Emma in the Andes

Hi there!

I arrived home last week and have since been settling back into life in England. The longer I'm home, the more it feels like the last 4 months could all have been a dream – It seems like I’ve never been away!

My flight home was a bit of an ordeal. For starters the flight from La Paz to Miami also stopped in Santa Cruz (Bolivia's biggest city) and we had to get off for them to clean the plane up. It was already 25 degrees and swampy at 8.30am! As we were landing I noticed that a red carpet had been laid out for one of the private jets waiting on the runway. It turns out that the President of China had been visiting Bolivia that week, and so we were able to watch him board his plane whilst a brass band and about 50 Bolivian army officers waved him off. It was all a bit like an HSBC advert! We were inevitably delayed for our take off which meant I was late arriving into Miami and by the time I'd made it through passport control, had my finger prints and photo of my eyes taken, I was able to check my bags onto my connecting flight to London with about 10 minutes to spare! Fortunately I was flying with American Airlines so the flights themselves were pretty good – heaps better than Iberia at any rate.

My last stint in La Paz was really quite enjoyable as I was able to do a bit of sightseeing, some job hunting for my return, and a tiny bit of partying!

I must admit that the first time I came to La Paz (about two months ago with the Oasis tour) I wasn't too keen. I tended to prefer the towns we visited that have a Colonial old town with an attractive Plaza - Quite a lot of La Paz's architecture is modern with few colonial buildings left and to me it doesn't seem to have a central point at all. Also, there were always unpleasant smells lingering around - the main ones being fried chicken, urine and a stale citrus-y sugary smell. Not a great combination! Anyway, despite this I found that the place grew on me and I really started to feel at home there. La Paz's altitude, the steepness of its uneven streets combined with the daily hustle and bustle just takes your breath away but there a certain charm to the city that I can't quite put my finger on ...

Since arriving I walked my feet off, visiting all of the main sights that I didn't get around to seeing the first time around - San Francisco church, Miraflores district, Plazas del Estudiante, Avaroa, Isabel La Catolica, San Pedro and San Martin. The fruit and veg market at the end of Calle Illampu and the main boulevard - Avenida 16 de Julio or 'El Prado'. I managed to find a swimming pool as well as a cinema - I went 4 times during my 10 days there seeing ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘Lion King’ (in 3D!), a Disney flick about Paris as well as an Argentinean rom-com - 'Igualita a Mi' which I would recommend v highly to any Spanish speakers!

On Thursday of my last week there were protests in la Paz and many people took to the streets to block them off meaning that no vehicles could drive through the centre of the city at all. It caused lots of problems for people trying to get to the airport that day and apparently there were backlogs of passengers waiting at the airport for a few days afterwards. I'm still not really sure why the protests took place - I heard various reasons from different people. Youth unemployment was one reason, the price of public transport was another and someone else told me that there is an indigenous community not far from La Paz who want independence, and these were the people who were blocking off the streets. I didn't know what or who to believe! Anyway, it was really quite eerie walking down the middle of the main streets which were normally heaving with traffic. The barricades that people had made weren't really very heavy duty and I got the impression that if the same thing had happened in the UK, drivers wouldn't have taken any notice and would have just driven through regardless. At some junctions people had placed a few rocks in a line across the road and at other places they used a few sticks. Others just had a pathetic line of 4 or 5 people standing about chatting and wagging their fingers if a stray car or motorbike tried to pass them. I saw this happen a few times and the drivers just turned around obediently and went back. They must have been glad to have the day off work! Being as there were no cars around most of the shops, museums and eating places remained closed all day so I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do!

At the weekend, a friend who I'd made in Quito came to visit. Since living in Ecuador she has been volunteering in a nursery in Cochabamba and hadn't yet been into La Paz. We walked all around and went to the modern art museum together on Saturday and on the Sunday we went on a bus tour out to see the 'valley of the moon' which is an area outside of the city centre with stunning, natural geological rock formations. We got some pretty interesting commentary about Bolivia in general from our headsets too - for example, the reason that Bolivian women wear little bowler hats perched on their heads is that a couple of hundred years ago a milliner from London went to Bolivia to try to sell hats to South American men. Unfortunately there was a problem with the order and they all turned out far too small to wear - he managed to sell them to the high society ladies of La Paz, however, telling them that these hats were all the rage with European women! Following on from this the working classes adopted the fashion to copy the wealthier ladies, and the trend has stuck! Apparently if you are a married woman you would wear the hat straight on your head, but if you are single you can wear it at a jaunty angle. We were also told a bit about Bolivian politics – eg, in 1969 they had a president who lasted only 5 minutes before being turfed out of power! Anyway, that was a really enjoyable tour and the scenery was stunning.

