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Published: November 26th 2012
We ended up in La Paz ahead of schedule (not that we have much of a schedule to speak of to start with) as we had planned to meet with friends of mine here. Ann-Marie and Andrea were on a 3 week holiday and were planning to head to Rurrenabaque via La Paz. We had a couple of days until they arrived and figured we'd follow almost every tourist who comes through here and attempt the death road on mountian bikes. The road runs from La Paz to Coroico and plunges from 4600m to 1600m in around 80km. It was built by 10,000 Paraguayan prisoners of war in the 1930's (Bolivia started a war with it's neighbour to gain access to the ocean, having lost it's costal region to Chile in a previous war. Bolivia lost to Paraguay too. They aren't much good at this war malarky it would seem. It would be interesting to see a dust up between Bolivia and Italy for the crown of "Worlds Worst War Machine". The road clings ever so perilously to the sides of the mountains, with sheer drops of hundreds of meters to the valley below. During some sections waterfalls tumble on to
Death Road
The memorials are known as Bolivian roadsignsthe ripio surface making them exra perilious; like throwing in a handful of Scotch Bonnet Chillies to a Vinadloo just to give it a "bit of spice and make it interesting." Until the government build a neew road down to the Yungas (opened in 2006) this road claimed the lives of faround 300 people a year! That's near one a day. There are memorials and crosses all along the route to remind you not to cycle like an idiot and if that isn't enough to deter the inner dumbass then the shells of vehicles hundereds of meters below should be! Top Gear did a special here a while back, unfortunately Jeremy Clarkson navigated his way up successfully. Hardly any traffic uses the road now so the death toll has dropped dramatically, but accidents can and do still happen. I don't much like heights or bikes so this was my perfect day! The first few turns off the asphalt (and there are many) were a rather nerve racking and I stayed near the back of the pack. As the road gradually wound it's way down the valley I became more confident in the bike and my own ability and started to
Death Road
Don't fall off enjoy it more. A couple of times chunks of rock flew up to hit my bike and put the fear of God into me (some achievement in an athiest)! Eleanor enjoyed it from the off and probably would have gone again if it were possible. The summit of the mountain was cold, wet an miserable (like an October morning in Scotland) but as we dipped down below the cloud the temperature gradually improved and the humidity increased, until at the bottom there was no mistaking that you were on the borders of the jungle. Our company, Gravity, had an arrangement with a local wildlife sanctuary so we headed there for some well earned beer and food...and of course to play with monkeys. A just reward for cheating death I feel.
To occupy another day we took a trip to the ruins of the ancient city of Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca. I'd never heard of it until we got to La Paz and I read it in our guidebook, but it was a fascinating site to visit. The ruins are pretty substantial, not just a load of rocks as my mate Andy would undoubtedly describe it. Much of
Cheeky Monkey
Spider Monkey the site is how it was discovered after 500 years of abandonment, except for the badly reconstructed temple area, which is still pretty awesome with it's Sun Gate and sunken temple; adorned with numerou stone heads. Dominating the site is the pyramid, 20m high stepped, earth structure, which looters have managed to deface fairly substantially. In the museum, there is one room and it contains a 20m high stone statue of a god which is very intimidating. The Tiwanaku society forged a continent wide empire, prior to the Incas, build on the fact that they had more food than anyone else; makes a change to war, rape and pillage. They had a rather brilliant system of irrigation which when tested in the 1980's was more productive, by 25%, than modern techniques! But, and this should be a warning to wealthy climate change deniers, the demise of society came when the region became more arid. No food, no power, no empire. To get to and from here we had to catch local Collectivo buses. On the way to the site the market was in full swing in El Alto and the traffic was an omnishambles (see below about the traffic) and
Near to the bottom of the Death Road
Exhilarated and a little relieved... we just sat at a junction for 30 minutes while nobody moved. On the way back we got dropped off in El Alto, which has a fairly unsavory reputation, although we found people to be lovely and helpful. A huge statue of Che Guevara (no photo sorry, only saw it from the buses) dominates El Alto which I think may be a better reflection of the nature of the people here than the unsavoury things that sometimes happen here. It is a sad fact that, although, some people get in to trouble at times, and that is unpleasant, generally these countries a populated by lovely people and it's a shame that our judgement is clouded by the minority.
