Jatatal Hotel La Paz

... Argentiner die wir in Sucre kennengelernt hatten und gingen dann mit denen in ein Museum wo alte bolivianische Masken und alle alten bolivianischen Waehrungen ausgestellt waren. Am Abend trafen wir uns dann wieder mit ihnen in der Bar im Loki Hostel und gingen dann in einen Club der ganz lustig war, aber in dem kein einziger BolivianerInn war. Am naechsten Tag wollten wir einbisschen was ueber die Geschichte des Coca erfahren und besuchten ...

... I shouldn't get too cocky really or I'll sabotage my efforts. Just to recap though; shame on you.




So where did we leave it? San Pedro in Chile I believe. Well my GAP group of intrepid explorers and I made our way across the Bolivian border and onto a three day crossing of the desert to reach the much vaunted sand-flats. Bolivia is the country that killed Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Che Guevara; they have a lot to answer for and I intended to ask ...

... wir von einem 70 Jahre alten Männchen herzlich empfangen. Es kam uns vor, wie schon lange keine Leute mehr dort vorbei kamen, denn er begann uns seine ganze Lebensgeschichte zu erzählen, welche äusserst spannend war. Es scheint ein ziemlicher Pionieer gewesen zu sein was das Bergsteigen in den Anden betrifft. Wir fühlten uns sofort in sicheren Händen. So buchten wir die Tour und machten uns am nächsten Morgen auf den Weg den Gipfel zu erklimmen. Es ...

... and out of Peru 3 times I reckon...lots of stamps in the passport and also lots of queuing up and standing around!!!A very interesting day.Glad to finally be here!!We have booked into a nice Hostal and it is very central as well as being nice and clean!!!We went and visited the San Pedro Prison...well we stood outside and took photo´s.You used to be able to do tours but they stopped that.Then we did some ...

... that one mother of a bolivian president said "if i knew he was going to be president, then I would have sent him to school". Say no more, this place has worse politics than Italy (but unfortunatley no parliamentary fights ensue as they are at altitide).
La Paz is a hilly winding inferno of cobbled alleys, collonial architecture, and is full of old wide Bolivian grans with charlie-chaplain hats and two plaits to their ...

... high cliffs and no barriers to prevent you from tumbling over the edge. This part of the ride is where two people have died so far this year (though these were not strictly cycling accidents). In the past, when traffic was using the road in both directions then approximately 200 vehicles fells off the edge each year. This was in part due to frequent bad weather conditions - low cloud (well, relatively, it's about 3,000m up) and heavy rain being commonplace. As I was to find out ...

... in te stappen en werden ze naar een prachtige suite midden in de stad gebracht. Alles is dus goed gegaan en mijn mijn fiets staat ready-to-go in de berging en de suite is nu gevuld met 4 mensen, heel gezellig!

Nu Ninka en Jan Peter moeten bijkomen van de reis, de jetlag, de hoogte, de schale lucht, maar ook Bolivia... kunnen wij laten zien dat we stad al goed kennen, en laten alle ...

... Unfortunately I would come to stretch them a little too far because about 5km from the bottom I was steaming around a corner, luckily left had bend with cliff on my left, and I remember seeing the 2 crazy Brasilian dudes to my right, next thing I know I´m lying on the gravel face first with a bike up my ****. I managed to get myself up as the rest of the pack whizzed past and Javier came in from the back of the group and summoned the minibus down so that he could patch me ...

... with traffic. The smell of urine everywhere despite seeing more public conveniences here than anywhere else we've been. Saltenas, little pasties filled with meat or chicken, sold from just about everywhere. Minibuses collecting and dropping people off, while other road users beep constantly. Cafes situated in beautiful, old colonial buildings. Blue sky, searing hot sunshine, but cool in the shade. looking up to see the road disappear into the sky.

We found the ...

... a British couple and their guide who actually skipped 2 of the passes for a more roundabout way to the 3rd days camp. Our gear was taken off early that day by Mario who was supposed to porter our gear to his motorcycle and drive it around to our camp. When we rounded our last hill next to an abandoned mining settlement overlooking the valley, we saw Mario whizzing by on his moto with tons of gear strapped to the back. It was hilarious ...