La Paz - un-Bolivia-ble fun in the Cordilliera Real

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Surely with that great punning ability, a future career at the Sun is beckoning!!!

My two weeks based in La Paz, Bolivia’s de facto capital, have come to an end, and while the city is certainly no architectural beauty, its location in the Andes' Cordillera Real (Royal Range), is pretty spectacular and in my mind makes La Paz pretty attractive. Set in a bowl or canyon at 3,600 metres, the city's housing and buildings stretch steeply up the walls of said canyon to the Altiplano 400 metres above. Handily this makes La Paz one of the easiest cities I have ever come across to navigate, as the main street, the Prado, runs along the bottom of the canyon floor, and so all you have to do the find it and orientate yourself is to walk downhill - simple!!! To round off the spectacular location, is the mountain of Illimani, which is certainly one of the more picturesque that I have come across in my travels. At 6439 metres it towers nearly 3 kilometres above the centre of La Paz, and the clear Autumn skies in Bolivia at the moment mean that the views across to Illimani have been spectacular.

With the playground of the Andes on its doorstep, I haven’t actually spent much time in the city itself - merely using it as a base for day trips and longer excursions into the surrounding area. When I have been in the city, I have really enjoyed wandering the markets, which seem to occupy virtually every square foot of space in the central areas of the city. You can buy anything you need from the sellers at street level, and the markets in La Paz are also one of the first places I have come across in Bolivia where virtually all the women wear traditional clothing. The Campesinos (traditional country women), sell their wares dressed in huge skirts, long shawls and awesome bowler hats which they seem to perch on their heads with a gravity defying ability. The markets always seem to be bustling with people too, which means progress through them is a leisurely affair. This can be a little infuriating though, as all the stalls selling similar products seem to be grouped together - so if you want to buy a box of cereal, stick of deodorant and a pair of socks you may end up having to walk for what seems like miles through the markets to find the relevant stalls!!!

Continuing my attempts to view football in as many South American country’s as possible, it was the turn of Bolivia to give me a demonstration of the beautiful game. The standard was, as with Chile, not high, and the “national stadium” was at best basic, with hardly any seats just rows of concrete to plonk your behind upon. I ended up watching “Bolivar” beat some other team 3-0 and I have to admit I enjoyed shopping in the memorabilia markets afterwards far more than the game itself!! Fake shirts are rife here in Bolivia, and accordingly, each team seems to have about 17 different strips depending on how accurate the fakes are!! You can’t argue with the price either, just over 2 quid for the fakes compared to about 9 for the supposedly official Adidas versions. I duly snapped up a replica of the victorious Bolivar, and feeling frivolous decided to pick up a “the Strongest” kit simply because they have a cool name. My backpack is now starting to get decidedly heavy!!!

My first foray out of the city involved mountain biking down what in 1995 was dubbed by the Inter-American Development Bank as the “world’s most dangerous road”. The entire trip involves a descent of around 3,500 vertical metres in just 64 km of biking and the middle section of the route (the “world’s most dangerous” bit) is a rough, single track dirt road with no barriers, and drops of up to 1,000 metres at angles of 88 degrees in some places. Since the opportunity for charging tourists to mountain bike down the road - which is the actually the main route from La Paz to Coroico and then all places further north - the Inter-American Development Bank moniker has stuck, with many companies, including the one I went with, referring to it simply as “the Death Road”, which seems a bit over the top!! Having been on it, I don’t think its really the road so much as the drivers and the vehicles upon the road that make it dangerous. For instance, as tends to be the case across South America, people drive far too fast in vehicles that aren’t very well maintained and often overloaded. Also, located on many of the most dangerous corners are crosses paying respects to those that have lost their lives in accidents at those particular points. However, with many of the drivers being devout Catholics, they apparently cross themselves upon viewing said crosses and so take the most dangerous corners with only one hand on the wheel - eeek!!! Recently though, safety has been improved with the relatives of accident victims stationing themselves at the most dangerous corners as human traffic lights with a simple system of red and green flags in order to warn of any oncoming traffic. The “traffic lights” are tipped by drivers and mountain biking companies and are a very reassuring sight!!!

Anyway, the bike ride itself was an exhilarating and exhausting day out. The first section starts up at 4,700 metres on a beautiful paved highway which is certainly the best I’ve come across in the whole of Bolivia. The bikes supplied are good quality, with the requisite suspension and disc brakes that were to prove absolutely vital during the day. As my confidence grew I found I was able to go faster than I had ever been on a bike before, the road being so steep and you can see so far ahead that there is almost no danger, even when overtaking other bikers and trucks!!! However, things abruptly changed when the road turned to dirt and stones and we embarked upon the “most dangerous” section. Here the lane priorities have been changed so that you drive on the left hand side of the road (in order that the drivers - cars being left hand drive - are on the precipice side of the road and are best able to judge distances when passing oncoming traffic). So even though it was nice to be back on the correct side of the road, the circumstances were not ideal!! Although, I must be honest and say that the road is so rugged and you have to concentrate so hard on avoiding the larger stones, and drifts of sand that can upset your bike, that you barely even notice the huge drops off your left hand side!!

During the day, the bikes take a horrendous beating, the road being extremely rough and the speeds attained quite high, and "side of the road" maintenance seems to be the norm whichever company you go with. I managed to go one further though, and on an innocuous stretch of road managed to somehow shear off the rear derailleur, which proved terminal for that bike, and I had to get a replacement whisked down from the roof of the support vehicle!!