Before leaving I managed to fit in one final shopping spree and stocked up on plenty of knitwear. Amazingly, I managed to compress 4 months of hard-core shopping into my rucksack and one moderately sized piece of hand luggage, which I was very chuffed about!
Anyway, I'm now back home after having had a fantastic 4 months in South America. I've got so many wonderful memories and made some really good friends. It's been a blast! This is my last blog entry for the time being … until my next trip!!

So! I know it hasn't been long since I last wrote, but I wanted to blog a bit about my mammoth journey to La Paz while is's still fresh in my mind!

Firstly, I had a very enjoyable last afternoon in Córdoba, taking a spin on the McDonalds bus tour which took us to all of the main sights both in the city and a bit further out of town too. It really made me wish that I'd been staying there for at least a few more nights, however I'd already booked my bus ticket by then. My first bus left on Sunday at 9pm and was very luxurious - reclining seats (I had two to myself) a really good film to watch (with Liam Neeson and January Jones, set in Berlin ... can't remember the name) as well as a 3 course dinner and all you can drink coke! I nodded off after the film and slept all the way until we pulled into Metan (about 150km south of Salta) at around 6.30am on Monday. The people who were carrying on to Santa Cruz in Bolivia needed to wait at this service station until our bus arrived from Buenos Aires. During this time we had breakfast and I ended up sharing a table with another bloke from my bus - a Bolivian vet who had been attending a series conferences about cows in Cordoba! Even though it was early he was ridiculously chirpy and was keen to chat away to me about his job, home town, wife and children. He found it very bizarre that at 24 I didn't have any children of my own! Eventually the next bus pulled in and we loaded in our luggage. I was supposed to be sitting in a seat next to a man and his little daughter but when I pointed out that he was sittling in my seat he looked really put out and asked why couldn't I just find another empty seat. The one behind him seemed vacant so I sat down there, next to a toothless teenage boy who looked a bit gangster-ish. This bus wasn't half as roomy as the first one but it could have been a lot worse I reckon. Whithin minutes of setting off about 5 different people had started playing music out loud on their phones or ipods - really annoying! The loudest culprit was the dad in front of me who had turfed me out of my seat. I didn't bring my ipod with me to South America, thinking that it would just be another thing for me to loose, but some of my own music would have been a real bonus on this trip! About half an hour into his trance music I'd really had enough so was just about to ask him to turn his music down (politely, honest!) but at that moment they started to play a film on the coach tv so he switched his phone off, thank god. The film was 'The Tourist' with Angelina J and Jonny Depp and was quite good. They then played 'Arthur' with Russel Brand straight afterwards and it was actually pretty funny - I remember the trailers having been terrible ...

We pulled up to the Argentina-Bolivia border at around 3pm and had to wait in a queue until we could get out to go through passport control. By this point we hadn't been given any lunch (when I booked my ticket I was told that all meals would be included) and so we were all getting rather grumpy wondering when we were going to be fed. When we did get off the bus we had to queue outside for another hour or so. It was so hot - I reckon about 40 degrees - and I nearly passed out a few times so had to sit down on the road. As if that wasn't bad enough the doddery old man next to me in the queue wouldn't stop waffling away to me about his travels in Colombia and how much he loved to go fishing ... eventually we made it through the border at 5pm and our driver told us we should buy some food as we weren't going to stop between then and Santa Cruz and that there was no food on board - doh! Anyway I was very happy to finally buy some chicken and yuca from the roadside as well as some for the boy next to me as he had't brought any money with him for the bus ride. I think he was telling the truth!

