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Published: November 24th 2008
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After the length of the last update, here's a nice speedy one for you all. Of course the first thing to tell you about is the journey - Uyuni to La Paz - 10 hours overnight. We opted for the more luxury option of the bus with a toilet and reclining seats and hoped we'd get some sleep. We got on at 8pm and at 8:04pm they turned out the lights, leaving no option but to try and sleep. By 8:10 they had turned up the air-con to arctic levels, not helpful. After an hour or so, Matt scrambled his way down the dark bus to try the toilet, which was of course out of order. Asking the driver where to go to the loo, he was advised to use anywhere outside the bus. Outside the bus were peoples houses and despite the Bolivians eagerness to pee all over someones front door, Matt couldn't quite bring himself to do it. Several hours later we stopped again, this time in the middle of nowhere and at last Matt was able to pee and return to sitting shivering in the darkness. Oh and the seats didn't recline, every promise was a lie and
if you ever happen to go to Uyuni, could you please aim a rude gesture towards the lady in the travel agency at the front of Hotel Avenida! When we arrived in La Paz at about 6am, we were unsurprisingly rather tired. After a fight with our hostel to prove we had booked a room and then a further fight over the price, we went to bed and slept for most of the day.
La Paz is a pleasant city, crammed into a valley 3,700m high. The main street is nice, primarily as it runs along the valley floor and hence doesn't involve hills. From there everything is up, hundreds of meters. I know we've gone on and on about the altitude, but hills are severely hard work with little oxygen in the air. The residents of La Paz offer the survival advice of "walk slowly, eat little and sleep on your poor little ownsome". Well, we walked slowly!
The city is well geared up for tourists. Nice cafes and restaurants are in abundance and as we were looking for some relaxation following the jeep tour, we took advantage for a few days. Matt was still suffering a
little with altitude sickness, but we ate, drank and were on the whole merry. During the days we explored the markets which cover nearly every street in central La Paz selling just about everything you could imagine. In the 'witches market' they even sell a few things you couldn't imagine, such as dried llama fetuses which are apparently popular and lucky (not for the poor llama clearly!). Once we were suitably 'creeped out', we would retire to a cosy coffee shop and drink ice cream coffees or splendid fresh fruit juices.
Now then.....before we arrived in La Paz, Bob (Chrissies Dad for those not in the know) kindly e-mailled us a video of the worlds most dangerous road and I think with a little sarcasm asked if we were going to travel it. Well Bob......Matt did and he did it on a mountain bike!
Here's a link from you tube, to give you an idea of the road:
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First off we should mention that Chrissie was eager to do it too (more eager than Matt!), but the ongoing horseriding injury meant that 5 hours on a bike was not an option. Saying goodbye at breakfast
Go Matty go!
I'm the one in the red, not the girl! Matt promised he would return and headed off for the day. Before you even get on a bike they decide to scare the hell out of you with horror stories of the various accidents that have occured on the road down the years, most of which are either fatal or facial injuries......neither sounded appealing. The death toll on the road used to be 200 - 300 a year and although that has calmed, there had still been 55 in the past 8 months.
They then decide to tell you the facts of what you'll be doing. Over 64k you drop 3,600m (and that includes an 8k stretch that goes uphill), you don't need to peddle, gravity does it all for you, you reach speeds of upto 70kph (about 44mph) and for most of it there's a 400m sheer drop 1 meter to your left! A few nerves began to jangle.
Before we set off we all poured a little 97% proof alcohol over the floor, our front wheels and our lips in a ritual to ask the Pachamama for safe travels. Hoping she granted our wishes off we went. The first 10 - 15kms are on paved road
and it's here that you get your speed buzz. It feels pretty quick and Dale (our guide) assured us that to be keeping pace with him, we must have been going at least 70kph on the straights. Gulp but woohoo!
After hopping into the minibus for the 8km uphill stretch, we faced the second part of the journey.....the gravel road. This is where it gets scary, the pace slows to a gentle 55kph (35mph) but the road is rough and the drop gets closer and higher. The one piece of good news is that there's very little traffic anymore as a few years ago a new road was opened (equally as scary, but at least paved!). We spent the afternoon ignoring the beautiful scenery and concentrating like mad on the track in front and the next corner. I am pleased to report we all made it safely to the bottom and tucked into a well deserved beer or two. The minibus drove us back up the same road, partly so we could appreciate the views and partly to scare us with the drops we had been perilously close to. Overall it was a slightly crazy, but brilliant day and
I bored Chrissie senseless banging on about it that evening.
The following day we left La Paz and set off for the jungle, but that can wait for the next blog. Trust me it's worth waiting for, just take my advice though and don't read it while eating!
Love
Matt and Chrissie
x x x
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Olivia
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hee hee world's most dangerous road - good on ya! Once is enough for sure!! And I totally agree about the food in La Paz - it was so nice to eat ice cream and pizza and all that good stuff...