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Published: March 20th 2006
We were sad to see the back of Peru, having spent over 6 weeks there, but the time had come to move on. We headed south from Puno by bus to the border with Bolivia, for lunch at Copacabana and then onward to the capital, La Paz. We said goodbye to Rein and Char at Copacabana, they'd decided to stay there for a while and chill out, and I can't say I blame them looking at the beach. Although it's on a lake rather than the sea (it's just over the water from Puno in fact), Copacabana looks very inviting indeed. We'd decided that it made more sense to plough on though, time was ticking and we still had/have a lot of ground to cover. So it was then, after a journey on a bus that could only be described as compact, that we made roost in the Hotel La Joya.
We didn't really have any preconceptions of the city, so didn't really have much idea where to stay, although we lucked out with the Hotel La Joya. Not only was it reasonably priced, but we had cable TV (those of you that know me well will know that normally
I'm no fan of TV, but I've been starved of news for ages now, and Em's been missing Sex in the City!), a great view of the city, and were away from the rest of the gringo backpackers who all seemed to stay nearer the town centre.
La Paz itself proved to be a gem of a city. It's got so much vibrance and character, it very rapidly became our favorite capital city so far, far more so than either Quito or Lima. That's not to say it doesn't have it's problems mind you - there's plenty of petty crime to go around, on the first day Jon nearly got his bag stolen with the old "you've got mustard on your jacket, let me help you clean it (while my mate nicks your bag)" trick. Luckily he noticed and told the offending gents to leave him alone, in somewhat more colourful language... Still, if you keep your wits about you, this place rocks and rolls. Also the food here is great, which is a relief as Em had me believing that once we left Peru it was going to be nothing but rice and water all the way to
Funky micros
Love that paint job!Chile! You could be forgiven for thinking that, however, as Bolivia is by far the poorest country in South America.
One thing that gives La Paz so much character are the street markets, which line pretty much every street away from the centre of town and sell everything from padlocks to flourescent lights to llama foetuses. No really, they do. We spent many an interesting hour wandering around the street marvelling at the range of products for sale. Another thing that gives the city a unique character are the micros that ply the streets for passengers; they're old US school busses, with funky paint jobs and seats that wouldn't look out of place in a 50's American diner, and will take you around the city for a modest 1 Bs (1 Boliviano, about 7 pence). Needless to say, Em and I have been razzing around in these kitch-as-you-like funk mobiles of yesteryear at every oportunity - not the fastest way to get around but surely one of the coolest?
After a couple of days in La Paz, and in conjuction with Ruth and Jono, we decided to head south to Oruro for the weekend as by coincidence it
Colurful procession passes
It's not quite Rio, but the Oruro carnival was still a great spectacle was carnival time. Rooms were all stupidly expensive as a result, but after numerous conversations with hoteliers in the town I managed to get us a hideously overpriced (and laughably small it would turn out) room in the Hospedaje San Salvador. We bussed down there with no problem at all and were soon laughing at the aforementioned room, with it's window onto the noisy stairwell and lumpy matress. I'm no hotel snob but this place sucked, all the more because we were paying $30 a night for the priveledge. Might not sound a lot to you, but it is, believe me!
The carnival started in earnest the following day. Carnivals in this part of the world are a thinly disguised excuse to get mind-bendingly drunk and throw water around, as far as I can work out, so we joined in with earnest... We armed ourselves with some spray foam (more on the foam later) & water pistols, and were off. We'd bought seats along the main promenade from which we thought we'd be able to watch the procession in comfort - it didn't for a second occur to us that if we didn't turn up until lunchtime that other
Ruth & Jono survive yet another foaming
This one came from our side of the stand - splitters!! people would be in our seats, but surprise surprise they were. We managed to squeeze in after some cross words and sat in total discomfort for about an hour - I'm not sure whose the decision was to go get some beers, but it was a good one, because after a couple of cans we were all much more relaxed about the situation. Water fighting continued between the opposing crowds, and occasionally within the stand that we were sitting in, and being gringos we were obvious targets. All good fun though!
Later in the day we didn't manage to get back to our seats, we amused ourselves waterfighting and foaming. We subsequently read the side of the foam can and decided that maybe it wasn't such a great thing after all - turns out that it's actually supposed to be fake snow and that you shouldn't be getting it on your skin, much less have it sprayed in your eyes and mouth, which was what ended up happening most times! During the day Ruth and Jono suffered terrible luck; Ruth lost her wallet, a pair of lads tried to distract Jon and pickpocket him, and Ruth had her pocket
Spiderman and Shrek try out their costumes for the carnival
Didn't wear them in the end though. Too much of a hinderance when aiming water pistols! slashed and from it her earings stolen. By the evening we had tired of the festivities, not helped by Ruth getting punched by a ludicrously innebriated Bolivian lad on our way to dinner. Whilst we managed to avoid a full scale brawl, everyone had had enough by the time we got back to the hostal for a second night. In hindsight it was just as well that I'd bought some vallium in La Paz and Puno, as there's no way we would have slept without it, given the noise and the discomfort of sleeping on a bed not as tall as you are!
