Phew - we made it back to La Paz! The flight went off with out a hitch, and there don't appear to be blockades of any kind here. It all seems to be concentrated in the central highlands of Bolivia.
The blockades themselves have something to do with the truckers trade unions I think. I'm not entirely sure, because whenever I ask a local they simply reply: "Pah! Es politico." There's definitely something going on here though (potentially completely unrelated to the road blocks), because every time we see a television it's reporting on some kind of demonstraion or protest going on somewhere in Bolivia. Most of these protests seem to be held just outside the US Embassy in El Alto, so we'll be sure to stay away from there (though we did meet one Australian girl who wanted to experience a real life South American riot first hand. She was definitely insane).
I think most of this is pretty much par for the course in Bolivia. We were told by our guide on the mining tour in Potosi, that there are usually protests of some kind going on, and sometimes the blockades can go on for months effectively paralysing the country's tourism industry. He said when that happens he has to return to work in the mines since there are no tourists around to take any guided tours!
In any case we are now back in La Paz and soaking up the "market culture" (there are market stalls absolutely everywhere here). Our next stop is Coroico, which at the time of writing, has no blockades. Hurray!
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