We intended to leave Arica , Chile for La Paz , Bolivia on Tuesday 17 May , although we knew when we booked our bus that there were potential problems as there were planned roadblocks in La Paz. The bus company phoned our hostal on Monday afternoon to say that there would be no buses Tuesday , Wednesday , Thursday. After that they didn't know !

Ady had been keen to try his hand at paragliding so with a couple of days to spare in Arica , where conditions are pretty perfect for it , we arranged for him to fly on Tuesday !

His instructor collected him from the hotel at 10am & off they went. Ady thought he was doing a tandem flight , ( but the harness which they use for that was in Santiago !!! ) & he almost lost his nerve when he learnt he was going to be taught to fly solo. He flew 3 times in the morning & then was delivered back to the hotel at 1.30 pm (for his siesta ! ) The instructor arranged to pick us both up at 4 pm so I could go & witness this phenomena & take some photos.

I sat on the sandy hills watching him trying to get airborne. I could not believe how complicated & how strenuous it was trying to handle & control the parachute-type wing. Up until that point I had thought that I might try it if I had the nerve , but then I still thought we were talking about tandem flight where I didn't have to do anything but jump off a cliff ! The wind was slightly stronger than it had been in the morning & Ady was pretty exhausted after his morning efforts & struggled to get airborne again . His instructor was really patient & determined for me to see him fly. And he did. About 5 minutes from the high sandy cliffs down into the valley & stopped short of the road ! I took lots of photos. He was ecstatic. Really thrilled with what he had achieved but too tired to try again. The adrenalin rush was not good for his system either & it took him several days to recover. But he still considers it to have been worthwhile.

The following day we returned to the bus station to evaluate our chances of getting to Bolivia. Nil. Chile did not intend sending any buses to Bolivia until the following week at the earliest. So we bought tickets for Puno n Peru instead.

The next day we took a taxi over the Chile/Peru border to Tacna where we boarded the bus for Puno. It was a long beautiful journey across the Andes. I did not have a very good map of the area with me & could not work out which route we were taking , but I realised it was not very direct. By 4pm I became aware we were approaching the Peru/Bolivia border. at a place called Desaguadero. I hoped there would be a bus terminal there so I could enquire about getting directly to La Paz from there , but no such luck. The bus stopped at the roadside & many locals got off.

I got off with them , at which point , as always , I was surrounded by about 20 people trying to persuade me to go in their taxi. It was bedlam ! I tried asking in my best spanish if it was possible to get directly from there by bus to La Paz . They said yes but they would have said yes anyway just to get a taxi-fare. I continued to ask , where I could buy tickets, where the bus left from & if the border really was open. All replies in the affirmative & they would take me there in their taxis ! What to do ? I shouted to Ady to get off the bus & we dragged our packs out of the bus hold.

The taxi drivers were literally fighting over our bags. It was crazy. The taxis were tricycle taxis (like rickshaws or tuk-tuks ) . One driver took our bags , the other took Ady & I , about a mile across town. First we stopped at Peru immigration for passport control, then Bolivia passprt control, then customs. Thankfully they didn't insist on opening our bags & accepted that we had " no drogas ". Then we were taken to a crowded minibus which was leaving for La Paz in 10 minutes. Everything worked out & we arrived successfully in La Paz at about 9 pm. 3 countries in 1 day !