Bolivia

The India dream had been smashed, I was gutted beyond words and I spent the evening in Barcelona really upset though I had the parents, my brother and the cat giving words of encouragement.

It wasn't all bad though as in replacement I was offered a 32 day expedition to Bolivia. I wasn't exactely the most excited about it as I was so geared up and mentally prepared for the Himalayas trip, especially after telling everyone. But on returning to England and reading through the itinerary, it actually sounded better than the Himalayas trip!

The Himalayan trip was only around 23 days long, had one aim, to get up Kang Yatse and involved a 14 day trek to get there. I would have gone to see the Taj Mahal within the Golden Triangle but it was now replaced with 32 days of trekking in the Amazon basin, seeing the salt plans, Lake Titicaca and the Isla del Sol, working in a school/orphanage for 5 days, seeing huge amounts of wildlife and plants, being on the edge of the Andes mountain range, Inca relics.......

I was routing through my bookshelf and happened to find a Lonely Planet guidebook for the Central Andes, what a concidence. I didn't even know that I had it but it is one of the key guidebooks for the expedition.

There are 15 challengers, a school leader, expedition leader and myself heading out on the 9th July, 2 days before I was originally meant to be heading out to the Himalayas so I now have the crazy antics of graduation on 6th July, move out of Stoke on the 7th July, build-up day on the 8th July and then fly on the 9th July.

Busy bee is definitely the word!