just hope like hell that you never get reincarnated as a white llama

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The bus to La Paz was a little less eventful. Actually it was brilliant, seats that reclined right back, all the leg room in the world, oh and sealed roads which was a nice change. We were so tired we slept through most of the trip to La Paz, which was disappointing because what we saw of the trip was amazing. Winding through the Andes is quite breath taking. However we were awake for our entrance to La Paz. Driving over the top of the rise of El Alto and looking down into the bowl of La Paz was awesome, check the photo´s. Quite an introduction to our favourite city so far.

Finally finishing our grueling bus journey, we venture downhill to our hostel, The Adventure Brew (recommended by the guys we met at our hostel in Santiago). As we found out walking downhill with our bags on was a major blessing. The first small hill we walked up found us wheezing and gasping for air halfway along. We got back to hostel feeling tired and exhausted from our little half hour mission into the city. We resigned our self to the bar for the evening where we made some good friends in Stuart and Louise Laing who turned out to be our partners in crime for most of our time in La Paz.

Careful not to drink too much the night before Nicole and I were feeling much better in the morning. We set off to discover the witches markets and the city of La Paz. Needless to say, Nicole was very excited about this, she had been hanging to do some shopping and all the advice we received was that La Paz was the town to do it in. We spent only 180 bolivianos (30 dollars AU) and already bought a bunch of stuff. I think we discovered a little corner of Coley heaven. The shops with the Llama fetus (which Bolivians bury under the front of their new houses for good luck.. gross) were the most interesting though, they had everything from expert hand woven and knitted hangings and clothes to love potions and of course Llama fetus. That night Louise and Stu took us out for a night on the town, which was such a fun night of Bolivian beer, we barely got home before the sun came up.

Needless to say, the 3rd day in La Paz involved watching DVD´s and feeling rather sorry for ourselves. We did however manage to move our butts to book 2 tours. The first was to the site of the pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku, the second tour was a mountain bike ride down the worlds most dangerous road. Nicole and i differed on our excitement of the 2nd tour.

Our lovely guide picked us up in the morning on our fourth day and we zig zagged our way out of La Paz toward Tiwanaku, not far from Lake Titticaca´s southern edge. On the way we stopped at a lookout where we could see all the way from Lake Titticaca to the Mountains looming over the city of La Paz. We also discovered what happened to the Llama fetus after bought from the market. Many scorch marks on the ground signified the burning of the fetus and other idols to please there god of mother earth; Pachamama. I thought I would venture the question that was on the minds of Coley and myself, so i asked the guide how the Llama fetus was obtained. To Nicole´s horror, we discovered that the adult Llama was sacrificed to appease Pachamama and the dead fetus retreived for sale (The Llama had to be white for the purity of the sacrifice).

We arrived at Tiwanaku and were taken through the museum and on to the site itself. We were lucky, due to it being the end of the rainy season, the archaeologists were not back yet so tourists were able to venture onto the site and take photos. Half the site is still yet to be excavated, but what we were able to see was a small insight to a once mighty civilisation. My favourite part was the sunken temple that had over 170 carved stone heads that represented the heads of chiefs of tribes fallen to the hands of the empire. I think Coley´s favourite part was the stones on the outer walls that had holes perfectly shaped to match the human ear. When the guide talked through the hole the sound was amplified perfectly. The guide the walked to the other side of the ruins, about 30 meters away. He then proceeded to talk at a normal level, we each took turns putting our ear to the hole and could hear the guide as if he was standing right next to us. Amazing!
After lunch we went to see a ruin a couple hundred meters away from the main ruin called Puma Punku. We learn´t that Lake Titicaca used to come to the edge of these ruins, and it has been perceived to be the port city of the lost city of Atlantis. The stones in the pictures below show that they have been cut with tools that are centuries advanced of this civilisation. See the photo´s. Cool hey!

Our fourth day we were up at the crack of dawn so that we could meet our group to ride the worlds most dangerous road. Stu & Lou were coming with us too. We all hopped on the Mini bus and drove to La Cumbre 4700m above sea level. It was beyond freezing, we quickly got into our wet weather gear and tried to stay warm by riding our bikes around and getting puffed on the smallest little bit of uphill. Nicole was getting a little anxious by this point. I tried to reassure her by the old ¨she´ll be right mate¨ she replied with a look of ¨easy for you to say¨ But no time to be nervous. We had a safety check and a quick ceremony to appease Pachamama which involved 96% alcohol. A drop on the front wheel, a drop on the ground, and a little sip for yourself which burned your whole throat, and we were off.

The first stretch was sealed road so we thought it would be good practice, but it was misty, rainy and hard to see. I stayed behind Nicole at the start so that she would feel more comfortable, I´m not sure I did much to quell her fears or to stop either of our sets of fingers feeling they had frostbite. Halfway down this section we came across a crash between a bus, truck and minivan. It didn´t help the confidence level. However the further we descended, the more the fog cleared and the more my adrenalin level rose. Nicole made me promise not to die so I did my best to behave.

