On Death Road(s)

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On our last day in La Paz, we took a relaxed day trip to the Moon Valley - sandstone stalagmites that are busy eroding away. A lot of the town actually looks like that - not sure what type of insurance the guys take out for their houses! We saw some house clinging precariously to the edge of the sandstone cliffs.

The past few days have seen big action! We kicked off with the Death Road cycle - claimed as the most dangerous road in the world, we set off with 4 others and a guide. The first part was great for Phil - 32kms of downhill on smooth tarmac. The rest of the road kept Marco happy with downhill offroad stuff for the next 33kms. The scenery was spectacular, the photos don´t give it justice. Looked like scenes out of the movie Avatar. 80 000 people have died in the 70 odd years the road has been used - either by falling off the cliff edge or while building the road. Before an alternative road was built, 1 bus or truck went over the edge each month! The road is only wide enough for one vehicle so when another appraoches from the other end, one has to reverse to try and make space for the other to get past. It is also the only place in Bolivia where the traffic direction changes.

We ended our trip with a swim in the river and a lunch, before being dropped off at a tiny little town and catching two buses to the very untouristy town of Chulumani, located in the South Yungas region. This trip was Death Road number 2, except in a big bus! Phil sprouted a few gray hairs as we went over extremely narrow bridges whilst turning corners and having massive drops below. We arrived in Chulumani late and ended up camping in the very overgrown garden of a bed and breakfast. The next day poured with rain which forced us to relax beore setting off on a day walk up to the forest. We were both so pooped though, we were making our way down the mountain like zombies.

The next day we set off on a 2 day hike through various towns. The weather was HOT! 3 of the B&B owners´ dogs joined us. We thought they would turn around and go home, but they never did! We ended up having to share our pasta and oats with them instead! But they were great - extremely loyal and super entertaining! (see photos). The hike was either uphill or downhill, through coca plantations. We camped next to a river in the middle of nowhere which was super. As evening dawned, we were attacked by evil mosquitoes and horseflies (fortunately the flies busied themselves more with the dogs than us), but then treated to a light show as the cliffs and river area lit up with fireflies. It has been so special to be able to ¨free¨ camp - anywhere you want, with no permission needed and no people around....

The local people here were the complete opposite to those of La Paz - very friendly, helpful and chatty so our opinion of Bolivians in general has changed! It was strange passing through a black community (descendants of the slaves brought here by the Spanish) and seeing black women in frocks and hats. We ended our hike in the town of Irupana. We wanted to camp on the soccer field but we happened to pick the day that the soccer championships were on - heaps of people everywhere! Instead, we decided to get the dogs back home (by now, they had followed us for over 35kms and we were unsure if they would find their way home). We took a terrible taxi home. Picture this: a station wagon with 7 people inside, 3 dogs (one trying to climb out the window all the time) and 4 backpacks, speeding down a very windy dirt road trying to catch up and overtake other cars. He was crazy! When we arrived, he had the audacity to up his price after we had agreed on a price. He refused to give us all our change and we left, very upset. But the dogs got home safely, so we were relieved. We slept one more night in the wild garden before making our way back to La Paz back up the Death Road number 2!

We immediately caught an overnight bus to the town of Cochabamba. The bus was cramped and the journey not too great. But worse was still to come. At 3am, the bus driver stopped. Phil thought this was to catch up on some sleep, but when we had not left half an hour later, we wondered what was up. One of the passengers informed us that there was a road block, just 2 hours away from Cochabamba. The reason: a fight over land rights over an area in the south of Bolivia rich in minerals. They wanted to get the governments attention so blocked off all the major roads from La Paz towards the south. This meant that no trucks or people could pass. We waited a few hours before hiking to the nearest town, and then catching a few taxis into Cochabamba. Trucks had parked and blocked off the roads for long stretches and 2 big piles of rocks were blocking the road. Where were the police, you might ask? Oh, they were just watching. We were told police don´t get involved in these kinds of things!!!! Oh, and apparently the president (before he was president) was good at these tactics and once blocked a road for 2 weeks! We are unsure as to what the situation is now, but hope it will have cleared up by tmrw when we leave for Torotoro to see dinosaur footprints and do some caving.

Since being in Bolivia, we have seen a total of 5 protests! It seems the people here are very unhappy with the state of their country. The president only seems interested in lining his own pockets with dirty money made from cocaine and he seems to want to get rid of foreigners. He has disregarded the agreement between Bolivia and the United States which controls the production of the coca leaf (used in making cocaine but also for pharmaceutical products, Coca Cola, etc) and has instead is promoting mass cultivation of the leaf so that he can keep the druglords happy. The Yungas is one of the biggest coca leaf cultivators, and this was very evident during our time there (also noticed lots of big, fancy 4x4s with tinted windows).

What we miss most:
fresh rolls like they make them in SA

Highlight:
The 65km DOWNhill : ) and the dogs company on our hike

Lowlight:
Taxi ride back to Chulumani and the roadblock!

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