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Published: July 10th 2009
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So peaceful
Lake Titikaka Tim Version:
* Made it to La Paz, met an ex (well kinda ex) con American in jail in Bolivia briefly.
* Rode the death road (The world's most dangerous road), survived and freakin loved it!
The version running with dual suspension, disc brakes, and enough safety gear to survive anything:
The bus from Puno was pretty good, although funny that it was 100% tourists. The lake was much more beautiful outside of Puno as we skimmed its edges in the bus, a little annoying to see after having been stuck in Puno for the previous few days but I was glad to be seeing it now. Crossing the border is very simple with no customs checks or much officialness of any kinda really and the usual swine flu checklist that is now everywhere. There is only a small no-mans land between Peru and Bolivia and then you're on the other side, officially in a new country! We bussed on another 10kms to Copacabana where we stpped for an hour for lunch. A nice lakeside town, its quite touristy but has some good places to eat provided you like seafood and the lake is particularly nice there.
We had to cange bus here in Copacabana and definitely changed to a Bolivian quality bus, leaving our nice air conditioned comfortable bus behind and hopping in a much more cramped slowly chugging along more local bus.
After leaving Copacabana we only got a small distance before we stopped to help another bus from our company that broke down, more common in Bolivia (buses breaking down) than almost anything else I imagine. It took a good 45 minutes to fix, kinda annoying since our bus was already about 45 minutes late, which pushed us late enough to not get into La Paz until after nightfall. The views from where we broke down onwards are beautiful, and at once point you have to leave the bus to catch a small ferry over part of the lake while the bus takes a seperate ferry, a good little break to the journey (though looking at the boat I was more worried it was going to break with all of us in it!).
Once in La Paz I wandered off from those I'd met in Puno as they were all heading to Loki Hostel and went to check out a cheaper quieter
hostel I'd found online as I was only there the night. Turns out it shut down! Be nice if they updated that on Hostel World.. ah well, I found my way to Vertigo Bikes though and booked myself on a "Death Road" ride down The World's Most Dangerous Road the next day bright and early. I'd met a US guy wearing old torn clothes and no shoes (its bloody cold in La Paz) just outside a church I passed by on the way to Vertigo just earlier who said he was on day release from the prison to search for work and that he had been stuck in La Paz in prison for the last 11 years, and sounding like he had a really interesting story I wanted to buy him dinner (he was asking for money) to hear what had landed him here and how it had been but I had alreeady organised to go see the people at Vertigo first before they closed and he wasn't there when I went back. Instead I had to settle for a conversation with a 70 year old lady selling burgers on one of the corners and that was good enough. I
crashed at a hostel literally next door to Vertigo as it was cheap and easy, and inside met a few blokes from the US and England. Yep, partying in La Paz is just like all the rumours say - Cocaine first, other drugs second with a little liquor, then if there is time you head out to a club or something... heh well thats actually a bit harsh, but really, not far off the truth. While it could be a bit of fun people really seem to get stuck here in the same destructive repetitive cycle day in day out not doing anything else which is where it gets dangerous and addictive I think. A little fun is one thing, but living just for it is another. Not a good place for those with an addictive nature. This made me happy in that I didn't miss not spending more time in La Paz.
The ride! There is a bypass now so its not as dangerous as it was full of cars and trucks but the road is dangerous enough itself. Constantly on the edges of cliffs but with a killer view you speed down the hill by bike no
longer having to dodge traffic but instead just having to watch you don't fly off a corner as it is all gravel. Our bikes were amazing! Double cushy suspension, all top quality with good disc brakes, I've never ridden anything like it! The start, befor the Death Road part, is down hill on bitumen and wow you get some f'in speed and its seriously exhilirating! Our group was just 4 blokes all decent riders so we got to go flat out and never had to wait for stragglers. On the bumpy death road though you hit some big ass rocks and I was very glad to have the suspension I did. We also had helmets with face guards, elbow pads, knee pads, hi-vis vests, gloves and pants, a bloody good idea. It feels like overkillat first but it certainly isn't when you come off. One of our guys did at decent speed right into a wall of rock and he came away barely scratched - he used almost all of his safety gear, it all made contact. It also meant you could relax while riding worrying less about injury and more about exhiliration!! Thirdly, if you needed to ditch your
bike at high speed to avoid going over a cliff if it meant you could and would, as the danger of serious damage to yourself jumping off a bike at 30km or more greatly disappears with all that gear. If I were to ride downhill at home I would invest in the gear, it just makes it so much more fun aye!
A few hours later we had passed a few other groups and arrived at the bottom of the road, after hearing a few stories about those that had died on various corners (if you hear of the French corner, its coz a french guy died there. The Australia corner, an Australian guy died there etc. and there are a lot of corners!) though nothing too major. The included lunch is also brilliant and having the van following you with a stretched on it and a decent med kit is another peace of mind. Only the view itself, the feeling of flying down the road over dusty rock filled road with the wind blowing you back, crouching for more speed even getting the odd jump from potholes can explain it all, you just have to try it.
We chilled with a few beers at the bottom, with a bit of time, more food and a swim at a resort place in the warmth (you drop more than 3000m altitude so things warm up a lot) then drove back up the mountain on the bypass to return to La Paz, all hell happy with our day.
Even better is that we arrived back in La Paz in time for me to catch a bus straight to Uyuni to go launch my final adventurous thing, The Salt Flats! I arrived right on time for the 7:30 bus, hopped on, and was on my way off to Uyuni. There was a few other tourists on the bus and we all got given blankets. I had heard that the bus ride was cold, as was Uyuni and the Salt Flats so I took my blanket and rugged up for the night. Already just leaving La Paz however it started getting really cold...
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