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Published: December 27th 2007
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Wow it feels like so long ago that I was battling altitude sickness, eating llama and taking crazy pictures on the salt flats in Uyuni with Tom. But though it was a while ago I still have such fond memories. Where to start...
When you catch a bus in Bolivia you have to add at least an hour to any length of time they tell you it will take, at least an hour. We learned this fast. Oh and if you are asthmatic you might want to take a mask along for the ride as the roads are usually unmade and very dusty. Oh and look at the screen when you are booking a bus ticket to make sure they are not ripping you off and/or making up a price. Oh and ask around about bus companies to make sure they are a reliable company to travel with...
These are just a few things we encountered during our time in Bolivia. Though these lil hiccups only add to the adventure... right?! 😊
La Paz was a much bigger city than I expected. I had read the book 'Marching Powder' a book about drug trafficking, the prolific amount of cocaine in
Bolivia and one of the worlds most corrupt and bazaar prisons, San Pedro in La Paz. A really insightful, jaw dropping read if you get the chance... anyway I had a completely different picture of La Paz in my head. Tom and I had loads of fun exploring the street markets, chatting to locals and testing out the local restaurants, cafes and bars. Some days we had lunch which included; soupa, arroz con pollo y postre (soup, chicken and rice and dessert), for no more than $1. CRAZY cheap! We bought alpaca jumpers and leg warmers, cheap jewellery and freshly squeezed orange juice. When we got sick of shopping we'd drop into a cafe or bar for a sneaky brew 😊 One of our days exploring the markets I met Ivan, a lovely Peruvian guy who taught me how to make macro-ma (spelling?) jewellery. He was very patient with me, we spent an hour and a half sitting on the sidewalk making jewellery together and chatting in broken Spanish. It was loads of fun but took a lot of concentration.
Another fun day in La Paz was the World's Most Dangerous Road mountain bike ride (with Gravity Tours, who
I highly recommend. They were very professional, provided excellent safety equipment, and great food... and a beer and t-shirt at the end of the ride, oh and hot showers which were much needed, and our guide Lynn was stax a fun!). It was named the WMDR because back in the day when it was a main road used for transport of cars, trucks and busses they used to run into some trouble along the way. The road is extremely narrow and cars going up the road had right of way, so the cars or trucks or busses, driving down the road had to back up to let the passing vehicle go by. Though 9 times out of 10 there wasn't anywhere to back to but over the edge of the cliff, and this was a common occurance... hence named the WMDR. It was a super fun day. It began at 7:30am when we met at a cafe for breakfast, were introduced to our guide for the day (Lynn from South Africa) and then jumped on the mini bus to drive to the beginning of our ride. We started 3700m up, it was freezing cold, in fact snowing while we were
gearing up. We had a pre ride introduction on how to ride a mountain bike, how to control the breaks and gears etc which was really helpful. We then had a sip of the most leathal alcohol I have ever tasted, it burned and though I have never tried metholated spirits I can imagine that it would taste something like this did... NASTY!!! We proceeded down the first part of the road which was made so a little easier than the road ahead. The wind was icey and in no time my fingers were frozen, it was foggy and drizzling with rain. When we hit the gravel the rain set in hard which made for an unpleasant ride (for me anyway), and a little feeling called FEAR set in. It was a long ride down, though we stopped rarely due to the rain and made it down to the sunny, blue skies in good time. Our guide Lynn said it was the roughest conditions she had ever experienced and was very proud of us for making it down in one piece, I must admit I was so glad she waited till we reached the bottom b4 she let us in
Worlds Most Dangerous Raod
riding on a mountain bike on the WMDR on that little secret. I think the breaks on my bike would have needed to be replaced after my breaking efforts the whole trip down, and yes I was at the back of the pack the whole way. Though I did start to gun it towards the end, once I got my confidence up and the weather conditions improved 😊 When we got to the bottom we were greeted with a nice cold beer, a t-shirt, hot showers and a delicious meal... great way to end the day! We ate lunch at an animal sanctuary where they had monkeys on leashes as they were wheening them off pick-pocketing and smoking, warped eh?! Our group for the day were a lot of fun and great sports about the weather and other challenges we came across, like crossing through rivers, taking on giant rocks, battling heavy rain and blinding fog and coping with being soaking wet for the entire bike ride. All in all a super fun, thrill seeking, adrenalin pumping day!!
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