Episode 33: The Amazon Rainforest and La Paz

So before the whole debacle that Nick wrote about last time we actually had a day in La Paz in which we did quadbiking which is a great way to see the city. Despite both of us being very sporty (nick also does cross country), we spent most of the time struggling to get up stairs before getting massively out of breath due to the altitude. Or maybe it's all the chips. We'll go for the altitude.

After that we got our, err, 'aircraft' to the amazon where we immediately fell in love with the tiny town Rurrenabaque (see overly amazing £15 a night hotel, below). The rainforest itself is awesome in every sense of the word - we spent most of our days on the motorboat gliding through the amazon river with our guide Nilo seeing various wildlife, anaconda hunting (no luck though), seeing crocodile eyes at night, piranha fishing, sunset/sunrise gazing and swimming with dolphins to name but a few - all amazing things that you sort of never think you'll see. There's actually a picture of me on nicks camera crouching next to a croc, although apparently the guide said it was very dangerous after - whoops!

So before I finish I should probably say something about the amazon escape. It was really scary - and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Essentially i had to put on a brave face but actually was really worried inside that if we were caught by the guerrillas it was my head on the line or more importantly if anyone got hurt in the whole process it would have been my fault. Unfortunately wasn't exactly the safest of terrains. Now that it's all over I'm glad i did something - we could easily still be there and maybe/probably even been hurt by the protesters. There's not really much more I can add to what nick said - it's not something I look back on with fond memories but I guess the silver lining is that for everyone involved there are a lot of positives to take. Lets just hope Diego, the 16 year old, is all ok and puts his new found fortune to good use....

...and not on women, as he joked!