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Published: March 9th 2012
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After the rank bus we mentioned in the last blog we made it to Sucre, woohoo. We were so shattered when we arrived we ordered pizza! Our room however was brilliant. We finally had our own private room with a couch and loads of space to spread out. Sucre itself is a really nice town. Its built in the hills and is once again at high altitude. The town is really quaint with whitewash buildings and cobbled streets. The only downside is that it is quite smelly. But i think it is fair to say that sums up Bolivia as a whole. On our first day there we explored the town and climbed up to a view point, the best part was the 30p ice cream we managed to find. Unfortunately Hiral was unwell for most of our stay in Sucre so for once it was up to me to play nurse, not that i did much mind you except go to the supermarket on my own. Once Hiral felt a little better we did do a bit of shopping and see some parks. It was soon time to head to La Paz, the capital and we chose to fly,a good
idea we thought. We arrived at the airport and found out that our flight was delayed for 6.5 hours. The airline gave us lunch but that wasnt good enough for us so we complained. This resulted in an upgrade to first class, so basically real cutlery and more leg room. We did also manage to get them to write us letters to pass to our insurance, why not hey! The funniest thing was that the flight was only 45 mins. Eventually we made it to La Paz.
In the morning we met an English couple at breakfast who happened to be staying in the same place as us in Sucre. We never noticed them but hey she remembered us. We spent the day at the witches market, dont know why its called that but it could be because they have llama carcuses hanging up over the stalls, rank. In the evening we met up with our new buddies and commited the cardinal sin, we went for dinner at an English pub. Not very authentic i hear you say but the food in Bolivia is a hazard.
Day 2- The worlds most dangerous road aka Death Road.
So the two of us and the english couple booked a bike riding tour down the death road. Its a 65km down hill ride that starts at just over 4000m altitude and goes down to 1000m. As you would know from previous blogs i cant cycle so i was in the mini van behind the bikers. Now this has pros and cons. The good part is that i didnt get wet and cold, i could take pics and get to admire the most spectacular scenery and avoid injury. However it does mean that i am closer to the edge and i can see all the way down. The road at times is only 3m wide and is gravelly all the way down. Thankfully there is no longer two way traffic on this road but it is still pretty scary.Hiral and co did really well but accidents are bound to happen on the death road. Hiral did go over a rock and hurt her knees and hit her head but thankfully she wasnt near the edge! After a second stumble Hilly gave up and got into the mini van with me. The scenery on death road is beautiful, waterfalls, cliff edge drops,mountains, its just spectacular. its just a shame there is a small chance you might die but well worth the risk i say. Once we made it to the bottom we were in a town 3 hours from La Paz and suddenly in sub tropical temperatures. We were taken to a hotel where we were "treated" to a buffet, the food was edible i guess then we went back to La Paz on the nice safe new road. We even got free t shirts and a cd of pictures at the end of it.
Our last day in La Paz was spent at the Coca museum where we learnt the history of the famous cocaine plant. It was really fascinating to learn about the properties and the history of this tiny little leaf that has no become so controversial. It was a pound well spent! In the evening we went to church! The church in La Paz is really beautiful and the service itself was really nice. I have never seen such a large church packed out before with people of all different ages, def not quite like the old biddy greek church thats for sure.
Next stop was Copacobana, Lake Titicaca. Here we stayed at the most amazing hotel. It was in the mountians overlooking the lake. It has stained glass windows on side of it,a jungle themed bathroom,a kitchenette, a fire place and an upstairs! Our buddies from La Paz checked into the hotel next door which was really nice, not at all stalkerish. We didnt do very much in this town, its kind of a boring place so we spent our time in bed looking out at the lake. One evening we did spend huddled around the fire with our new friends, it was very romantic. The one time we did venture into town a stupid hippy asked if i was Iranian. He then told us he wanted to write us a poem because "heaven had lost two angels" FOOL!!! The town was full of western hippy types, it was almost like being back in Asia. The only other thing we did in town was climb a hill that over looks the lake. Our lungs nearly exploded but it was worth it, we even saw the german couple we met back in Uyuni on the jeep tour up there.
Our jounrey in Bolivia has come to an end. It is safe to say it is the most picturesque country we have seen but i dont think our bellies will be sad to leave. Bye Bolivia, it has been a smelly yet beautiful experience!
M and H xxx
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