Breathing in Bolivia

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I wasn´t too sure how things were going to go when I first got to Bolivia. First there was my minor altercation with the Border Offical who wanted me to pay him a bribe to be British. Saving money on Visas by using a British Passport is one thing, but having to pay for it is quite another, so I declined and stayed Australian for another Country.

Not ten minutes after that little attempt at bribery, we were informed that we had to pay a small tax which, as far as we could determine, was for the pleasure of stopping in a town and chaging buses. This was immediately followed by another charge when they bus had to be ferried across Lake Titicaca and we had to pay our own way across the waters. So within one hour of having been in Bolivia, and not having yet even reached La Paz we were getting socked left right and centre with taxes, charges and bribes ... Bolivia was supposed to be cheap!

Fortunately things got infinitely better after that, and for the record if you ever go to Lake Titicaca and are short of time, my travel tip is to skip Puno and the floating islands and head straight to the Bolivian side and the Isle de Sol ... Puno´s a nice place that you´re glad you´ve visited. The Bolivian side is spectacular and tranquilo.

We managed to get some real bargain accomodation in La Paz ... which may be closely related to the fact that it was on the sixth floor of a hotel which didn´t have lifts, and when you´re already at 3,700m and you don´t have a lift you notice climbing up and down six flights of stairs. When you climb up and down those stairs with Christie carrying her heavy back pack, then you really notice the stairs. But on the upside it had great views ... and it was cheap.

Anyway, we stayed in La Paz for four nights, mainly because it took us two days to get Christie´s visa for Brazil (I fully intend on becoming British in Brazil, even if I had failed to do so in Bolivia and hence decided I could save myself the $US35 charge for getting a visa). We might have got the visa in one day, but somebody forgot to take their yellow fever vacine certificate with them to the consulate, and they didn´t have any passport photos ... grumble, grumble, grumble. Despite much frantic running around we were therefore too late to submit her application the first day in La Paz so had to go back and do it all over again the next day.

Not that it really mattered as the next train south wasn´t for another two days after that, so we spent an awesome day on the Wednesday cycling down the so called "World´s Most Dangerous Road". This is an experience I can highly recommend, firstly because riding 67km downhill just can´t be a wrong decision, and when you add to that this incredible drop off into the mist on one side of the road and lots of crazy drivers going up and down it, well it is just the kind of fun where you can´t get the smile off your face.

I almost got wiped out on one corner, which I may have gone around a little too fast only to find a truck looming out of the mist in front of me (did I mention it was p*ssing with rain most of the way down and that one of the quirks of this road is that that everyone drives on the other side of the road than normal??). Anyway, finding myself speeding a little too fast with a truck in front of me, and some nasty iron spikes sticking out of the road on the other, I put my project management skills into practice, which means I slammed on the brakes, closed my eyes and prayed ... somehow I came out the other side and as no-one else was there to see me, I gave myself a minute or two to calm down then went off and told everyone how skilled I was at avoiding the accident. My job there was done.

The only really soberring part of the day was on the way back up in the bus. We passed a red pickup near the bottom of the road which had probably a dozen people in the back of it. 10 minutes later we looked back down the valley and we could see what looked to be the same truck, but this time it was perched upside down about 15 metres below the road where we´d gone past it. Sobered us up a bit for the rest of the drive back to La Paz I can assure you.

OK, this is getting a little long, so I´ll stop now. Hopefully I´ll add some photo´s when I get them burned on CD´s. Until then See Ya

JKD.

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Comments

[Sandra Neve]

Good to hear that you are still alive and well. You certainly are having an interesting time. Very boring back gere in hobart compared to your efforts. especially bike riding.! Weather has been really different! One day hot the next rainand floods etc. Hope you have a great time finishing your adventures bye for now. sandra