Ínto Bolivia and on to La Paz
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2008
1
17
22
Trip End
Jul 27, 2008
La Paz,
Bolivia
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Well, you'll all be pleased to know that we´ve actually been allowed into Boliva. It´s amazing that for this entire trip we actually haven't had to get a single visa. Mind blowing really.
We were pretty excited to be moving on from Peru. We certainly enjoyed our time in the country but it didn't have the same feel as Ecuador. More tourists, local people more interested in the commercialities of tourism and a touch more expensive than Ecuador. Not sure that it helped going down the coast of Peru with just day after day of desert scenes. Guess it's just not our thing. Have to say that we had a ball though. Did lots and saw lots and the tour with Tucan has been pretty good. Certainly the transport and accommodation has been spot on. Using local transport all the way is a great way to travel and see more of an area than in a pristine tour bus
In the queue at immigration Bolivia
. Our guide Alvaro has his moments. Can't say he's the hardest worker in town and sometimes could have given us more info but generally things have run smoothly.Leaving Puno we travelled for around 3 hours before hitting the border. First into the Peru Policia office for the first stage of processing, then onto the immigration office to get stamped out. Crossed the border itself on foot and went through the rigorous process of clearing Bolivian immigration. Seriously, they didn´t even look at our passports, just whacked the stamp in. Bit of a joke really.
Then onto our bus again and into the town of Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This place is a bit odd. A holiday resort town complete with posh hotels and palm trees right on the shore. Shame it gets down to freezing at night!
Change of bus and a crossing of the lake which was a totally bizarre experience. How do you get a bus across a lake? Put it on a barge of course and motor it across. We all had to get out (thank god) there's no way we would have stayed in there!
Another 4 hours and onto La Paz, highest capital city in the world at 4200m
Just before our foray on Death Road
. A serious lack of oxygen here and the place is built in a valley so lots of hills either side. We staying at the Hotel Seniorio Montero to start off with along with bucket loads of other tour groups and our worst nightmare, the Budget Expeditions (18 to 35) group which has been haunting us since Lima. What a pack of party animals! Not flash really, some of them are pretty ordinary, lots of noise, parties and general goings on. Maybe we're getting old!!!The city is a traffic nightmare. Market stalls have just taken over the roads so traffic has to divert. The stalls spread across a huge area selling everything imaginable. Got lost in a local market on day 2 with Kenny and Laura. Thank god Kenny is tall so he towered over the locals which was handy as it was incredibly crowded! Everything is very cheap here. Just paid 18 bolivianos for brekkie (fresh juice, fresh fruit, muesli, yoghurt, toast, eggs, tea). That's about $2.50 so you can get an idea of cost from that!
Yesterday we biked down ´Death Road´ supposedly the World's Most Dangerous Road using a tour company called Gravity Assisted Biking. If there is anyone reading this who is EVER contemplating this trip PLEASE use this company. They are the original, the best and the safest. There were some other companies doing this trip on the same day and the guides were feral, the punters were out of control and their whole trip was a race on really crap old bikes
La Paz city from our hotel room
. Even the companies which tour guides recommend like Downhill Madness proved exactly that on the day. Anyway, the trip was awesome! Had a bit of a change of plan for the early stages of the trip as there was a huge party happening at Coroico (the finishing spot) and the police diverted bikers for their own safety (to remove them from the prospect of facing pissed Bolivian drivers)!!. Anyway, did the first section on dirt on a trail called ´the ghost ride´, an easy 15kms or so of 4WD track as an intro-sweet. We had 'beautiful' Kona full suspension bikes totally tweaked to ride and they were just sensational!Anyway, on to Death Road - why is it called that? Well, it has something to do with the fact that it is a single dirt road track built into a cliff face. Therefore, there's a vertical cliff on one side of you and a vertical drop off on the other side-nice!!! Some of the drops are 100´s of meters. There have been 13 cyclists who went over the edge in the last year alone and each trip brings it´s own challenges. For us it was the fact that Nic hates heights!!
Anyway, the ride is mostly downhill and around 50kms long. It was just brilliant. We survived (and have the T shirts to prove it....these dudes are collector´s items so we WILL be wearing them at home)!!
We finished up filthy and wet after riding through waterfalls and streams. The ride started at around 4600m and we cruised down to around 1500m and ended in the Bolivian jungle at an animal sanctury. After a fabulous hot shower and pasta lunch, a few beers for the trip on the way home (back up Death Road in the support bus which we think was actually more scary...especially when the driver is on the mobile phone.....OMG)!!!
Postcard corner Death Road
! General consensus for the group was that the trip was one of the highlights of our tour. Bearing in mind that no-one else was going to do it but we talked them into it!Anyway, we´re about to join up with another tour in La Paz. This time with GAP so it´ll be interesting to see how they are in comparison with Tucan. La Paz is certainly an interesting city. Don´t take photos of the women who run the stalls in the Witches Market because they´ll spit at you- fair enough! The witches market is great-you can buy stuffed toads, ostrich heads, llama foetus´s and a heap of other exciting things which will help to ensure that your home and life are blessed by Patchamama (mother earth). Sensational!
Anyway, from here we´re off to the Salar de Uyuni - the salt flats which border the Chilean Atacama Desert. Very beautiful but bloody cold!
Travelling rules!!
Buenos noches
nic & Pam
