Hello people, so before i dive into the latest update i've stumbled across a few quotes which, i really think describe the situations me and adam have been in and how good we are feeling at the minute. So i'd like to share these with you.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

"The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes: sight-seeing."

"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it."

"When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don't even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival depends upon them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in different situations. At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive."

And now what we have been upto....

New stamp in the passport!
So we made it to La Paz in bolivia! But what a journey it has been to get here from Buenos Aires. 

Burying children alive!
So before getting to bolivia we spent a couple of days in a town called Salta, situated in northern argentina. A town famed for the discovery of 3 500year old preserved inca children who were offered as a sacrifice to the "sacred mountains" they are kept on show in a museum. A sight that was pretty disturbing, what was worse was that these children were buried alive and it is inca belief that they did not die but are simply sleeping. Apparently it was a great honour to be offered to the mountais.-bag of s**t if you ask me, i'd rather not take part- its worth google image searchimg "the lightning girl salta" to really see what im on about.

Drunk on £6?
So embracing this new found argentinian party spirit, me and adam had a massive night out in salta-managing to get a bottle of vodka orange juice redbull and some chips for less than 3 quid each...this was going to be messy! Heading into the main strip of salta we generally cant remember that much, all i know is my reggaton salsa dancing was simply amazing compared with buenos aires!

Super sweeds
So in salta we were sharing a room with 2 sweedish lasses who seemeed to be on our wavelength, they have become our new travel buddies and have joined us on our journey up to la paz.- not to mention one of them can speak spanish which, has been a god send!  

Being famous. 
So i've never really thought i'm the kind of guy that sticks out in a crowd, however me and adam now know what it feels like to be a 'gringa' honestly, in salta and in bolivia we just get stared at, its so strange but as they cant speak english we can give them some bant too. Either way i cant decide if people are just curious and a bit shy, or if they just generally dont like us.

Bolivia is cheap
Hostels for £2 a night
Meals in restaurants for less than £4
Litres of beer for £1
Cakes and coffee for less than 30p
Taxis for pence

Stray dogs
Everywhere you look in south america there are just stray dogs roaming the streets, probably filled with rabis, either way get them rounded up and shot!

Hot shower
What i wouldnt give to have a hot shower right now, its probably not worth contemplating, bolivians dont seem to believe in a nice hot shower-retards!

Good buildings
So when i was in inguacu i got talking to kiwi guy wjo warned me about bolivia, one thing by saying that, everything is broken they dont have any good carpenters or electricians, thinking he was exagerating i got a quick reality slap. The remote villages we hav stayed in are simply ridiculous, i'd argue going on thrid world. Things are broken and glued together. The buildings all look like a 2 yea old had a temper tantrum wjilst trying to buol a lego house.

"thats made me feel sick"
So we stayed in one place on the boarder between argentina and bolivia, a extremly poor place where the roads were all gravel and dust, people living in essentially slums. However the thing that really made me wretch was seeing little children just bending down in the streets going to the toilet.-i mean if i did that in england i would get charged £80 

First class train travel
So a 15 hour train ride, first class for less than 20quid sounds a good deal? Yea we thought so too, however first class in bolivia is probably about as luxurious as a weekend in skeg-vegas. This train was a nightmare- ive been on smoother roller coasters, all i could imagine was how bad was standard class!!

Oruro has hot springs!
So before getting to la paz we stopped in a town called Oruro, to break the journey up and to see what there was. Our new found swedish friends have brought the bible with them (the lonely planet guides) and informed us that there were some natural hot springs in the mountains that we should go to, getting lost in our imaginations we all thought these would be pretty "lush" and a great way to relax.-again we were wrong, the expression "piss filled swimming pool" was more of the reality. Oh and again 4 white europeans in a swimming pool full of bolivians is like frowing a cat to the dogs. The girls were getting photographed by horny teenagers who have probably never seen a white girl before, further on from that we were just out of our comfort zones...but loved it! Again "when in rome"-or not, it was pretty surreal to be honest.

