Welcome to Bolivia!!
(some time in June! South America!)
where to start! we all had an amazing time! so much to tell! best start at the beginning I guess!
Arriving at Lima in Peru, to transfer to La Paz in Bolivia, the flight officials got me panicing a little! They were asking for my luggage tickets! The look on my face made it quite clear that I didn't know what he was talking about! suddenly, the haze was lifted, and I realised he was talking about the "scraps of paper" the guy in Manchester stuck to my passport! (I chucked them 7000 miles away! oops! 
) The mans face when I explained that I didn't have them said it all! - interpreted to Joc speak! "I'm never going to see my luggage again! 
Thankfully I soon arrived in La Paz! Tired, Stiff, and ready for a beer! 
However, I was still concerned about my luggage, thankfully, as I stood in the queue waiting to go through customs, I spotted my bags, and mum's air conditioning tube on the conveyor belt in the distance! 
Exiting through the sleepy quiet corridors, (in the middle of the night!) I was wondering where to go, and how to find my lift to base! lost in my thoughts, I was surprised to walk around the corner to find 80 - 100 Bolivian people all staring at me as they wait for their relatives! I did not relish the thought of having to fight my way through the crowd to the other side, however, holding my bags tight, I headed forward! Towards the exit! - Only to find everyone parting (like something out of the bible!) at the end of the opening was a man with my name on his board! BINGO! - my ride to base!!
Jumping in his cab, he explained it was a forty minute drive to base! I sat back to enjoy the ride, as we decended down, down, down! the long winding roads, with hundreds of dogs scavenging on the streets! I have never seen so many dogs! then suddenly BAM!! we were hit by the amazing view of La Paz by night! - in the basin of the deepest valley I've ever seen! thousands of street lights guiding the way! Very shortly, we were heading back up, up and up the other side of the valley!
Time to crash out and look forward to exploring tomorrow!!
Day 1 -
We had a lazy morning, unpacking, and catching up on the gossip from home! However, we did venture to the local stretch of shops, to get a few bits! All the stalls sell the same! how anybody makes a living is still a mystery to us! 
We called in somewhere for lunch, and both ate lovely meals for less than £2 for both meals! Les and Margaret joined, just in time for Les to point out a small hummingbird near by! Everyone enjoyed a relaxing time staying local! doing a few jobs on the vans, before I crashed in front of a DVD fast asleep by 8pm!
Day 2 - Early start to the day! Womble and I decided to join the hustle and bustle of La Paz! We enjoyed a lovely breakfast in town after a brief look around the San Fransisco church! - gold galore! vile statues of Jesus christ, Mary, and his disciples! Surrounded with such gold, every statue of Jesus had blood dripping off him all the statues were made out of plastic not the most asthetic objects!
Moving on, we wandered up the street! UP being the operative word! The hills were massive! and with the altitude, walking up them, we were soon out of breath! We were admiring the beautiful textiles on sale! Everything was so cheap! how anyone made a living! who knows! all the stalls seem to sell the same thing! in blocks of stalls, there seemed to be distinct areas for textiles, some where else for flowers, a different area for cosmetics, and so it went on! in each block though, it was all the same stuff!
To reassure myself that mum wasn't going to come back to the UK a cocaine habit, we went to the coca museum! Very interesting! learnt lots! Quite scary that the Bolivians have a prayer which is 1000's of years old, expressing the good of the coca plant for them, and then the poem states that the Western world will seize the coca, and it will damage their minds! - oh how true this is!
After the museum we wandered around amongst the busy city - people hollering from their taxi's their destinaiton, to pick up rides - there seemed to be more taxi's than people! and definitely more taxi's than normal cars! ladies and men carrying the largest of parcels which were strapped to their backs! up and down hill - where they get their strength is anyones guess! (guess the coca will help!)
Good info.
Best Regards