Back to the best

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- FOOD: Saltena - yeah! Almuerzo of quinoa soup, chicken with pumpkin, banana and rum desert - typical Bolivian nosh at it's best.

- AREA: Bolivian shower shock once more! Coca museum. Streets that had definitely seen a big party after Independence Day celebrations.
World's (2nd) Most Dangerous Road - from mountain to jungle on a mountain bike.

- PEOPLE: Very calm and surprisingly undemonstrative - until the parties for La Paz's Independence Day began! New York prisoner.

- WEATHER: Cold in the world's highest capital city (3,500m) but hot in the jungle.


Fri 15th July: It felt strange being back to basics again and having to speak Spanish and make my own decisions! Luckily I met 2 girls in the queue at the airport as I didn't much fancy the idea of getting a taxi on my own at midnight in La Paz.

The hostel was really nice and it was good to be back to a nice friendly country. I had a good still sleep - no rocking but forgot all about the joys of Bolivian showers - electric shocks all round and a dribble of water!

I wandered around La Paz and was surprised to find it calm and not in the least bit manic as I'd been told. There was not even the slightest hint of any demonstration - the protests from before have all washed over now the president has resigned but I was expecting something or other to be kicking off. But no, just a pleasant walk around town.

I had a lovely saltena (how I'd missed them) and visited the witchcraft market where many gifts for the spirits and gods are sold, craft shops and a local market full of general 'stuff'. I found the coca museum and learnt all about it. The chewing of coca leaves is actually a spiritual thing as well as just stopping altitude sickness and making you a little bit happy. It eases pain and brings good fortune and is very nutritional (which is how the miners in Potosi manage to not eat for 50 hours - just chew this stuff). It was seen in such a good light once upon a time, that it was used as payment for the slaves instead of gold or silver. I wish I could ship shed loads back as it has also been proven to increase tolerance for work - that's one way of coping when I return!

Of course, all these highlights were buggered up when chemicals were added to it to make it into the cocaine form and Freud discovered it's mind changing element. Still, the coca cola company were still allowed to use it in coke up until the 1900's and 36 countries today are allowed to legally grow it - for medicinal purposes purely of course (oh yes, the US is No. 1 and the UK No. 2). Sadly though, neither Bolivia nor Peru are on the legal list which shows how the world works in it's crazy ways.

After all this education I needed a big lunch and that's just what I had - an almuerzo of quinoa soup followed by chicken with pumpkin and then a banana and rum desert. OH YES - why are there not more Bolivian restaurants in London (if any?!)

I couldn't escape without seeing the San Fracisco church and the presidential palace which has seen so much chaos. It was all very calm although chairs were being put up and people beginning to gather. Aha I thought, maybe a demonstration is forming at last? I set off back to the hostel only to find the main road swarming with a sea of people and various marches from all sorts of groups.
The whole of Avenida 16 de Julio was heaving - oh, look at the date - the lights came on at last - all day I'd been walking up and down Avenida 16 de Julio - named for La Paz's Independence Day, without thinking that today is July 15th. I watched the celebrations for a while - lots of music, drums, stalls selling food and booze and happy people. But it got too packed and the road right outside my hostel was rib crunching. I made the 5 minute walk back in 1 hour and escaped to the safety of my room, but didn't escape from the banging of the drums all night!


Sat 16th: Official Independence Day and at 7am when I had to make my way to the meeting point for my bike ride, the parties were just about still alive - but not quite kicking. The Aymara women selling food were STILL there serving the drunken masses. The streets were a complete tip and the cafes shut.
I battled through the drunkeness to my meeting point. The cafe was closed but luckily a guy Jordan who was also on the tour was there. We were chatting away when the New York prisoner approached us - I'd read about him the day before. One to watch out for as he pretends he's just got out of the San Pedro prison here, is from New York and needs to phone someone to help him. Then nicks all your dosh and does a runner - apparently he's good enough to make a living from this. Not from us though.

The guides turned up with mohicans and piercings - looking just the part to be running mountain bike tours down 'The World's Most Dangerous Road'. Sadly, due to the public holiday for Independence Day, cycling down the most dangerous road was not available as far too many people would be driving on it making it REALLY too dangerous. So I had to make do with the 2nd most dangerous road - just as steep (4,500m altitude down to 1,200m in only 46k), just as narrow, just as vertical a drop off the side of the mountain but also just as beautiful (from mountain to jungle), and not as many lorries to avoid.

We got to the mountain top's very high altitude level - so beautiful, got our safety gear on (lots of it) and had a talk about the day - mainly a warning to the groups of young blokes on the trip not to try and out macho each other as many have broken limbs and a few died. Then we were off...

I noticed very quickly that I was dropping to the back - how on earth can the others whizz down the 180 degree U curves like that? There were so many of them and the speed picked up on the straights made it a real possibility of not quite making the bend! The road was bumpy and steep ALL the way down and 4 people fell - one fractured or broke his collar bone. I've never really felt any effects on my wrist since I broke it years ago but the constant strain of braking the whole time made it unbearable so I had to have a break in the van for 1 stop. Got out to bike the last bit though - it was such good fun and even though I was the slow one at the back, the whole group still made really good time. It took us quite a few hours so we deserved the free beer at the end!
The hot shower at the end of the 4-5 hour bus journey back covered in dust was heaven. I treated myself to spaghetti in a restaurant at the top of a posh hotel - good views.

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