The remainder of the journey passed without much more happening. I think they played a few more films which I drifted in and out of. I had a few chats with my neighbour but barely understood a word he said - I think he spoke ghetto Bolivian! I managed to read my Glamour magazine from cover to cover as well as finishing off 'Jekyll and Hyde'. It was about 1am (tuesday morning) by the time we pulled into Santa Cruz. I had been expecting to find a fairly big bus terminal with 24 hour cafes like in Argentina but even though Santa Cruz is a really big city this definitely wasn't the case! Even the terminal building itself was shut. I did some asking around and found that there weren't any direct busses to La Paz until 4pm the next day, however there was a man who would be driving a mini-bus to Cochabamba (half way between Santa Cruz and La Paz) leaving shortly. A few people from the bus took him up on the offer and so I tagged along. We got to the bus and it was TINY and didn't look capable of driving for any more than a couple of miles ... so I weighed up my options and decided it would be best to head to one of the hotel / motel type places across the road. I checked in and was in bed by 1.30. The receptionist assured me that there would be a direct bus to La Paz at 6am the next day so I set my alarm for 5am ... My room was like a sauna, even in the middle of the night. Santa Cruz is just on the border of the Bolivian Amazon so it gets prettty steamy there. I got up early the next day and headed back to the bus terminal. Did some more asking around and ascertained that there were no direct busses to La Paz at all, and that I'd have to go to Cochabamba and change again. So I bought a ticket for this bus (120 bolivianos, about 10 pounds) and made my way to the queue. I saw quite a few people who'd been on the same bus as me the day before and I can only presume that they slept outside the station. I got on the bus, and found that my seat was next to the man with his daughter from the day before! I was so glad that I hadn't asked him to turn off his music the day before as I am sure he would have been arsey about it ... Anyway, found out that him and his family had been in Buenos Aires for 3 months and were now returning to Cochamamba to live. His daughter must have been about 4 years old and considering they'd been on the road for about 3 days, she was remarkably well behaved!

The bus journey to Cochamamba took about 8 and a half hours and again there was no food or drink. This time I'd been expecting it, howver, so had stacked up on strange cheesy scone type things and a massive bottle of water before leaving Santa Cruz. The route that we took was stunning, passing through the Yungas region of Bolivia which is where they grow coca, bananas and citrus fruit. It was like being back in the Amazon all over again, with mammoth trees, gigantic jurasic park-esque leaves and petrol pipe lines all over the place. I would say that we had to stop about 10 times during the journey for random drug searches, as obviously this place is where lots of the trafficking takes place. It was stiflingly hot on the bus and the air con didn't work. Even with all windows open we just had gusts of hot air wafting around, so I don't think it made any difference at all. As we got closer to Cochamamba lots of people started getting onto the coach selling things - from empanadas to jewellery and altitude tablets. The guy who was able to shift the most was selling pills that he claimed would put a stop to premature balding, bed wedding and STIs!! All for just 10 bolivianos a pack - about 80p - bargain!

We got to Cochabamba and I was put on the 4.30pm connection to La Paz. I was feeling rather smug about having 2 seats to myself yet again but within minutes our bus was flooded once again with more salespeople, as well as a drunk clown dressed in rasta trousers, multicoloured waiscoat, face paint and a silly hat ... He introduced himself as a struggling comedian / actor and proceded to sing us a song, swaying away in the middle passage of the bus. As there was a spare seat next to me he sat down and serenaded me for a good 5 minutes, whilst I turned redder and redder! Eventually he made his way down the rest of the bus and serenaded the other ladies in turn. After we'd all given him a donation he got off and left us in peace. We stopped again a few minutes later and a very large lady got on and sat in the seat next to me, wedging a huge bag of plants (all legal, I think!) in the bit of legroom that seperated us. I drifed in and out of sleep on this journey too, waking up for a bit to watch some of the films they played. One was called 'Lion Heart' and the second 'Blood and Bones' - both a bit too violent for my liking so I re-read Glamour instead. Eventually we pulled into La Paz at around 1.30am (Wednesday morning) and I took a taxi to the Wild Rover hostel.

