After a couple of days instrument buying in La Paz we embarked on our second trek, the Chorro Trail. Trek No. 2 was certainly just as difficult as Trek No. 1, but in a completely different way: walking uphill at altitude was replaced with walking downhill into humidity, and I'm still not quite sure which I'd rather have. We were dropped off on the first morning just below a pass at 4850m outside of La Paz (highest point of expedition on foot, woohoo!), and once we'd climbed over that it was pretty much downhill all the way, walking along an old Inca road, finishing at about 1300m in the Yungas, the tropical valleys that lead into the Amazonian basin.

Partly due to the fact that we were carrying our tents and stoves and food this time in our rucksacks, and partly because we were doing so much steep downhill walking, our feet and knees and ankles had to put up with some serious suffering. In fact I can't remember a time when my feet have ever been in quite so much consistent pain, and then on the last morning I managed to go over on my left ankle and so was hobbling round the jungle on that too. Ow.

But it really was all worth it just for setting up camp in some of the most stunning spots, and climbing out of our tents in the morning sunshine to be greeted with truly amazing views that you simply couldn't find anywhere else. On our first evening we camped at the top of a valley and watched the cloud roll up it towards us while the sun was setting - complete kodak moment. On the second evening we camped further down in the Yungas, and it really was pretty damn cool to be sitting round a campfire in the middle of the tropics in Bolivia watching the fireflies (so many of them, making all the silhouetes of the mountains sparkle), with more stars in the night sky than I've ever seen in my life. That was reason enough for Trek No. 2, although our campsite on the third night was reason more - a little neatly kept patch of land run by an eccentric old Japanese man, positioned right on the side of one of the mountains with such a fantastic view of valleys and valleys of lush green vegetation surrounding us. Once we'd cooked some damn good macaroni cheese Paul, Taylor and I lay on our backs watching the stars (first shooting star, hurrah!), while listening to the crickets. And then being able to walk past tumbling clear rivers and hummingbirds and huge colourful butterflies...

Funniest things about Trek No. 2 would have to be 1) the fact that Emma and I brought four packets of cheese with us, 2) the fact that everything we'd brought was in ziplock plastic bags, 3) a number of people falling over on their arses walking down the slippery inca road on our second day, 4) Emma's amusing white stripe across her sunburnt face from her bandana, 5) the random cat that we found licking our bread in our tent porch, and 6) the sight of Taylor running down the Inca road fully waterproofed up with a saucepan on his head.

(Continued...)