Blogs from La Paz, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 134

This trip i did with a Danish fellow named Nils. We climbed 5400m Hati Khollu and then hiked 2 days down the Asiru Marka Valley to a little town called Unduavi. Some of the most impressive terrain I have seen in a long time. I was looking forward to a beer in Unduavi, but realized that it was nothing more than a desserted town, population 1. The only guy in town was some old native fellow wielding a machete! The bus ride back to La Paz was along the WMDR (Worlds most Dangerous road), where a vehicle is lost every 2 weeks into the oblivian below. We saw an accident that day, but fortunately the vehicle went into the ditch rather than over the cliff!!! ... read more

After reluctantly leaving the beautiful city of Cusco behind, I made my way to the far less charming city of Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. There's very little to see or do in Puno - its basically a base to explore Titicaca, th highst navigable lake in the world at around 4,000m. I think the locals must have sensed my sadness in leaving Cusco and the Sacred Valley behind and gone to extra lengths to throw out the welcome mat. You see, someone (my guess is the town Mayor) arranged for the restaurant we ate in on our first night to play some homegrown music: a bit of Jet and then a Missy Higgins remix. Of all the places I might have thought it possible to hear some Missy in South America, a tiny ... read more

Da var vi her igjen! Sekken var snoert, niste medbrakt og kamerabetteriene ladet! Dette var dagen for aa ta turen til Lake Titicacca og mingle litt med lokalbefolkningen. Historien om lokalbefolkningen begynner for lenge lenge siden..Det var noen slemme nabostammer som mente at omraadet ikke var stort nok for alle, saa de bestemte seg for aa ta over sjappa. Som sagt saa gjordt og de fredelige indianerne fikk fyken. Men..da alt saa som moerkest ut var det en luring som fant ut at hvis man bare la nok siv paa et sted, surret det sammen og lot det vokse over tid saa kunne man flyte paa det! Mer skulle det ikke til foer hele stammen flyttet ut paa sjoen og kunne leve lykkelig i alle sine dager.. Slik var det det hendte, kort fortalt..Men det interessante ... read more

If Buenos Aires was the party, La Paz was the morning after. I wasn’t doing myself any favours coming off a massive night like that and not sleeping before my flights (BsAs - Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz - La Paz). The second leg was a bit surreal as I fought sleep and elderly Bolivian Hugo tried to give me advice in his broken English (“You will come back and I will buy you”). Still, despite the nervous energy and the bitter cold on top of the mountain where the airport sits, I was able to appreciate the spectacle of descending from a dizzying height into the valley city of La Paz. I sat in the back of the battered taxi feeling like a marble that had just rolled over the lip of the hill. The city ... read more

Where do I begin? I guess I´ll start at the beginning. This is good, read it til the end. We woke up at the Hostal Austria on the morning of our big downhill bike trip down Bolivia´s infamous ¨Death Road.¨ The previous night we had argued with the worthless administrator of the hostel because my clothes, which i had delivered at 8am to be cleaned, were not to be back until around 10pm, not the agreed upon 8pm. Anyway, I don´t want to bore you with worthless bullshit. We left the hostel in a huff and got to the travel place to get on a big Land Cruiser (like the ones Peace Corps and Entrena had). They took us far uphill to a point called La Cumbre (at 4600m y pico). As you will see in ... read more