No surprise, then, that the next day (and a day earlier than planned) Em and I were on our way back to La Paz, having said goodbye to Ruth and Jon who were on their way south. We decided that our next step was by road to Rurrenabaque, a town in the Bolivian jungle from which you can take tours to the jungle and pampas, to see animals, plants and all sorts of insects. But how would we get there? The road is known as "The World's Most Dangerous Road"...... what better way, then, than to
The Most Dangerous Road in the World
Why do you suppose it's called that?? hire some mountain bikes and see how fast we could descend the 60-odd km?! We arranged the bikes for a few days later, and soon we were on the bus to the top, from which we would bike down. Basically it's about 60km to the town of Coroico, along a road which is known as the most dangerous in the world because each year about 40 trucks and busses fall over the edge, and it's a loooooong way down. We could have taken a bus but in all honesty I felt much safer on a bike. The ride is not a problem for the less experienced either (Em hadn't ridden a bike since she was 14 so was a little bit nervous) as the first part is all tarmac and gives riders at least an hour to get used to the bikes before getting a bit more challenging.
We did the ride with Gravity Tours, and I have to say they couldn't have done anything better. The guides were really good - they had four for the fifteen of us, one at the front, a couple in the middle and one at the back. The bus also follows behind
Pooped
Em after a nasty bit of uphill riding so that if anyone has a problem they can climb onboard and not have to worry about the ride. Em chose a rather more sedate pace than I, but that wasn't a problem as she stayed with the pack while I did a reasonable job of keeping up with the front guide. The road itself is... well..... changeable! It's not tarmac surfaced, and got a bit slippery at the sections where it had waterfalls hitting it, but offered an exhilarating ride and plenty of opportunities to go *really* fast. The only time I got scared was when Em and the last guide didn't turn up for ages - we'd stopped to regroup - and the guide wasn't answering his radio either. Turned out that the gears on her bike were playing up and she needed a new wheel, but was I ever pleased to see her come round the corner! All said it was a great day out, and a very exhilarating ride. I've heard people talk about it being a cop-out, or not worth the money, but having paid the $70 for the better model of bike, T-shirt, free beer and lunch at the other end, I have to
Em being overtaken
Busses on this road don't mess about... say I don't begrudge a penny of it! Thoroughly recommended if you're coming through La Paz and want to get the old blood pumping!!
The tour ends at the Hotel Esmerelda in Coroico, and all I can say is if you are heading in that direction, stop there for the night. Better still try and get their best room, the suite, it has to be one of the nicest rooms we've stayed in. The view was breathtaking, the shower hot (and after a ride like that you need it!) and the bed comfortable. I say bed, as I only tried one, but in fact we had no less than three in the room to choose from! We only intended to stay one night but couldn't resist a second, after which we bought onward bus tickets to Rurre (as the locals call it). The bus was apparently a bus cama (bus with seats like beds) and a toilet - I thought it was a bit unlikely, and sure enough it was neither! Nevertheless after a piddling 18 hours driving along dirt roads we arrived in Rurre. We arrived very tired, but happy to be in a completely different setting, and
different it certainly was....
After getting back from Rurre (please excuse the lack of continuity here, but it makes no sense to put it in it's own blog!) we decided to visit the Valley de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), so called for it's wierd lunaresque landscape. We did so with Howard and Paul; Howard you might remember from such earlier blogs as "motorbiking in Baños" (we bumped into him completely randomly in a pub the other day, very unlikely and very lucky!). From the blurb that we got from the tourist office there, it seems that the formations were created by a combination of heavy precipitation over the years and soft volcanic soil. The results are really quite strange although the effect was somewhat lost by the site being surrounded on all sides by large middle-class housing! Never mind we enjoyed it all the same......
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Dan
non-member comment
Awesome
Looks like a great trip! I want to go. I was just looking at this website where it is all planned for you and things are included. It seems like it might save money, and provide some good things to do, but I would be afraid that I would only see the mainstream attractions and would have to follow someone elses schedule so that would take away from the magic of experiencing another part of the world. The bike trip looks particularly attractive to me since I love biking. I bet a week would not be nearly long enough to take it in.