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The journal left off at Sucre which is a beautiful colonial town in the centre of Bolivia. I caught up with the salt plains team and we spent three enjoyable nights there, relaxing and enjoying the sights and restaurants. We also visited our travel companion who had been laid up in hospital after suffering a broken leg playing a game of soccer on the Salar de Uyni. She seemed quite chirpy and is being well looked after in the hospital. It was great to connect with my travel friends again after having such a wonderful time together at the salt plains, in spite of the injury caused to one of our team. We enjoyed a travel experience that will stay in our minds forever.

However, time doesn't stand still and we all moved on, dear reader . Your intrepid travel correspondent is heading in one direction, and north is the plan. I decided to travel north east to Santa Cruz which is a booming city of over a million people, having recently experienced phenomenal growth. It's now the second biggest city in Bolivia and is situated at sea level. There are signs of wealth in Santa Cruz and the weather is much warmer than the rest of the country, actually it feels like you're in a different country. I spent a relaxing few days at the quality Residencial Bolivar hostel with friendly travellers, three tucans, a parrot and a duck for company. The next port of call was La Paz which is the capital of Bolivia. I spent two days exploring after a long bus trip from Santa Cruz. La Paz is a unique world city perched up high at 3700 metres, and built in a natural crater. It makes for an incredible sight when you cross the top of the mountains and look down on this city in a bowl. It was an unforgettable experience exploring the maze of cobblestone streets in this fascinating city.

While in La Paz I organised a mountain bike ride down the world's most dangerous road through my hostel. And what an exhilerating day it proved to be! We climbed aboard our minibus and quickly ascended to 4700 metres, and were then told to get out. It was raining and cold and not an auspicious start to our adventure. We started riding downhill with mist severely restricting our vision, spray from the wheels hitting our faces, numb hands leaning on the brakes with a psi grip to rival the bite of a tasmanian devil ... then to top it off we started to climb uphill. I was cold, wet, out of breath, and now faced with negotiating seven kilometres uphill without properly figuring out the gears on my bike. And the ironic part was I was paying to do this! I was becoming increasingly frustrated and close to calling for a taxi but as my Irish mate can attest, who am I to complain.

The first section of the 70 kilometres is sealed, and during this stage my mate lost control in the wet and ate it right in front of me. Miraculously hed dusted himself off without injury, and three hours later we arrived at the unpaved section of the death road. This stage is extremely sheer and dangerous, and has crosses marking the many fatalities while attempting to navigate this treacherous journey. Having negotiated approximately half of the most dangerous section my Irish mate tangled with a truck at very low speed, lost his balance and went over the side along with his bike. I looked on in horror, but thankfully the section of the road saw him kiss mother earth within a second. I can tell you, there are literally hundreds of sections of the death road where you would run out of fingers and toes to count with before greeting mother earth, and it would be at 200 kilometres per hour!

I stayed overnight in Coroico with my Irish mate and a few Aussies from the tour, and our stay coincided with a three day street fiesta for the locals. We witnessed street parades, drinking, dancing in traditional costumes, and more drinking. The locals were celebrating hard during their fiesta and good for them. Following on from our visit we embarked on an arduous overnight bus journey to Rurrenabaque at the foot of the Amazon. However, I arrived safely with an Israeli travel companion in time to link up with my three day Amazon tour in the Bolivian pampas.

The Amazon tour was wonderful and featured long boat rides up the river, jungle camps, hellish swarms of mossies, and some great adventures. We searched for and found an anaconda on day two, as well as swimming near rare pink dolphins. On day three we fished piranhas out of the river and saw lots of wonderful wildlife including monkeys, a variety of beautiful birds and huge relatives of the guinea pig on the banks of the river. Our tour guide Jimmy and cook from Indigena tours did a wonderful job, and none of us went hungry in the Amazon jungle.

In summary, Bolivia is a diverse and rewarding travel destination, but some of the commutes can be very gruelling, and entail changes in altitude that surpass thousands of metres. It's tough on the body and sometimes you don't know whether you're Arthur or Martha. But as the travel saying goes, basically all of you should be here now!


As I continue my travels, until next time it´s signing off for now

Tom

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