Vamos muy rápido!

So, here we are-- the last few weeks of travelling in amazing South America. Unfortunately, you will notice that there are no more pictures. You can give thanks to someone who maybe confused my camera with... uhh my camera, and took it as their own. Instead of buying another camera down here, with only 2 weeks left, we decided to go BD (before digital) and bought 4 disposable cameras. We'll get some interesting photos, I'm sure. Where we last left off, in Sucre, Bolivia, we made our way to La Paz, the capital. This city has a reputation of CRAZY. We didn't do the party scene here, but still heard stories of some crazy nights from people we met along the way. From here, we did a jungle tour through the Amazon in Rurrenabaque. We heard amazing things about this tour and were anxious to start- first we needed to take the 20 hour bus ride on Death Road to get there. Yes, they call the only road from La Paz to Rurre Death Road. There are many reasons for this-- the road is meant for two cars, but was built for one, one side is a sheer cliff down to the river, there are very many turns and tight corners (we're in a very large, double decker tour bus, mind you), children and locals alike use this same road to go to school, the next town, work, etc. The list goes on, I'm sure. Nevertheless, this is the only CHEAP way to Rurre (you can fly for 6x the price). After very many 'I'm getting the hell off this bus' call outs, we made it to very humid, very gorgeous Rurrenabaque. The city itself is not the site to see, it's the hub for the many amazying and interesting tours outside the city. We choose a tour that took us into the pampas (the savannahs), which has a diversity of animals and plants. We saw pink river dolphins, macaws, parakets, stinky turkeys, aligators, went in search of anacondas, and saw some pretty amazing scenery. After 3 days we made our return to Rurre and then back to La Paz... but of course it wasn't that easy. Remember that Death Road I mentioned? Well there are a lot of people that live along that road and they also use the road day to day. They had set up 3 road blockades and weren't letting ANYONE through. We had a choice: stay on the bus until the protest was done with (they were saying 5 days), or grab our bags and start to walk and pay different types of transport to get back to La Paz. We choose the latter and so did 3 others. We made it back to La Paz, 80 Bolivianos later, and for all we know the rest of the bus could still be trying to make its way to La Paz. From La Paz, we were ready to head back to Peru and finally make our way to Cusco and Machu Picchu! I am so sorry that I don't have pictures to post, because what a site to see. It's obvious why so many people come to Peru JUST to see that. After 2 days, we took a very budget bus 24 hours to Lima, in order to make our way back to northern Peru, in Mancora- where we worked in January. From Lima we had to take yet another 20 hour bus to Mancora, and here we are! We are fortunate enough to be able to be staying as guests at Samana Chakra, free of charge. The owners there have treated us so well and we are so grateful for all they have done, we can't say it enough! Tomorrow we leave on a 15 hours bus to Quito, Ecuador. We'll most likely be there for one day and make our way on another bus up to Colombia. Good news-- we've changed our flights so that we come home the 20th, instead of the 27th. We're missing home, family and friends, a simple normal life, and getting tired of travelling and being on the go- also spending money all the time, instead of making any becomes expensive!! haha. So, until Colombia :) Love, Andrew and Hillary