Back in loud smelly dirty La Paz again
SO we braved the road of death one more time to come back to La Paz, considering the fact that on average 2 busses per week go off the edge we were really taking our chances. We got a 4x4 back, kindly arranged by the American guy Eric who we met in the bar the night before. We were so glad of the safety of the 4x4 because there was a big storm the night before and between the landslides and bus wreckage there wasn´t so much left of the road of death to come back over, it took us about 7 hours to make the usually 3 hour journey. anyway we´re safe and sound and back in the riotland again.

I`ve added a sub blog of other peoples mail's there`s a link along the side if you`re interested, also I put a link to Brandee and Cassandras sites.

Coroico
I arrived in Coroico on Wednesday by taking a bus trip down the most dangerous road in the world (officially), it`s called the 'el camino del muertes' the road of death. I thought I was being a dare devil but the others had cycled down it the day before and it took them seven hours (see aitches mail ) . Coroico is worth the risk though, it`s a beautiful village in the middle of the most spectacular mountains. Our hotel Hotel Esmeralda is amazing perched on the mountain side, our balcony has a perfect view of the mountains in the evening that are all different shades of blue the further back they go until the snowcapped ones at the back. Cassandra, Omid and I decided to stay a few extra days, this is becoming a bit of a habit for us. Yesterday we spent the day sunning ourselves by the pool then when the sun went in we moved on the sauna followed by a big buffet dinner and a couple of bottles of good chilean wine. Then to top the whole day off we watched 'Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid' in the movie room (like a cinema only with couches) "let`s go some place like Bolivia and rob some banks". Thismorning we decided to relive some of the scenes from the movie by renting a couple of horses for a three hour rideout to the waterfalls, it was nice but raining most of the time and I think the guy mistook my 'quiero uno cabaillo tranquillo' for a 'quiero uno cabaillo muerto'. Thanks to the sauna after I`m not feeling so stiff now. So it`s back to La Paz for more riotious gunfire and the like, why can`t it all just be like Coroico.

La Paz
I`m still in La Paz and enjoying the life and madness of this city even if it is a little hard to breath between the smog and the altitude. Something seems to be happening here, I`m not quite sure what it is. I was told that all the social and political unrest had calmed down since the riots a couple of weeks ago but there has been some sort of mass protest every day since I`ve been here. One day the coca farmers the next the teachers and all the time there are loud cracks which we`re not sure are gunshots or fireworks. Yesterday was a bit strange, there were riot police on every street corner and we heard gunshots in the main government square (no mistaking them for fireworks this time). when I was walking back from the cinema last night with Josh and all the protestesters were in their bed we were directed away from the government building by an armed guard and we noticed that alot of the windows were broken. I`m going to make a second attempt to go to Coroico today as some roadblocks yesterday prevented me from catching my bus. Reading back on this it sounds like a crazy situation but the reality is that life in La Paz goes on as normal, it doesn`t seem to effect things as much as it would at home.

click here to see my photos

Thanks for the help waltzer, much apreciated!

And at last the moment you´ve all been waiting for...................some photo´s of my journey have been uploaded to the web. The only problem is that I don´t know how to put a link into blogger so I think you just have to copy and paste, Mom and Dad I will send you detailed instructions by e-mail on how to see the photos. If anybody does know how to put a link into blogger please don´t hesitate to send me a mail and let me know, maybe waltzer or Manzor can help me out here.

http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b33a5fa8a45b

enjoy!

La Paz, Bolivia
I arrived in Bolivia on Monday, I got the bus to Copacobana with Aitch and Casandra. Copacobana is a small town by lake Titikaka and stayed in a beautiful (but expensive at $6 per night) hostel called la Cupula. It was raining when I arrived in Copacobana and the rugged landscape by the lake reminded me of the west of Ireland. On Tuesday a group of about seven of us got the ferry over to the Isla del sol with the plan to stay there for the day and hike from north to south. The hike was really nice but you could feel the altitude (about 4,000m) so we were pretty wrecked when we got to the south, too wrecked to look for another place to stay when the woman from 'Imperio del Sol' was really rude to us. Casandra and I decided to stay another night on the Island because it was so peaceful and sunny there, of course we changed to a friendlier hostel (inti wayra). We could see the snow capped peaks of Chacaltaya from the Island and in the evening we sat on the roof of our hostel with Omid, Jane and Patrice drinking bad wine under the light of the milky way. We couldn`t bring ourselves to leave the Island the next morning as the sun was shining again and despite our lack of sun block and clean clothes we knew there were card games to be played and treks to be made. It was Saturday before Our newly formed family got around to leaving the Island to go to La Paz , all quite smelly due to the shortage of running water on Isla del Sol. We picked up Brandy (not the drink, the girl from California) in copacabana.
Now we`re in La Paz, from the highest Island in the world to the highest city in the world. It`s almost a step back to reality because on the island there was no tv, no newspapers, no radio and no war, here we are surrounded by full colour reminders that the world is not all as peaceful as Isla del sol. We are staying in the millenio hostel which is a nice family place with a kitchen and even a puppy to play with. Last night Omid cooked a great vegitarian curry and we drank more bad Bolivian wine, it seems like a nice relaxed place to stay for a couple of days.