We forgot to mention Roger the Yank. Well when we got back to La Paz we found loads of backpackers handing out leaflets about some poor bloke who had gone mountain climbing with a guide. When they got near the top the guy started coughing up blood, blurred vision etc. Well the guide at this point decided enoughs enoughs so he unclipped the tourist and went down. Leaving the tourist to fend for himself and probably to his death.

Well late in the afternoon we saw Roger, handing out these leaflets. It ends up he was the poor guy who nearly died up the mountain and he expalined the situation in full while our chins hit the pavement. He seemed very lucky to make it back down without any permanent injury. The agency who took him up just locked their doors and after blaming the guide who has since disappeared. When you travel the world becomes such a small place.

Arriving in Uyuni at around 6.30 in the morning a bit sad to see our travelling companions now gone we headed straight to a hotel for a few hours sleep.

Uyuni is a one horse town with a few bars and some cafes and around 50 odd tour agencies competing to take you on a three or four day trip to see the Salar saltpan (Around 100,000 sq km of salt); Dali valley, and several bizarre lakes. Uyuni itself is very high, upwards of 4km and very cold at night. Nothing to see in the town itself, but on its outskirts is a bizarre train cemetary, more interesting for its anti-US graffiti than for the dead steam trains.

After getting up we headed for breakfast and then onto the agencies to try and book ourselves on a tour. While walking along the main street we heard some shouts of Ian Megs!! Oi!! and turning around we saw Dagmar and Louis a couple we met 2 months ago in southern Ecuador who decided to follow us down to Chachapoyas and ended up sprinting through Peru while we methodically plodded through it. They had just come back from a tour and recommended an agency, so us being lazy we booked our tour and headed for a bar for a long catch up. They had spent over 6 weeks in Bolivia enjoying the fact it was dirt cheap, they were heading south to Argentina but expected to be in Brazil about the same time as us, so as I write this - mental note see were they are. A few beers turned into a lot. We discovered this french run bar which was empty so we ended up sitting down with the owner talking crap for several hours. L&D were heading off that night at 2 so we smuggled them into our room and begged them not to wake us up when they left. The next day happy with our chance encounter we headed off to the salt pans.

We had a 4WD Toyota, Leo our guide (No English) Mick, a fourty year old seasoned traveller, and three S Koreans. Well the trip was incredible. You can see why so many people do it. Salaar itself is stunning. Its both the largest and highest saltpan in the world originally a massive inland sea now completely dried out. Perfectly placed near the middle is the Island of fish. (No fish, some rabbit like animals and lots of Cacti) where you can have some lunch and enjoy the views. From there we headed south to a lodge, complained abit about the food with all the other guys and would you beleive it hit the ron yet again. After an early start we headed south through some of the strangest scenery imaginable. Red and white mountains, massive rocks littering otherwise litter free sandy valleys. Generally weird landscape, with weird rock formations even a massive scar where a metorite had hit a mountain. Red, Green, and White lakes with bright pink flamingoes. It was a very strange place indeed. On our second night we had stopped by Lake Colorado. This lake was bright red, around 5km high and very very cold. Our accommodation was very basic. Just a concrete floor, 6 beds, 2 windows, with a wooden roof. No curtains, or even pillows. Well that night the temperature dropped to minus 19, luckily for us there was hardly any wind so inside with 6 of us in the room we didnt find it to unbearable. Poor Dagmar and Louis and spent their second night by themselves on a windy night at minus 20. They hardly slept just shivered until 5 when they headed off on their next days trip completely shattered.

The next two days were very similar, weird formations, weird lakes and crap english hits of the eighties as a soundtrack. Best to see some of the photos but then again dont think we could do the place justice on film.

From Uyuni we had to sprint to the Brazilian border. Megs only had a 30 day entry stamp and unlike mine which is free to extend the authorities wanted 25 USD to extend it to 90 days. As we only wanted to remain in the country an extra 5 or 6 days we decided it wasnt worth it so we would just have to miss out a few towns.

So from Uyuni we decided to head straight through to Sucre which was around 18 hours on a bus. Well what a journey. As we left Uyuni we heard reports of a General Strike the next day, and our bus was due to arrive in Potosi at around 5am then from there to head to Sucre. As you can imagine we got to Potosi and our bus driver goes nah thats it bye! So knackered after our bumpy drive we plodded ito town to see if we could find any other way of getting to Sucre. Luckily we managed to find a bus just pulling out that would take us, for 150% of the fare. well gringo prices nevermind. The journey to Sucre was pretty interesting, as one of the roads was out they have decided to drive down a river for around an hour of the journey. Bolivia its a strange place.

Once in Sucre we did some more shopping and looked around. As a UNESCO city we thought it deserved a good look around. A very nice sleepy city, all painted white keeping with its Colonial feel. Except for the antique rugs and a great open air food market not a great deal todo.

