45. 18-27th March. Testing times in La Paz!

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18/03/09
We arrived in La Paz at 5am after a trouble free bus journey. We reserved two beds in Arthys guesthouse the day before as we didnt want any hassle trying to find somewhere at that time in the morning. Arthys Guesthouse was suppose to be very close to the terminal and quite. Mike and I both agreed we wanted to chill for the next week and concentrate on Spanish. The taxi took about ten minutes and the first impressions of the hostel were great. Exactly what we wanted. They let us check into the rooms straight away and we had a four bed room to ourselves. We collapsed on our beds and slept for a few more hours. Mike had been suffering with a bad stomach since being in Bolovia but as soon as we got into La Paz, it felt like we were a tag team...and he tagged me! He felt great and it was my turn to keep running to the toilet!ha We went for a walk around the city and booked Spanish classes through Speak Easy Institute. It was a very productive day as we booked the Worlds Most Dangerous Road biking trip as well. Thats a lot to sort out in one day whilst traveling!ha One of the things that amazes me about traveling is that you can be in a country you have never been in before, walking around in a huge city and you can almost guarantee you will bump into someone you will know. We bumped into about five different people we knew on our first day in La Paz. I often walk around my local town centre and not bump into a single person i know. The city itself is an impressive one. Like many other South American cities its set in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. We had an early night to be all fresh for our first Spanish lesson. As you can imagine i couldn't wait to jump into the classroom the way my stomach was?!ha

19/03/09
Our class didn't start till midday so i spent the morning on the internet before starting the half an hour walk to our school. I was excited and nervous. I couldn't wait to be able to talk more Spanish but deep down i knew five days wasn't going to make a big difference. Our tutor was a young lady who was friendly enough but looking back now i think we could have got a tutor who we could have related to more. We had two hours of class, three hours break then a final two hours at 5pm. I spent the whole three hours break rehearsing the alphabet. I couldn't believe it was different! But i suppose thats a very ignorent thing to say! We grabbed some lunch and were back in the classroom before we knew it. Come seven o clock my brain felt fried! We rewarded ourselves with one of the best tasting kebabs i have ever tasted before hitting the sack. We had an action packed day planned and we were starting early!

20/03/09
The alarm went off at 5.30am but unlike back home when normally your getting up at that time to start work, we were getting up for an adrenalin packed day of cycling down The Most Dangerous Road in the World! So, we didn't mind getting up!ha We booked it through Downhill Madness who were number two in the Lonely Planet. We looked at Gravity who were the 'best' company but they are obviously relying on their reputation to much. Just walk into their shop and you will know what i mean. Instead of someone taking their time out to talk things through with you they just throw you a folder to read. We were all geared up and on the road by 7am. The scenery just looking out of the window was breathtaking so i couldnt wait to get on that bike and to be able to feel it as well! The starting point was up amongst the clouds and very very cold! I didnt get off to a very good start. Just cylcling onto the road i almost got run over by a truck flying past. I forgot to look both ways?! The first thirty minutes was on the road and even though i couldn't feel my fingers it was amazing. I have never overtaken a vehicle going 40kmph never mind undertaking one! A great feeling! We then moved to the old road. The true Most Dangerous Road in the World. They gave us about twenty minutes to try and get the feel of cycling on dirt roads. After that they split us up into three groups. Pro, intermidiate and beginner. Mike (who can teach mountian biking) and four other lads who have been doing it for 15 years were in the pro group as well as...myself whos experience consists of a very short lived paper round!ha It was an amazing day but i don't mind admitting i was well over my head. Even Mike said the same. There was about three times i think my heart skipped a beat and there was one situation where i hit a mud patch and thought i was going to die!ha Some times this dirt track is no wider than one car and on either side you have a thousand foot drop. A day i will always remember. We started at 4500m and ended up at 1200m. For lunch we drove to a hotel with a backdrop of plush mountains and valleys. The swimming pool wasn't bad either!ha That night a few of us went out for an Indian. An expensive day but well worth it!

21/03/09
Today was a free day consisting of internet, tv room watching movies and shopping. Mike and I went to the 'Witches Market' which is huge! I have never seen so many clothes stalls in my whole life. Seeing that clothes wasn't something we had plenty of we bought a new pair of jeans each which we tried on in the middle of the street. The locals found this hilarious! I also bought a fleece for about £4!