Currently formulating a plan of action for what to do with my final week abroad in La Paz ... then back to Blighty a week on Friday!

love Emma xx

Hello there! Since I last wrote I have moved on from Buenos Aires. I spent a total of 10 nights there and could easily have spent much longer there if it weren’t so expensive by South America standards. I stuck around at the same hostel (the Milhouse, really great place) for my whole stay so even though the people from my tour had all left by the end, there were still a lot of friendly faces around. Once the guys from my tour had left I did a fair bit of touristy sightseeing on my own, visiting the San Telmo market as well as the ecological reserve and more of the port area. San Telmo is a really nice neighbourhood of BA and has a load of old mansions and attractive looking streets dotted with restaurants and cafés. Every Sunday there is an antiques and crafts market and all the streets come alive with people selling all sorts of knick-knacks, jewellery and touristy tat. There are quite a few indoor arcades with antique stalls as well and I couldn’t help but think of my Mum as I was wandering around – she would have been in heaven there!! I spent a good 4 hours trawling around the markets and I like to think I was quite well behaved on the spending front ...

Another day I made an attempt to get across to Uruguay with one friend from the hostel. We found our way to the port in time for the boat’s departure, however we found out that we’d been given the wrong times by the lady at our hostel and we were 2 hours too late. Anyhoo, it was a really nice, sunny day so after having lunch by the water we wandered over to the nature reserve which is shown as being a huge green bit on a map of BA and it is supposedly very beautiful ... It isn’t! I think that it might be quite nice when there is water and all the birds are there, but when we went there was no water at all – just a huge area of reeds with a cycle path around. It was quite nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires for a couple of hours though.

The following day we set off to the port for a second time, this time arriving a good hour and a half early just to be on the safe side. At breakfast we had rounded up a few more recruits for the Uruguay trip, so we were 2 Brits a German and an Israeli in total. I’m sure there’s a bad joke in there somewhere! We bought our tickets to Colonia Del Sacramento and waited to board. The boat itself took just under an hour so we arrived at around 1pm. Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay and used to be a Portuguese smuggler’s port used to sneak British goods across to the Spanish colonies in the 17th century. These days it’s popular with tourists as a day trip from Buenos Aires as it’s very picturesque and has some nice beaches. We went partly to have a nose around, partly because we’d run out of ideas of what to do in Buenos Aires (hard to imagine!) and partly to get another stamp in the passport. We arrived and made our way to the old town which is about a 15 minute walk from where the boats pull in. Like BA, Colonia feels so European – From the cobbled streets down to the way they pollard their trees! There isn’t a huge amount to do in Colonia, so after we’d climbed the lighthouse for a good view all around we headed for some lunch in a nice restaurant with a roof top terrace. Nice gnocchi, wine and ice cream for about 5 quid. After lunch we headed around to the beach for some sunbathing and stayed there until we needed to head back for our return boat. Overall it was a very nice day trip and I’ve been able to tick Uruguay off the ‘countries to visit list’ but it was somewhat faffy with all of the check-in procedures and passport controls.

The following day I packed my things together and headed to the bus station to take a bus to Rosario, about 4 hours north of BA and Argentina’s third largest town. Our bus was about 30 minutes late in leaving and we steadily lost time en route, getting stuck in every town’s rush hour as we passed through. We finally pulled in about 2 hours later than scheduled, but apart from that the journey was fine. My hostel was fairly central but needed to take a taxi from the bus station. I was put in a dorm with 3 unfriendly Germans and a (may as well be) mute Brazilian so didn’t do a lot of socialising during my 2 night stay. On my first evening I went on a bit of a stroll - first to a greasy spoon café for a bit of dinner, then to explore the town. I hit the town’s 3 main plazas and was distinctly unimpressed. I was expecting to find a nice bar where I could sit and people watch for a couple of hours before heading back to bed, but found nowhere. There are a couple of pedestrianised streets in the centre of Rosario and the shops here remain open until about 9pm. The most happening places on Thursday night were a massive Christian Conference Centre (opposite a massive gambling shop) a health club called ‘Fanny Spa’ and ‘Big Pancho’ which sells hotdogs. Made it to bed before 9pm!