It was pretty wierd seeing Ann-Marie and Andrea out of context...so we resolved that be heading to get some beer! We did some sightseeing around La Paz. The Art Museum and Plaza Murrillo (a martyr to the Independence struggle) were well worth visiting. The museum was a former villa/mansion and contained some of Bolivia's masterpieces but the Colonial Period stuff was pretty poor compared to a lot of what I've seen in Europe and the rest of South America (the accompanying
Baby Llamas
Witches' Market information was brilliant and enlightening though), but they had some amazing 19-20th century work and some of the best Modern Art for my tastes. The building itself was exquisitly designed around a marble courtyard and fountain with cloisters on every floor and white washed walls. Much of La Paz consists of red brick abodes which sprawl up three sides of the basin in which the city was founded and once they reach the top the suburbs creep across the sierra in all directions. This evolution means that the distance from the lowest to the highest point of the city is around 1km! Think about that, and how long it takes to walk that distance, then imagine it going straight up in the air! Mindboggling. Unfortunately, that statistic doesn't hide the fact that La Paz isn't a particularly aesthetically pleasing city, in fact it is the opposite, it's pretty ugly with a few beautiful buildings being the exception not the rule. There are amazing juice bars though...they'll give Rio a run for it's money...and win as it's 10 times cheaper here. There's also the Witches Market which has lot of potions, spells, charms and dead llamas babies for sale. Apparently baby
Museums
A whole street of museums and preserved colonial houses llamas bring luck or something. Not to themselves obviously...
Most of the traffic in the city are taxis. You know how taxi drivers like to drive? Reckless. Accelerator, brake, horn, accelerator, ignore lights, shout, don't let a driver out of a junction, more speed, horn, horn, cut up a car, yelling at lights, accelerator, brake? Well, imagine every single road crammed with hundreds of these taxi drivers. It's noisy, dirty and life threatening in the car. God forbid you should want to cross a road. Zebra crossings are a waste of white paint. It's bedlam, you take your life in your hand an each crossing. There are very fe private cars on the road here, everyone goes by collectivo or taxi or bus; it would be great for the environment if they weren't all nuts and the cars were effecient. The government heavily subsidise petrol so there is no deterrent there either! No wondered so many people died on that death road if this is the yard stick of driver responsibility. If there is a driving test here it's easier to pass than the Tory Party's "Are You Unfit to be a Politician? Then Welcome to the
Art Gallery
Courtyard of the Gallery Party" test.
We decided to accompany Ann-Marie and Andrea to the jungle for a few days. From Rurre (what the locals call Rurrenabaque) we jumped on a tiny boat to travel 3 hours to the Madidi Jungle Lodge. Apart from our hosts there was not a single person for 10-15 miles in any direction. The lodge is nestled in a clearing in the jungle near to the river Beni. There were hammocks to chill on and we went on several guided treks to see the wild life. Tortoises, numerous butterflies, birds, bugs and wild pigs were to be seen. However, the best animals were the Mawcaws and Red Howler Monkies which were beautifully colour and made the most wonderful sounds. The food, cooked by one of the local community goodwives (all the money goes to an indigenous community, and all the staff come from said community), was delicious. The Catfish Steaks cooked in something akin to Thai Green Curry was a treat, although all the dishes were sublime and I could have no complaints. We were useless at Piranha fishing, Ellie caught one and we three caught zero, but we were much better at "tubing" down the
river back to the lodge. Back in Rurre after 3 days away we had the most disappointing meal ever in The Luna Lounge; should you fins yourself in town never ever go here. Then we went drinking. Bolivian Pisco Sours and Cuba Libres (Rum and Cokes) were order of the day. I quit at midnight but the girls (minus Ellie) stayed out for "one more." Next morning they were dead to the world...with a plane to catch. "One more" turned into a journey to a local nightclub and being charged "Gringo Prices" for beer. We said goodbye to the girls (sunburnt and beset with headaches) as they made their way back to Peru and we hung around Rurre to enjoy the sun and swimming pools for a few more days. We just ate (local treats such as Macho Pique (Bolivian dish although I had it in Chile too so maybe it's not), some chicken cooked amazingly well in BBQ sauce, Mango-Melon-Papaya ice-drinks and Oreo Icreams), swam, sunned ourselves surrounded by mango and papaya trees and Ellie even managed to get into a battle of wills with a crazy Tucan who decided to invite itself into our bedroom. She triumphed in
Viracocha
Huge Tiwankacoan God the end, but it was a close run thing I am led to believe. With our batteries recharged, our thirst for sun (30C and above during the day, round 20C at night) and relaxation temporarily quenched we decided to do a little bit more sightseeing and plotted to visit Potosi, Sucre, Santa Cruz and Samaipata before leaving Bolivia via Copacabana and Lake Titicaca...and only 14 days left on our visa to do so!
Did we succeed? Find out in the next couple of blogs...if there are none, it's a no and I've been detained by the Boivian Police for over staying my welcome and becoming, technically, and illegal immigrant!
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