After hitting Sucre Megs only had around 3 days left on our stamp so we headed to Santa Cruz where we hoped we would be able to get the train to the Brazilian border. Another interesting 18 hour bus ride. This time we managed to have a crash in the first hour. A truck some how managed to smash 4 out of 7 windows along the left hand side of the bus. Luckily for us (Ian had the window seat) the truck stopped after breaking the window in front of ours. After the crash we were a bit surprised (Shouldnt have been!!) to see that the windows weren´t laminated and massive glass daggers had covered all the people in front of us. Luckily except for minor cuts no one was injured and after an hour or so of farting around the driver made a plastic screen for the broken windows and off we went to Santa Cruz without any further surprises.

Once in Santa Cruz we booked ourselves into a lovely hotel and decided to have a few days off from travelling. I needed to sort out my visa for Brasil and there actually wasn't anything much to do in the town, so we thought we would have a well deserved break. So after a few days off we boarded the train for Brasil and the frontier.

We had decided to live it up again and spend an extra $5 for the super pullman class. This included airconditioning, fully reclinable seats, food and movies. We were glad we did it. Just going to the dining car was an experience as they obviously don't really care to much about suspension. We were glad to get back to our airconditioned comfort. So after many movies, including three halves, for some reason they seemed to like starting a movie and then stopping it half way through, we arrived at the frontier.

Here we were accosted by many guides trying to get us to come with them on the pantanal tour. We grabbed some leaflets, told some aggressive agencies where they could stick it and jumped into a cab with a trio of english girls to be taken to the border.

After getting our exit stamps, luckily for me the border guard seemed to miss that I had overstayed saving myself a 10 boli fine per day, we jumped into one of the agency vans that would take us to their hostel. Once there we got the speal about their farm and it sounded fine so we booked to go with them the next day.

The truck ride out took three hours and along the way we managed to see a rare cayman lizard, lots of captain Barrys (or as the locals like to call them capyabary), loads of cayman and birds, and something that we had missed seeing in the pampas, an anaconda. We arrived at the camp exhausted from our bumpy ride and after a quick lunch we had time for a quick lie down before we went off on a afternoon walk.

That afternoon we saw howler monkeys and rare hyacinth Macaws. Back to camp for dinner and some drinks around the camp fire, then an early night as we would be getting up to watch the sunrise!!!.

So up early not that early though we missed sunrise, shame, we headed off into the woods to look for more animals. This time we saw the macaws again from yesterday and another pair, also loads more monkeys and were shown a few jungle handicrafts on the way back.

After lunch and a rest we got ready for the horseriding. Something I was looking forward to. Well it all got off to a bad start and kept going down hill from there. The sky was black and looked like it was going to piss it down at any moment. The horses sensing a storm weren't really in the mode for going out, I was the first to try to get on and it seemed that my horse really didn't want to go riding that day and decided as I was half in the saddle to throw me off. Luckily they weren't very tall so i didn't have far to fall the only problem was that my foot got caught in the stirrup and the horse started trying to drag me. Luckily Ian came to my rescue and managed to free my foot before I was trampled to death.

So after that bit of excitment we all managed to get on without any further problems. One of the girls was shit scared by this stage. She hadn't really been to keen on riding to begin with and after seeing that she was even less keen. We all set out and after about 30 minutes the heavens opened. This was not just any old storm it was a proper tropical storm. Inches of water fell in a matter of minutes and lightning was going off all around us. Of course we were stuck in a field in the middle of nowhere. This didn't help the horses any and we got back to camp as quickly as we could. Unfortunately this involved walking through what were now mini rivers and with lightning everywhere we were all pretty scared. By the time we got back to camp we were soaked. Unfortunately so was the digital camera and it has decided to give up working. So no photo's until we can get it fixed in BA.

Luckily Ian and I had bought some vodka coke so we played cards and drank that, then we got onto a board game called War, which is basically risk. Well what Ian and I had failed to read in the comments book was don't ever play war with Murillo. The first game Murillo was teamed up with the only other person that new how to play the game and rules were changed throughout the game and new ones were added. They both seemed hell bent on winning, fortunately they didn't. By the second game we had all put away a few beers or capairinha's so we were all feeling pretty good. This time teams were changed and Joe and I ended up winning, it was great to deny Murillo and Heather the chance of winning. By the time we made it to bed everyone was pretty hammered. Again we were supposed to be rising early for sunrise but again it didn't happen (to cloudy), not that anyone seemed particulary upset by it. In the morning we went canoeing and then Piranha fishing. These ones seemed quite a bit smarter than the ones in the pampas and we didn't catch quite so many (Ian got 3 this time mind! Megs got 5! grr). Then it was back to camp for lunch and our trip back to Corumba. The girls were going the other way so we said our good byes to them and Ian, Hans and I jumped in the truck for the even bumpier ride back.

That night was spent catching up on lost sleep and the next day we got ourselves onto the 27hr bus to Rio. Unfortunately there were no movies but Ian and I managed to sleep most of the way so it wasn't to bad. (The first paved roads we´ve been on for a while.) We've got another 20 plus hours journey to look forward to in a few days.

So now we're in Rio, yesterday was spent hanging out in Copacabana, where we are staying and Ipanema beaches. Today we're off to see Christ the Redeemer.

Hope you are all well.