The following day (Friday) I headed over to the main park which is called La Independencia. There is a pretty nice lake there with lots of rowing boats. I thought it would be a tad sad to rent one on my own, so carried on to find a nice spot to do some reading in the sun. Unfortunately the majority of the park is paved so I had my work cut out finding somewhere. Eventually I found a quiet spot in between the city’s ‘Museo Historico’ and the horse racing track; a massive hippodrome which seemed to be holding some kind of mass – I could hear someone giving a speech. Anyway, I must have drifted off to sleep for a while as I woke up to find that I was lying in the middle of loads of people lounging in groups on the grass eating picnics, all dressed in Sunday best! I quickly moved on and found that people were streaming out of the hippodrome so I went for a bit of a nosey around. It turns out that my trip to Rosario coincided with a 3 day Jehovah’s whiteness convention! What luck! There were literally hundreds of thousands of people inside the hippodrome all greeting / blessing each other, and all dressed in purple – it just so happens that I was wearing a purple tee shirt, purple shades bag and shoes so I fitted in a treat. Later that afternoon I made my way to the riverside where there is a stretch of man-made beaches about 6km from the town centre. I spent a few hours reading and dozed off again. The weather in Rosario was really good for my stay – like an English summer’s day at its best, even though its winter over here. That night I went to a peña (folk music night) in one bar that was recommended by the LP guide. I was expecting it to be packed out as it was obviously a popular choice, so I got there for five to ten ... I was the only one there for a good half an hour so I needn’t have worried! Eventually I was joined by an old-ish couple and a table full of ladies in their 70s who danced the night away. I spent a few hours there listening to the guitar player with a glass of wine and a few empanadas. He was a really good player but as I’m sure there’s a limit to the amount of time you can spend in a bar on your todd, I headed back to the hostel for another fairly early night.

Yesterday I took another bus to Córdoba, Argentina’s second city and about 400km NW of Rosario. It took about 6 hours so was evening by the time I checked into a new hostel. A friend from BA had already arrived the night before and had managed to arrange 2 more beds in the same hostel for last night, even though they were fully booked. They put us in what was essentially a duplex apartment with kitchen, private bathroom just for 5 of us! Very spacious. Yesterday evening we joined a bbq organised by the hostel on their rooftop bar along with our duplex roomies.

This morning the idea was to get up nice and early to watch the South Africa Vs Wales rugby match, but I managed to sleep right through it. Have since been to the bus terminal to buy a bus ticket to get me to Bolivia. I’m needing to get to La Paz for my return flight at the end of the month, and the sooner I get to Bolivia the happier my bank balance is going to be. In the end I have managed to buy a ticket from Cordoba to Santa Cruz for 9pm tonight. It takes 37 hours! And then from there I need to get to La Paz which is another 15 hour journey, but I’ll have to book that once I’m in Bolivia. On my way back into town from the station I came across a church with some very loud Christian rock music belting out – so I pulled up a pew and had a watch. It reminded me of being back at the Communion service I went to in Quito. The preacher was very enthusiastic and I got the impression he liked the sound of his own voice - he even had the crowd rolling in the aisles at some points with his witty sermon! The band was actually really good and during the songs there was a troop of dancing girls who pranced around at the front in colourful dresses waving flags. All very ‘happy clappy’ and quite reminiscent of an episode of ‘Glee’!

I’m a bit stumped as to what to do with the remainder of my day until 9pm as all the shops and museums are closed for Sunday. I may just have to do some more sun bathing! I am hoping to do a bus tour of the city (sponsored by McDonalds!) a little later in the afternoon.

Anyway, that’s all my news for now. Next time I will be writing from Bolivia! Bye for now xxx

So, the reason for stopping in Potosi is that there is a fully functioning silver mine there. It’s possible to do tours of the mine but we'd been warned about it being claustrophobic, cramped and very hot down there (up to 40 degrees at times!) so I opted not to do the tour. On our first night we went to a posh restaurant and had a really nice meal for about 5 GBP. The following day a few of us did a bit of wandering around while the others did the mine tour. I had been hoping to buy some nice cheap silver jewellery but couldn't find a single shop selling it. Potosi is really picturesque though so it was nice to have a stroll around the plazas and along the cobbled streets.