Finally we reached the worlds most dangerous road. Nicole was feeling a bit more confident and I was ready for some speed. The views were amazing, well what I saw of them when I stopped, generally when you´re a foot away from a 600m drop and your flying down the hill made up of gravel road and murder muffins (big rocks that appear in the middle of the road), you keep your eyes on the road. We also found out that this road you ride on the left (the cliff side). Nicole´s experience was somewhat safer and more scenic then my own, her greatest worry was killer butterfly´s (seriously that´s what they call them, they are beautiful blue butterfly´s that fly across your field of vision and as you watch them they fly over the edge taking your attention, your bike and yourself with them). Thankfully Nicole was rather focused on the road.

We arrived at the end exhausted, muddy, wet, and with hands that still felt like they were shaking. Nicole wanted me to mention that she came dead last (with Louise of course) and proud of it. When we arrived at La Senda Verde the guide suggested that he take the girls backpacks across the river. I thought this chivalry quite strange, thinking the girls can do it, they have been carrying their own bags the whole way across Sth America. Then i noticed the bridge had been washed away and we had to negotiate the fast flowing river with ropes, shaky planks and 20kg backpacks on our back... Indiana Jones style.

We made it! La Senda Verde. We had an awesome buffet lunch of homemade pasta and got showed to our treehouse. After all the bikers left to go back to La Paz, we ventured out to get acquainted with the animals at the refuge. They had lots of monkeys; spider, capuchin, squirrel, and a little baby howler. They also had a boa constrictor, an Andean bear, a friendly Coati, turtles, numerous parrots and macaws, and an ocelot that we weren´t able to see.

Two of the volunteers took us to see the bear being fed, for dinner he got muesli and yogurt, we watched as the bear sat down by his bowl and first picked out all the sultanas, then the peanuts, then would demolish the rest. On our way back from the feeding we saw a cute little squirrel monkey, who upon our assumption dropped from the tree onto Nicole ran up her arm, located her ear and took a massive bite. This gave Coley and myself a massive shock, I had to pull the little fella off. As soon as I did so the evil little bastard went me too and then climbed Nicole again and bit her hard on the arm. Agile little dude, as soon as I threw him off he was back on me. We found out later that the monkeys name was Elvis and he loooovvvvveeeessss biting ears. We gave him a wide berth from then on. (by the way.. don´t fret mums and dads and nanas.. all the animals had an on site vet and were totally vaccinated!).

We had a great time at the refuge, the animals were beautiful (except Elvis the little punk), and all the volunteers were great. However we had to get back to La Paz, we had run out of cash and there is no ATM at the refuge. We got a taxi to Coroico and got a bus to La Paz. When the driver asked ¨nuevo or Antiqua¨ we replied ¨rapido¨ The bus driver took the old road and we were about to experience the worlds most dangerous road from a whole different perspective.

As you can tell by the title, the road is a bit sketchy. A new road has been built that most of the traffic travels on but some people are born of habit and still like to travel the old road. Bolivian drivers are a law unto themselves also, generally in Australia if we´re driving a dirt road 3m wide with a 600m drop on one side and we see a truck coming the opposite direction in the distance, we would pull over in the nearest bay. In Bolivia they continue driving at high speed and when they reach a blind corner, they cut it, justifying their move by honking the horn for the whole corner. It was on one such corner that somehow the method of horn blowing failed, for we met a bus coming the opposite direction, also cutting the corner with the horn blaring. Stalemate!

With a lot of shouting and cursing in Spanish, the driver of the big bus decided the easiest way to prove his right of way was to slowly continue moving forward so that our driver had to throw it in reverse and get out of his way. With a solid bank on one side and a 600m drop on the other reverse was not the best option. We managed to squeeze past each other after the 4 of us had enough of a freak out to last a lifetime. When we were just about to go over the edge, Louise and Nicole were yelling out ´Stop, stop!!´ while the driver was still reversing. It was a rather hairy, scary little moment. But aside from a few heart stopping moments, we make it back to La Paz safe and sound.

Not much to say about the next couple couple of days, after over indulging on the first night back I was in bed with my hoodie on and the blankets up to my chin shivering while Coley waged a war with Bolivian computers trying to upload photos onto the blog.

Finally I´m feeling better. Coley is so excited, she´s had a day of shopping planned for the last few days and I refused to let her go alone. We had a great day shopping and eating good food. It felt so good to be well again. We got back to the hostel to find that it was Stu´s 28th birthday. That mixed with Scotland beating Ireland in rugby and 2 other friends coming back to La Paz from Copacabana meant we were going out tonight. Yay! Glad I´m feeling better. We had a great night. A big shout out to Stuart, Louise, Alex, and Ben. Had an awesome time with you guys. Hope it won´t be too long between drinks.
Our second last day in La Paz was not very productive. After a big night we caught up on our movie watching. Time to get organised and shift from our temporary home at Adventure Brew. Onward to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca.......

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Photos

The 10 boliviano note has Bowie on it!!
well.. its not Bowie, apparently some Bolivian actor.. but I still reckon it looks like Bowie

The Witches Market
check out the things hanging up.. they are dried baby llama fetuses. we made the mistake of asking a tour guide how they actually aquire these. turns out if you are born a white llama its a total bummer because white symbolises pure so the pregnant mothers get sacrificed for their babies.. nice. apparently the baby llama fetuses are buried under the porch of new houses for good luck.

Bolivian traffic jam
check out the funky buses here.. they are massive old Chevvie's