Last post...........for now

So you know that we did make it home ok

We left Sucre but not without first getting to experience flying bolivian style......First we booked a plane trip back to La Paz where our international flight left from. We decided to check at the airline office the day before to check everything was ok for our flight. They say they don’t have a plane but will try to transfer us to another company, so we turn up at the airport the next morning early to hear that our original plane has been found and that we don’t need to swap afterall!

Back to town say hi and bye again to everyone we just left, back to airport, get on plane. Then pur plane stops at bigger city for a stop over, everyone has to get off the plane and pass through a metal detector and get back on the plane again??. Eventually our plane lands La Paz. I guess God was teaching us about patience.

As we rode in the taxi from the airport down to the actual city perched on a cliff some 500m below we reflected on what a great trip we had had.

We booked into a hostel and got on the net to guestimate how much cash we would need to get through the variety of airports on our flights home. Because I had lost all our cards except one we now couldn't get more money without going to a bank and going thought the whole process of showing passports to the right officicals. There was no room for that "oh I just need an extra $20 to pay for a tax to get on my plane that is leaving now" sort of senerio. For any travellers out there reading this blog: to get from Bolivia to Australia you need $US24 to get out of La Paz Airport and $US28 to get our of Santiago airport even if you want to stay in transit.

At breakfast the next morning our host tells us that the kind taxi driver that dropped us off has called - we pick out spanish words we know from our host's message - airport, road, people, blockade, problem, diez minutoes - we rush upstairs and pack fast.

On the rushed trip up the hill to the airport visions of walking though the snow to get past furious bolivian protestors filled our minds.

Many people had comeout to the road no so much as to protest but to stop the first truck that came with new supplies of cooking gas (apparently there hadn't been any gas for a week) in the rush to get gas they often block the road due to the amount of people linning up LPG bottles across the road. Thankfully we made it through.

I won't bore you with the saga of getting into and out of Chile except to say that airport officials at Santiago airport aren't much help but the lady at starbucks gave us free drinks. I never thought I would cheer for this multinational organisation?!

It was great to make it to Sydney and see our families again!

I don't really know how you are meant to finish a blog except to say I hope that we will travel again one day and then we can start some new posts. I have put up some more photos on flickr and will continue do do so. cheers,