprehensive too; a tour group you dont really know; doing a tour that is known to have problems; and with the cheapest operator we could find... we had 3 days, what could go wrong. Day 1 Once we crossed the border in to Bolivia we were [View Full Entry]

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San Pedro de Atacama, what a place!!! I had intended putting this blog entry in with the last one to make one big Chile entry but San Pedro really deserves it´s own spot. It´s in the north of Chile at an altitude of 2,500m in the Atacama desert, the driest desert on the planet. The town is like something out of an old western movie and the scenery fits too, the place is amazing. The only problem is that the town now exists only for tourists and its right bang in the middle of a desert so everything is expensive, but [View Full Entry]

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We arrived back in Santiago after Snowboarding tired as, but our sleeping pattern is back on track thankfully. Just in time for our early start on Monday when we went back to school. They say school days are the best in your life and maybe so but returning when your older certinally isn´t!! School was only for 3 hours a day but it was solid spanish, then we had homework and study to do after so they were long days. So Santiago was mainly work for us although we did get a few beers in too ;) and then we moved [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Santiago airport in a sorry state! That all night party that was so much fun at the time was really taking its toll now. Economy class being what it is I only got 2ish hours of broken sleep, so thats 2ish in 2 nights. I looked half dead and there was no chance of me getting any spanish out. Thankfully most people have some english and we got to the only backpackers we had the name of and fell in to bed. I got a good 6 hours sleep then went out to get food, I could barely [View Full Entry]

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Christchurch was a shock to us after our time in Asia and in the wilderness in Aussie! We arived on a Saturday night and went out for a few drinks to get a look at the town. The place was hopping and in full swing by the time we got out. We wanted a quite bar to chill in but all we could find was an Irish bar where we could barely hear eachother, all the same it was better than a club. It was your typical pub atmosphere; women dolled up with makeup: men messin around and everyone pissed. Same [View Full Entry]

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