22/03/09
Today was one of those traveling days you want to forget! It started off well as i phoned home and wished my mum happy mothers day. I then had yogurt and cornflakes for breakfast and straight away i felt sick. A few of us had planned to walk to the view point so i dicided to go and try and walk it off. What a mistake!ha One thing that did make us laugh though was that when we turned one corner and walked down the street we saw th bus terminal. It took us about two minuts to walk there and the taxi driver when we arrived drove us around for ten minutes!ha The walk to the view point was hard enough anyway, even without me feeling ill. At one point i said, "if someone wants to mug me they should do it now!" A four foot nun could have pushed me over! I didn't stay at the view point for very long and rushed back to the hostel with Mike. After spending some time in the toilet i went straight to bed and there i stayed for the rest of the day.

23/03/09
I managed to stomach scrambled eggs and bread and took it easy till our Spanish class which was at 5 till 8pm. Trying to concentrate on a new language whilst your concentrating on not being sick was a very difficult and tiring task! Later that night Mike and I were talking in our room and we were saying how there was a huge lack of good looking women in Bolivia. Thats when Mike told me he was going to wait till he got back to England and see this girl he was dating in New Zealand. I might have gone slightly crazy waving my hands in the air and started calling him insane. I stormed out the room and into the toilet above the stairs to wash my teeth. Mike shortly followed ranting and raving! Now bear in mind the tv room was just below us next to the stairs full of people, Mike shouted back, "Come on man, its not that strange, its only sex!" We just looked at each other, Mike covered his mouth and he rushed into the toilet and stood facing me with his eyes wide open. I shut the door and whispered through grinning teeth, "watch what you say out loud!" Within seconds we were both crying with laughter and couldn't stop laughing for about half an hour! Safe to say we didn't venture downstairs after that!ha

24-25/03/09
These two days only consisted of homework in the morning, class from five till eight and then watching films come night time. I was feeling better though so it was happy days.

26/03/09
Even though i had been feeling better over the last few days I came down with something horrible durnig the night. I got about two hours sleep and spent most of the night hugging the toilet! I think i was the most sick i have ever been which didn't involve drinking! Since neither of us had feeling to good since being in La Paz we decided to cook for ourselves thinking it could have been the food that was making us ill. We cooked a pasta dinner which should have tasted awesome but even the pasta didnt taste right. We were really missing good food by this point. We had class from five to seven again but i was feeling so sick. I might as well not have even been there and was getting quite down with it. I made arrangements to meet some friends that night at Adventure Brew Hostel who i met in Mendoza, Argentina. So i swallowed more pills and Mike and I walked down to meet them. Im glad we did as it was awesome meeting up with Mark and Ross again. The barmaid there was the first hot girl we had seen since being in La Paz so that was worth it alone. It gave me hope!ha Come 11pm we had to leave as our hostel had a curfew. When i told the lads Mark looked at me in disgust and said, "how can you have a curfew, i know what your like!" We got loads of stick as we left!ha



27/03/09

Today was our last day in La Paz and with that, our last Spanish lesson. In the morning we booked our bus tickets to Copacabana which cost 25b and it was only going to be a three hour bus journey. Thats Copacabana Bolivia not Brazil which is situated near border of Peru. Mike and I walked around the city for ages looking for a decent restaurant and we both ordered pasta with a side order of veg! I was feeling the best i had felt for ages but Mike took a turn for the worst. We were really an awesome tag team!ha My mum was turning 60 in May and my sister, Sharon, had organised a suprise birthday party for her. People from all over the globe were coming for it. I really contemplated coming back for it but knowing what my Mum is like, if i cut my trip short to come back for her birthday she wouldn't have been happy. I wanted to do something special for her birthday though. So i came up with the idea of taking photos for my Mum everywhere i went. Sharon being the great Sister she is, told me to e mail the photos to her and then she would tranfer them on to an album which she would give to Mum on the day of the party. So the first birthday photos i took were at the Spanish school on the white board with the help of the tutors and Mike. Mike and I had develpoed a game on the walk back from the school to our hostel which we played every day. The streets were always so packed and everyone walked so slow so we both invisioned ourselves in being in a computer game weaving in and out of the crowds. Sounds daft i know but it amused us! We past my friend Mark and his friends on the walk back to the hostel but he didn't notice me. I decided to play a prank. I snuck up behind him and put my hand in his pocket as if i was trying to thieve something. He's a big lad and i almost got a smack but it was worth it for the laughs. The locals watching thought it was hilarious! We had an early night as we had a bus to catch in the morning.



Im not going to lie. Mike and I were both desperate to get out of La Paz. Im not saying its not a decent city to visit by any means. Its a buzzing city with a cool vibe but Mike and I were ill so much in La Paz and didn't party at all. It was all study and cluthing hold of toilets!ha Next was Copacabana set right next to a lake in the middle of two mountains. Couldn't wait! Bring on the fresh air and hopefully some decent food!ha

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Photos

The view over La Paz!
Almost collapsed getting here!ha