In the afternoon we headed off in the truck to the town of Uyuni, the main base for people doing a tour of the salt flats. The town is pretty damn ugly, especially the outskirts which were littered with rubbish, however our hotel was very nice and even had Luke warm showers - a rarity in Bolivia. We had dinner in the hotel's restaurant and as it was one of the girl's birthdays we had some bday cake and then went out to a bar that was partially made from salt and was called something like 'the Really Awesome Fun bar'. I remember having a really awesome and fun night there!

The following day we met our guide for the salt flats and we all drove off in 4X4s. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometres and was formed around 30,000–42,000 years ago, as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. One of the main reasons for going to the salt flats is that you can take stunning photos, playing around with perspective. We spent around an hour posing for different shots - standing in Pringles tins, pretending to run away from toy llamas etc! Some of my photos have turned out quite well and they will be going on facebook asap. After spending time on the flats we carried on to Fish Island which is a small island covered in massive cacti in the middle of the salt flats. We had lunch here and then did a bit of a walk up to the top. Our final stop before getting back to our hotel in Uyuni was a train graveyard which is full of old, rusting trains and is pretty spooky!

Uyuni was our final stop in Bolivia so the following day we headed south to the Bolivia - Argentina border. After a full day of driving we reached our campsite about 10 mins drive outside of Salta in Northern Argentina. We were one group of very few campers being as it is winter in Argentina at the moment. The site had the biggest outdoor swimming pool that I've ever seen in my life, however it was empty! Apparently it takes several days to fill in the summer! This huge empty pool along with a shower block that looked like a gas chamber gave the impression that the campsite would make a great setting for a horror film ... Anyway the showers were hot so nobody was complaining. We set up camp fairly quickly then headed into Salta to a steak house - the best in Argentina according to Benny our driver. I ordered the same as Benny, 700g steak medium rare with chips and it was delicious!! I managed to eat about half of it and a couple of chips before having to give it to one of the guys to finish off (he must have eaten about a kilo of beef by the end of the night!) The Lonely planet says that Salta is renowned for its nightlife and so we gave it our best shot visiting a couple of bars and karaoke places before hitting a club and returning to the campsite as the sun was coming up! The following day we spent exploring Salta and eating cake! We cooked at the campsite that evening then turned in early.

The following day we headed south to our next campsite in Cafayate which is in the heart of Argentina's wine making region. I tried white-wine ice cream that day which was unexpectedly delicious. We ate at the campsite and all went out to a bar afterwards.

The following day we went en masse into town and hired bikes for a full day of cycling around vineyards. The idea was that we would just cycle from one bodega or winery to the next and do some tastings, however as we were a group of 14 young people some of them refused us entry which was annoying, but understandable! Anyhow, we managed to find places that would let us in and did several tastings. I had a really enjoyable day, especially considering I thought I had forgotten how to ride a bike - it turns out I haven't! We mainly tried various types of Malbec (red) and Torontes (white) both of which I like a lot!

Next day we drove solidly until we were able to pull up to a bush camp and stay for the night. Next stop was Cordoba, or rather a campsite in a town 30km from Cordoba ... as this was the last stop on our itinerary before reaching BA we needed to clean the truck from top to bottom and wash our tents. This took the best part of the afternoon on our first day and most of the following morning. By the time we'd finished there was no time to go into Cordoba! Instead I headed into Carlos de la Paz for a nosey around and I wish I hadn't bothered. It was by far the ugliest place we have visited so far – it felt a bit like a shabby seaside town out of season. Anyway, we had a very nice bbq dinner which made up for it. I hope that I can return to Cordoba in the next few weeks as it is Argentina's second largest city and is supposed to be beautiful.

The following day we drove non stop until we reached a petrol station about an hours drive from Buenos Aires to bush camp .... We would all have preferred to carry on driving so we could spend one extra night in BA, but it was nice to have one final bush camp. During the day we cracked open a packet of balloons and had a full on balloon fight which wiled away a few hours!! And then we hit BA!! As it was our last night as a group before the tour finished we all went out for a meal in San Telmo (steak number 2 - not quite so big as in Salta, but equally delicious!) and carried on with a party in our hostel and a cafe that was open until 6am!