La paz
So we are now in la paz, spending a few days here before the inca trail kicks off next week in peru. This place on first impressions is simpy phenominal. We are 4000m above sea level and altitude sickness may kick in. The streets are so steep but there seems to be something a little special about this place. Further more you decend into the city from the mountains, something that was pretty spectacular to see.

Death road
So booking to do the bolivian death road on mointain bikes, was more than enough to send goosebumps down our spines, but the reality of it...(goggle image "bolivian death road" if you dont know what this is...)(mum i'm writing this after i have done it so dont worry...i'm alive)- well basically its a 40 mile down hill bike ride on what is classed as the worlds most dangerous road. I'm sure many of you saw the top gear special that was filmed on it.
So how was it? - basically it was the most exilerating, adrenaline pumping thing i have ever done (bunjee jumps and sky dives come in november) whilst also encountering the most breathtaking scenary i have ever seen. 
The first 10kmish was on tar mac starting at an altitude of 4700meters, you get to charge full steam down some steep hair pin filled roads. With nothing more on your mind than "faster faster faster" The actual death road was a different reality, narrow,loose gravel and low visability to start with helped fuel the buzz we were feeling. The guides were cool and kept having regular pi stops to let us know of any terrain changes etc. They also split the group in two groups- the more confident from the lesser, well as me and adam are highly unexperienced in mountain biking, and the steepest road we have probably been on is our street at home, we naturally ended up in the front group setting a respectable pace behind the lead guide. The pictures are on facebook and before we knew it 3 hours had passed and we were supping a nice cold beer at the bottom.

Dangerous or overhyped?
So me and adam sat at the bottom discussing if we actually felt in that much danger? Well no we didint, we both had a iffy moment where we lost  control and veered towards the edge, but nothing herat stopping, that was nothing more than us needing to mak a complete stop. we agreed it wasn't that dangerous and we would love to do it again.

Harsh reality slap, 
The minibus drove us back up the death road to get back to la paz, enabling us to see all the things we had missed, due to concentrating on our routes and cornering on the way down. Wow we really missed some grim reminders of the dangers this road holds if people become too complacent. You cant help but notice the sheer amount of memorials to people who have lost their lifes on this road. Notably there were 3 places that made me think "wow this place is unforgiving" firstly the tour quides showed us where a english guy was getting over confident and shot off a cliff to his death, something our guide witnessed, secondly the site where a girl fell to her death on a foggy day, falling over 100m hitting two cliff ledges only 6 months ago.-again our tour guides helpe recover her body. Finally our minibus pulled over and pointed over a edge that was over 150m sheer drop and said "look theres a car"-a family who plunged to their death only last month, a moving memorial situated in the cliff face above, although initially we thought it had just happened.

Having said this all however, this was an incredible experience and despite the dangers our tour guides were incredible and our safety never felt compromised- definatly one of the coolest things i have ever done!!! 

Llamacroft
So embracing local culture, i have absolutley demolished a lasagne tonight, however made with llama meat- it was delightful!

The quest for guinness
Me and adam both enjoy a cheeky pint of guinness, and after sampling guinness in englad, dublin, ibiza and corfu we are on a mission to try it in south america in a cheeky irish bar. So far brazil didnt deliver, argentina had two irish bars, one in burnos aires and one in salta- however both had no guinness. Finaly in la paz we found another irish bar- however for 50 bolivianos a can (about a fiver) we decided against it-the quest continues!

Showing how we party up'north
Sampling the La Pazian (that work?) night life- we promised our new bff's the sweeds we would show them how me and adam party when we are in sheff. Our dance routines encourporated       leap froggin each other on the dance floor and some strange synced leaning thrusting dance- we had the barmen in stitches- lady gaga never sounded so good! Goodbye to this sambary salsary shiite.

General chat
So my Mobile number basically no longer exists, so if you have text me im not being rude by not replying. Also i am doing all these updates from my ipod as internet access is limited- this is why there are so many typos etc.

Few days in la paz then onto peru people!! Cant believe all that we have seen so far.
Tara for now x x x