Back to La Paz, Death road and jungle living

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After leaving Puka Puka, we return to Sucre and then on the morning of the 15th we fly back to La Paz. We have a scrummcious sushi lunch, at La Paz´s best Japanese resturant, a huge lunch for under 5 pounds. Awesome. Then we do various jobs, namely digest, then go and have dinner with Alberto, the head of the school in Cochabamba. It is nice to see him again (especially since despite my inability to understand him, or speak any decent form of spanish - i am informed over dinner that instead of saying trout (trucha) it comes out as the slang word for vagina! - he insists that I stay with him when I come back to cochabamba), and Lisa and Galen tie up their loose ends. We are also very sadly foiled in our plans to buy and ship to england and scotland two solar ovens that they make at the school. I was looking forward to sitting in the garden at Lattenbells, baking cakes in the sun, but not enough to spend $400 on postage! So, the next day Lisa and Galen leave for the US. Very sad, I will miss them! Its funny being on my own again, but I guess Ill get used to it...and mum will be here soon anyway so savour the solitude while i can, right!
I decide to go to Coroico, and stay in a mountain hut recommended by Lisa. However, I also decide to take the tourist route and mountain bike the most dangerous road in the world. Why? Why? Why would I do that? Not used anymore by cars since they built the new road, you hurtle down from 4800m to 1000m in 5 hours. I hated every minute of it. However, it did do something to teach me about my limitations...i may be able to trek ok, but mountain biking is not my strong point! It hurts man! Its bumpy, and your bum hurts, and its fucking scary! Also, there is a bit where you have to go uphill. Walking uphill at 4500m is pretty impossible, but biking it? I swear to god i almost died. And that wasnt even on the most dangerous road. Biking downhill, on a tiny, bumpy road, often wet, with loose, slippery gravel, with a sheer drop 1ft to your left, sob sob sob. And people were zooming down, I felt like an old granny with my hands gripped to the breaks the whole way. When I got to the bottom my hands were frozen in fear.
But Coroico is lovely. In the mountains, my hut is a 45min walk up hill from the town, in the middle of the forest, totally isolated, I have my own kitchenette, balcony, and patio. Its wonderful. I get up, boil some water for some tea, make breakfast, read for a bit, have a snack, maybe walk down to town to use the internet or have lunch, walk back, relax, maybe swim, eat some more, relax some more, listen to the jungle sounds, watch the stars, go to bed. Decadent or what?! Im leaving tomorrow though (not by bike thankfully) to go back to la paz to meet mum on saturday. Yay!

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Comments

[Jo]

!!!!
Sheuw, gods it all sounds amazing and also terrifying! Giant spiders on your tent?? No soap?? Eating meat strips that have been hanging up on barbed wire??? I love the sound of the hills of wild strawberries. And cooking people pizza - it reminds me of when Emma and I made pasta and tomato sauce for everybody in the Nepalese hostel, and after ALOT of suspicion at what exactly we were doing to the kitchen it was much enjoyed. :-) Lisa and Galen's work sounds really fantastic. Hope you had a lovely time in the mountain hut, have a very well deserved break and you and Mum stay adventurously safe!!! xx

[chariotravels]

Your presence is missed!
Thanks! Was pretty cool, I liked the strawberries but not the bired wire meat. Mum and I just went to an ancient ruins, send you our love! Off to the Salt flats this evening, mum is hardier than even I expected!

[John]

Awesome
Have now settled down to read all your last three entries - amazing. I loved the pictures, especially the ones of you!! and all the detail. It seems such an incredibly long way away from London and Oxford, such a totally different world, and it is hard to imagine how you have adapted to it all. Fantastic to know that Mum is there safely, and that you survived your very scary bike ride. I hope the next two weeks is a great success - as Jo says, have a good but safe time adventuring! Although after what you have been through, not sure you know the meaning of the word safe any more!! All love Dad.