I've been in BA for 6 days now and really love it here. I met a French guy at our hostel who said 'ay do not liyke it 'ere ... it eez too much liyke Pariis' and it is very true - there are wide boulevards all over the place and the architecture is so European. As most of the Argentineans (at least in BA) are of European descent I feel like less like a foreigner here which is quite refreshing after 3 months of sticking out like a sore thumb. So far highlights of my stay have been a walking tour of La Boca - a really colourful district in the West of town which is where tango was born, a football match at the Boca Juniors team (where Maradona played when younger and the best team in Argentina) - the atmosphere was electric, the fans were insane (as well as heavy weed smokers!) and the match was really good. Final score was 1-1 but Boca had so many really good chances. Even as someone who doesn't follow football at all, I could tell that it was a good game. I've also been to a tango workshop, meal and show which was entertaining to say the least! The workshop was very basic but it was nice to have a go at it and the meal (steak number 3!) was great. I’ve also been to the Eva Peron Museum as well as the cemetery where she is buried. Recoleta, Palermo Puerto Madero are also districts that I've had a mooch around as well as the Plaza de Mayo and the other main landmarks. That's about it! I'm here for a couple more days before heading back up Argentina because my flight at the end of September is from La Paz. Hope to update the blog more frequently from now on!

So after Cuzco we headed over to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. We spent one night in Puno which is a big-ish town on the West side of the lake (still Peru side) and were able to spend a bit of time wandering around the markets and later had a group meal. The following day we took tuc-tucs to the port, met with our Lake guide and stocked up with pasta and rice etc. We were going to be staying with local families on the islands and so needed to take some provisions for them as a 'thank you'. From there we took a boat to one of the many floating reed Islands that Lake Titicaca is famous for. The people who live on the Islands are called the 'Uros' and made these islands over 500 years ago - choosing to settle there because they fell out with a neighbouring community, or something along those lines. The islands rot from the bottom up and so they have to constantly be re-made. I was sort of terrified that I would manage to put my foot through the reeds and fall into the lake, but fortunately that didn't happen! Walking on the islands feels a bit like being on a water bed and a bit spongy! Anyway, one of the guys who lives there explained a bit about the islands and their lifestyle and then we were invited into some of their houses to try on the traditional clothes. I tried on a brightly coloured jacked and a not so flattering poofy skirt and floppy hat. I looked like Mrs Tiggywinke.

After that we carried on to the Island of Amantani (not made from Reeds!) and were introduced to our families. I was staying with 2 Aussie girls, Kate and Siobhan, and we shared a room in the house of a family with Mum, Dad and 4 kids. I reckon that the host mum was just a little older than me. Our host sister (13 yrs) met us and took us to their house. It felt a bit like the sort of house you'd expect to find on a Greek Island a century or two ago - a bit like in the Captain Corelli’s Mandolin film. They had one room downstairs with a fire, table and chairs. We slept in an upstairs room but we didn't see the rest of the house. They had an outside toilet and so provided us with bedpans in the rooms! We met the sisters and brothers who were happily playing around with a chicken in the garden and then had a really good lunch. Later on we were taken to the main Plaza of the island and met up with the others in our group. There was an artisanal festival on the week we visited and so there was a bit of a fiesta going on with music and dance. The main dance consisted of women and men bobbing up and down and dancing around in circles. The women all held poles that had been decorated with ribbons and some of the men had fluffy hats that covered their faces. One man was totally covered in patches of cotton wool and another man had a stuffed alpaca that he thrusted into the air every now and again. It was interesting to watch, but a bit samey! One of the bands of local boys was pretty good but they didn't play for too long. When it got dark they started to light bonfires all around the plaza, literally feet away from where we were sitting! While they burnt away lots of the locals came out to the front to dance around. The majority were men dressed in drag, one of whom was wearing an orange balaclava, a wife beater top (with bra and fake boobs), short kilt and carried a baby doll with gaffer tape over its eyes. He was clearly off his face (or at least I’m hoping he was ...) as every now and again he would lie down on the ground and rub the baby against his crotch. Other merrymakers included young boys dressed up as men and women (with socks over their faces) who skipped around arm and arm and darted in and out of the fire. I've put photos of this on facebook ... some are very odd! After this we went back to the house and had some dinner (spag bol!) Later on in the evening we got dressed up in traditional garb and headed back to a place where they hold regular dances for the tourists. Us girls all wore white blouses with puffy skirts and a sort of cummerbund around the middle and a shawl. The guys got away with wearing ponchos and woolly hats. It was freezing on the Island at night so I was glad to get dancing. Unfortunately their traditional dance is a bit naff ... It consists of holding hands in a big loop and dancing/running around in circles for about 15 minutes solid! I was tempted to suggest we did a bit of 'strip the willow' or something with a bit more pizzazz, but was a bit too tired to bother in the end. Everyone had had enough by about 9.30 and so we all headed back to our host families. One our way home we passed a group of Islanders having a drunken brawl on the path - it felt just like a standard walk home after a night out back home! The following day we said our goodbyes to our families and headed back to the boat and relaxed in the sunshine on a 4 hour trip back to Puno. I would say that the island home stay has been one of my favourite things we did on the trip as I really enjoyed having the chance to practice my Spanish and learn a bit about their way of life etc etc. The evening entertainment was an unexpected and totally bizarre bonus!

