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Published: July 30th 2005
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paddy
nice and clean, ready to ride I arrived in LA Paz on Saturday night from Cochabamba. Forgot how fun it is to try to breathe at an altitude over 10,000 feet. Met up with Paddy and Suzi From Ireland at a bar they work at. this is the fourth time i have seen them, the first time was in Bariloche, Argentina. I´m sure this won´t be the last time. Also ran into Gary and james from Sucre, probably won{t be the last time for them either.
oh before i forget, if you want to see full size pics or down them click here
FOTOS On Monday Paddy and I did the Death road bike trip. We did it with Madness mountain biking. The trip starts at over 14,000 feet and drops to about 4500 feet more or less. The trip cost a pretty penny, about $55 all included. Doesn´t sound like much but the trip of the solares - which can be a 3 night trip is $65 including everything. Anyways, I felt guilty (for a moment) for spending that much money - one months income for the poor people of Bolivia. Must be the influence of Tatiana or something. Then I started thinking
about the old question of how much is enough - posed by the book your money or your life. Basically it says that once you go past enough, once you have more than enough your quality of live heads downhill. which is true, i have seen some very rich people and they do not appear to be happy. they want more, worry that they will lose what the have - never appreciate what they have ... enough philosophy, about the trip
within the first 20 minutes of the trip a girl crashed and ended up with a big lump on her head. that was the end of her trip. At the beginning we were on payment, above the clouds. As we descend, we could see that it was cloudy down below. At one point we had to maneuver around cows in the road. As we descended into the clouds it began to drizzle and we got muddy!!! luckily, Madness had supplied us with rain pants and vests. oh, back to the cost, you could do it for $39, on a trek but they were out of them, so paddy and i took Rocky Mountain bikes (Karen if you are
still reading, yes, good Canadian bikes). After about an hour, i think, we started down the road of death. it is called this because about 100 people a year die on this road. It is unpaved and at spots barely wide enough for a car, there are no guard rails and at spots ( a lot of spots) it is a 1000 foot plus sheer drop!!!!!
At one point a girl encountered a bus at a very narrow spot. she only could put here feet down and she was about a foot away from a 1000 foot drop. I watched as she waited , and finally the bus crept by her. I would have had to change my pants after that one. About 5/6 of the way down I broke my rear derailer and had to switch bikes. At the end of the trip we descended into an eco lodge next to a river. great place, they had excellent showers for us, great food, many pets - dogs, cats, monkey, llamas, parrots ... the usual.
We left there at about 6pm, no i think it was earlier. Anyway, this is when the death ride started. As we were
driving up, it was foggy and the inside of the vans window would fog up. I swear there was no way the driver could see where he was going. At one point i think we were heading for the cliff and he jerked the steering wheel to the left to keep us on the road. towards the top, there was a construction site with only one lane of traffic and no flagmen to direct the traffic. kinda of a on your own honor type thing. Anyway, there was a truck in front of us who encountered a truck in the on coming traffic. We had a Mexican standoff off for about ten minutes as each driver honked their horns at each other.... finally we were able to get past the trunk and we were on our way home.
But ....about 5 minutes before we returned to the starting point the van got a flat tire. The drivers did a good and quick job changing the tire and we arrived back at about nine thirty - everyone still in one piece.
The pictures of the dancers - they were practicing for a big parade this weekend. check back in
a week or two for more pictures in full costumes.
Thursday, gary and i went up to el alto to go to the market. The place was huge, everywhere you looked you could see people selling any and all kinds of used junk. we walked around for an hour or so and then found out that the huge used clothes market was a few blocks away. We we got there it just went on and on and on ... the people there said that Sunday is the big day. If you need anything, this is the place to get it. I´m afraid that some of the stuff may have been stolen from backpackers, but 99.9% of the clothes and stuff has come from the thrift stores in the US
Friday, July 29th - went to a great Japanese restaurant called wagamama with gary. we both had a huge sampler, which cost a whopping $8!! it was so good that Paddy, gary and myself are going back tonight. I went to the big parade today (Saturday) and almost didnt´have a camera to take pictures. Now I am a cautious person and one day i know i will be
robbed again. What happened to me is the old "throw liquid on somebodies neck and when they reach up to wipe it off, riffle through their pockets. well i immediately reached for my pockets and my camera was half way out in some guys hand. he was trying to tell me it was falling out and i was telling him i was going to kick his ass. Luckily for him i just threw him into a bus (a bus that was stopped not a moving bus). well i should have a few pictures to add at a later date
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Danny
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Great pictures, keep'em coming! Your adventures in Bolivia thicken my anticipation for my trip to Bolivia in December...