30 - 1st Nov Halloween and Rurrenbaque, Bolivia

We arrived back in La Paz and it was Halloween. The locals go crazy for it. Every stall turns into a fancy dress stall! It would have been rude not to dress up and go out!

Attractive!

The next morning we had to get up at 4am after about 2hrs sleep to get an internal flight to Rurrenbaque to visit the jungle.

Got to the airport to be greeted by the smallest plane ever..not what we were expecting. We were last on so we practically had to crawl to the back seats. I decided after this experience I might be a bit claustrophobic! Alex had no issues and passed out for the hour long flight.

The landing was in a field that looked no different from other fields. It was a relief to get off the plane.

The open cockpit

The next three days was spent going up a river in a boat into the jungle and sleeping in wooden shacks on the side of the river.

Piranha Fishing!





Reluctantly I joined the day trip hunting for Anacondas in the wet marshlands. After walking for two hours we reached the boggy leach and tick fillled fields where Anacondas are often spotted and I realised I had a huge split in my wellies...gutted! so paranoid about leaches and my wellies filling up with water! The umbrella is nothing to do with the rain it is me having no shame and using it to shade myself from the burning sun. Alex was the ultimate gentleman guiding me through the least boggy sections whilst I moaned about feeling gross things in my boots... not a happy camper! To top it all off I was walking around thinking I am looking for something which I really do not want to find!! haThe boats sides were really low to the river, especially when there are aligators thrashing about

We saw hundreds on the sides on the river

Sunset
Cool, Calm, Collected! We crept up on the one eye aligator for a photo and just as it was being taken it decided to head towards us....aghhhhhhhhhh
Aligator thrashing at the boat!

23 - 30th - La Paz and Pequena Alpamayo, Bolivia

We had heard good things about La Paz and we were excited to be in Bolivia after being in Peru so long.

When we arrived it was the weekend so we decided to go out and check out the clubs. Very hungover the next day we went to a travel agent to enquire about booking to do a mountain called Hyuni Potosi, it is meant to be one of the easiest 6000m mountains to climb. I wasnt that keen on attempting it after Chachani. So in the end we booked up to climb Pequena Alpamayo which is more technical but only 5595m!

The climb involved ice climbing which I had not done before so we spent a day on glacier.

This id a guides helper with slip on office shoes attached to crampons for ice climbing...mad!

The next day we left early and got dropped off in a village ready to walk to the base of Pequena Alpamayo.

Alex needed to visit the toilet before we set off!

Where we camped was amazing we were the only ones there, with our guide and cook!

Early the next morning we got up to attempt the summit and both made it.(Not without me stopping a couple of times saying 'I don't think I can carry on') It was a 14hr round trip and the hardest thing I've ever done but I absolutely loved it.

This crevass was really scary to jump over it was so deep when you looked down!
We were the only people on the mountain, all the snow was fresh the only footprints were ours..





Another rest...

A really steep ice climb for the final part of the summit, our guide is the black dot at the top of the photo.


The summit!! - the lake in the background is where we were camping

15th - 19th Oct - Arequipa, Peru

We stayed in a really nice place for really cheap here and had a couple of days of doing nothing until we booked up to do a mountain called Chachani which was 6075m high.

You start the walk at something like 3500m so even in the car on the way there I started feeling the altitude. When we started walking I was really breathless and my head was killing.

Alex was fine and was excited about his first summit over 6000m. The next morning after no sleep I decided I didnt feel any better and was not going any higher because the altitude would be worse so I stayed in the tent while Alex did a 10hr round trip to the summit!

Alex's lonely summit!

6th - 14th October - Panama Canal

We got to Panama to be greeted by a huge supply of Clos red wine and a curry (made by Sym). Alex was happy because he had been saying how much he missed Ashoka!

The next day we got the boat ready to go through the canal and met Lowri and Annina ( a couple from Finland who were also going to help line handling).

The reason they were sailing the boat through the canal was because someone in Costa Rica had bought the boat and they were delivering it to him. Amy just had one last check of her emails before we left the harbour. She had an email from Costa Rica saying that the guy didn't want the boat anymore! We were 10 minutes away from leaving, they had paid out of their own money to go through the canal, they had sprayed the boat white on his request..they were absolutely gutted.

Boats are much easier to sell on the Carribean side so there was no way we were going through the canal on Quartermoon. The day was spent trying to get hold of the guy and drowning sorrows with Gin and Tonic..lots of Gin and Tonic.

Before the day was over they had already arranged for someone who was desperate to buy the boat to come out and view it in Panama..so at least the hope of selling it was still there.

Lowri and Anina were going through the canal on their boat 'Alissa' in a few days time so luckily for us we were still able to do the canal with Amy and Sym.

For the next few days we sailed to nearby Chagras River, where we had been told we would see crocodiles. The boys were on a serious crocodile hunt but we didnt end up seeing any.

The nighttime crocodile hunt...so creepy!

After a long wait we were starting the Panama Canal. A pilot comes on board the boat to advise everyone how to do things and starts telling horror stories about peoples boats getting smashed up when things go wrong in the Canal! Funnily enough, our line handling jobs were taken more seriously after that!

The first lock we were in with a 500ft cargo ship..the crew were watching us struggle and stress while their boat was controlled by machines..no pressure!

It takes two days to go through the canal so half way through we spent the night at Lake Gatun and got a lot more drunk than planned!

The second day was a lot easier, we passed a massive cruise ship..the ship is actually design to be the maximum size to go through the canal.

Annina made a video of us going through the Canal
- Click here to see it

The week had gone really fast and it was time to us to fly back to Peru we said goodbye to Amy and Sym who were going back to meet the potential buyers (they sold their boat the next day!)