With aching forearms and fingers permanently in a claw position from jamming on the brakes we finished the “most dangerous” part of the ride and stopped for a well-earned break. The final hour or so the drops became less shear, and the road less bumpy and with our confidence and expertise growing we were able to take on the final sections at a cracking pace, all of which culminated in a final huge water splash which was great fun.

We arrived at the bottom of the track for a well-earned beer, and then were transported half an hour up hill to the picturesque town of Coroico where I decided to stay the night in order to do a bit of hiking the next day.

The bike ride was definitely demanding on the body, but it was a huge amount of fun and something that should be attempted by all visitors to La Paz.

My next excursion was to the ruins at Tiahuanco, meant to be the premier set of ruins in Bolivia. Perhaps I’ve been overly blessed with what I have viewed in Mexico, but the Tiahuanco ruins were rubbish. A steep US$10 entrance fee, led to two museums which were both very well presented but only contained a few brief notes in English - which perhaps was a blessing in disguise as it forced me to practice my Spanish and I found I could understand the descriptions surprisingly well. The Tiahuancan Empire was pre-Incan and seemed extremely interesting. The Tiahuancan’s developed extremely advance agricultural techniques, including a system of raised fields and irrigation. The continual surplus of crops gave them the time and energy to raise the armies necessary to conquer the Andes, the empire stretching across half of Chile, half of Bolivia, North west Argentina and Southern Peru.

I then had access to the ruins which this time contained absolutely no explanations in English and the “highlight” of the remains of a temple. Considering that foreigners are charged 5 times the local price, to not have explanations in any language expect Spanish seemed a bit off - so be warned, if you don’t speak the local lingo make sure you go on a tour with a guide who speaks your language or you will get virtually nothing from the outing!!!

My next sets of outings were geared to building up my fitness and altitude acclimatisation as I would soon be looking to summit the 6,088 metre peak of Huayana Potosi (see next blog).

First up I headed back to La Cumbre, the 4,700 metres start of my cycle ride, and hiked up some of the surrounding peaks which gave great elevated views of the road down to Coroico, which I had cycled earlier.

Next, I booked on a tour which allowed me to “conquer” the 5,345 metre Mont Chacaltaya, which was actually one of the easiest things I have ever done, as in the summer (rainy season when snow falls in Bolivia), Chacaltaya is actually the world’s highest ski resort and so a road leads to only 100 metres shy of the summit!!! Thus, the walk up to the peak took only 15 or 20 minutes!!! The views from the top were great, and I could see back over to La Paz and Mount Illimani, as well as my first detailed look at Huayana Potosi, and it appeared pretty daunting!!!

My final spell of acclimatisation was a 4-day high altitude trek which actually ended up being only a three day trek thanks to the bad planning of my guiding company!! The trek was from a small village called Tuni through to the base camp of Huayana Potosi, (straight after the trek I would be attempting the summit) via the scenic route in order to aid acclimatisation as much as possible. Thus myself, an American couple on the same trek, and our guide, climbed three high level passes between 5,000 and 5,200 metres and saw some spectacular countryside from en-high. The local wildlife was also great fun to view as we passed many llamas that, once disturbed from their leisurely chewing of the grass, seemed to stare at you with a slightly baffled, incredulous look on their faces.

This being my first guided trek, it meant that I was able to get some decent equipment from my company, including a goose down sleeping bag that was rated comfortable down to a mighty -18 C. After my sleeping bag based tribulations in Patagonia, it was a pleasure to be able to sleep in boxers, one fleece and socks even though each night the temperature dropped to below freezing!!!

The guided nature of the trek meant that we ate richly each day, our guide cooking up a great two-course meal each evening and a huge brekky in the morning. We also had a muleteer provided to carry all the food which was funny to watch, especially when the mules encountered a steep section of terrain and decided that they wanted to go a different route and had to be forced up their by the muleteer!! In fact, I think the food we ate might have been a little too rich, as my body is used to a trekking diet based around only pasta and tomato sauce, and the first night I got a bad stomach upset. Our guide Cesar insisted it was simply a cold stomach, and stuffed me fall of herbal teas and insisted I trek with a woolly hat down my top in order to keep my stomach warm!! I’m not sure whether I believe his diagnosis, but his remedy seemed to work and I was soon restored to full health and arrived at Huayana Potosi base camp feeling fit, strong and acclimatised and ready to take on what would undoubtedly be the toughest thing I had ever physically done!!!

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Photos

Huayana Potosi
Another view of Huayana Potosi, this time as the Sun was rising.

La Paz viewpoint
The city bowl with Illimani towering in the distance.

I said "I think I hear a truck coming!!!"
So that's why they call it the "world's most dangerous road"!!

View from up high
The early stages of the bike ride, complete with great views and high speeds.

On yer bike
A rest stop with the "world most dangerous road" in the background.

Watersplash
A fun end to an exhausting day!!

Tiahuanco
Not much to get excited about here!!!

Bolivian Street Life
A La Paz market, complete with requisite woman in bowler hat!!!

Huayana Potosi
The view of Huayana Potosi from the peak of Chacaltaya and it looks, er, daunting!!!

Condoriri
One of the most picturesque mountains we encountered on our trek. It is know as the Condor, as the centre peak looks like a Condor's head and the surrounding two its wings.

The first pass
The four of us celebrate crossing our first high pass, approximately 5,200 metres accroding to Cesar our guide

Local wildlife
I just love the bemused looks on their faces as you pass by!!!

Muleteer
The mules were "persuaded" to climb a high pass so that we could have our dinner!!!