Once in Puno we piled back into the truck and headed for the Peru-Bolivia border. At the border we had a bit of a palaver in that they wouldn't let our truck through. Fortunately we were quite close to Copacabana (not the Barry Manilow one!) which was where we were headed so we were able to take a minibus with our luggage. Our driver had to go to a different border crossing and then made his way to La Paz. We spent 2 nights in Copacabana and did some shopping, pedalo-ing and a bit of lounging in the sun. Unfortunately myself and roomie Siobhan spent the majority of our time in our hotel room vomiting like there was no tomorrow - I think we both must have eaten something dodgy with our family on the island. Anyway, 24 hours later I was feeling much better which was just as well as we had a 5 hour bus journey to La Paz the following day. Part of this journey involved crossing at another point of the lake. All passengers had to get off the bus and into small boats while the coach itself floated across on what was essentially a huge motorised gondola - a very funny sight!

The journey into La Paz (capital of Bolivia) was pretty cool - the city itself is set in a crater and so we had a really good view from the top and then again whilst going down, passing shanty towns and sprawling residential areas. We spent 3 nights in la Paz and I did a great deal of shopping, a fair amount of eating and a good deal of panting - the highest part of La Paz is 3,650m above sea level and I definitely felt the effects of its altitude. We were staying in a hotel with apartments and so on our first night we had a party in the room of our Cade our guide and Benny our driver with fried chicken, rum and a bit of impromptu karaoke. I spent the following day with 2 girls and we shopped till we dropped, visiting the witches markets that La Paz is famous for. They sell all sorts of potions and knick-knacks (as well as llama foetuses for good luck ...) We also paid a visit to the Coca Museum which was pretty interesting, talking about the benefits of chewing coca leaves and the role it plays in Andean life. Apparently when the Spaniards arrived they forced indigenous workers / slaves to chew it 24/7 so their appetite would be suppressed and they would have more energy to work longer hours. There was also a bit of info on the drugs trade in Bolivia as well as scientific info on its effects on the brain etc. most informative! We all had an early night that day as most of the others were going to be cycling the world’s most dangerous road the following day. This wasn't something that appealed to me having never been particularly stable on a bike, so this meant I had a second day to explore La Paz with some of the other girls.

We had a very nice morning pottering around and then in the afternoon we signed up to go and see 'Cholita wrestling'! For some reason this sport has become really popular in Bolivia and basically entails women wrestling each other dressed in their traditional clothing. We had signed up with an agency and so were taken to to the 'stadium' which is in el Alto (high) part of La Paz. We had ring side seats and were given a cup of coke and some popcorn - crazy stuff! The wrestling kicked off with 2 guys wrestling each other, one dressed as superman and the other in silver spandex. It was all pretty staged like WWF but they put on a good show! The crowd (half gringo, half local) got really into it with lots of the spectators yelling frantic abuse at the person they didn't want to win. I reckon there were about 6 fights in total and they saved the best and most popular lady fighters till last. Afterwards we were bussed back into town and went for some dinner.

Next, onto Potosi – the world’s highest city at 4,090m above sea level. To be continued!!