Suites Camino Real La Paz

... 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 ...

... a bit, checked out some tour operators, and discovered that the Brasil national team were in town on Sunday to play an, albeit meaningless, world cup qualifier. Figured it was about time we saw some South American football so decided to get tickets the following day. The streets were awash with Gringo´s and hence loads of armed police, though I´m not sure if that´s normal or due to the political situation at the moment, it seems many Bolivians are unhappy with the current regime ...

... my lenses in I was able to read my book, but once they were out (they were now underneath the bus, doh) I had little to do but sleep.

We got to the border around 2pm, and that was all very straight forward until we had to walk across to the Bolivian side to get our entry visas, we had to pass through our last Peruvian checkpoint. Two police officers singled us out and pulled us into an office, dave was lagging behind me so I was in their first and he said ...

... from our hotel.

Looking a bit like a mixture of a spanish colonnial house and a bad acid trip, the restaurant oozed character and great food. With dayglow murals of spanish wars mixed with candlelit tables and chandeliers, this was one place never to forget. The food was fantastic as well, and having wolfed down the Andean buffet, soup and Llama steak with a local beer to match, we stumbled back up to the hotel to get an early night.. Good night sweet darling.. Good Night..

Back here again for one night before starting the journey back to Lima.

The flight back from Rurrenabaque was interesting, due to wet weather our strip of grass was closed and we got transfered to the next ´dry´ strip of land in one of the neighbouring towns....about an hour away. NB for most of you who have never been to these parts, the runway or strip of grass is much better ...

... the bus suddenly slowed to a complete stop. Sticking my head out the window, I could see the road backed up in both directions and what looked at first to be a protest but then a festival in action on the side of the road. Why traffic stopped, we'll never know as there was nothing that appeared to be blocking things. The excellent part though was that in addition to witnessing another local festival, I was able to steal some ...

... drugs, we'd have to have been on something before trying our latest stunt. Tackling the Worlds Most Dangerous Road. Sounds scary. It is. The road is 42km long and joins La Paz with a town called Coroico. The road is only gravel, very steep with countless blind corners, is only 3 meters wide and has a sheer cliff dropping 600m straight down the side. Oh, and its used by trucks, local overloaded cars and drunk taxi drivers. This year alone, 43 people ...

... help a bit the three Italians who were doing the masonry there. One of them, Ricardo, was here too this time, and it was impresive how the works had progressed (given that we were expecting a completion over 10 years, not 3). Qalauma two years ago: look here
In Qalauma we could take photos and walk around. Strange to think this place will soon be a prison. At the same time happy that the youth we were visiting in ...

... right in the heart of the city but at same time it was very quiet when inside and had free pool table, good internet and real warmy bedrooms and beds so we were happy out.
We got our bearings again on the Tuesday and had to settle for Burger King as no Mc Donalds in La Paz (we were craving a Mc Donalds that day)
I (Rory) went to bed on Tuesday feeling a good bit better than the evening before but i still did not feel right and again had ...

... you´re looking at until you can make out the unborn llama´s head!

Other weird handicrafts include clay figurines of the devil with a large appendage - the devil is worshipped (or appeased) by Bolivian miners, who believe the devil has control of the hell beneath the earth (the mines themselves) and thus make offerings to him, in order that they may survive and have success in the mines!

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world ...