Buses, Butchers, Bolivia and Bikes


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South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
September 16th 2011
Published: September 17th 2011
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I got on the bus to Puno feeling still worse for wear, the bus stopped every now and again to let someone on selling something the first one was bread the second drinks but the third was just unforgivable. She jumped on in a blood stained top and a heavy bag on her back, she then dumped it in the isle next to me and to my horror it was a dead animal. It didnt have a head but i guess it was a llama or something. She then got out an axe and started hacking it to pieces there was dead animal flying everywhere, then she started snapping rips and legs and stuff off. If i felt shit before i felt really shit now!! The locals loved it and were buying loads, the man next to me was eating it raw like some kind of animal! It was without doubt the worst bus journey ever! I had a good hostal in Puno with a huge shower and lots of hot water! The next day I did a tour to the floating islands, they are worth seeing but are really shockingly commercialised, i caught sight of lou and mark the welsh couple that i was on the inca trail with but they were on a different island and couldnt hear me! Did catch up with them later though so that was good. We then went on to another island taquille which to be fair wasnt worth the boat ride its just an island with not much there and yes there were lots of steps which pissed me off! The next morning i jumped on the bus to la paz, we stopped at the border to go through passport control which was all pretty painless, the bolivians are keen though and the bus was stopped by police several times on the way from the border to la paz and unfortunately they took one of our passengers with them... no one knows why although he did look a little bit dodgy!
We got off in la paz and its the first city iv been to where you arent hounded as soon as you get off the bus, you have to find your own info. I´d got talking to two ozzie guys on the bus and they suggested we go to a ´party hostal´which thus far i had managed to avoid but with the promise of free drinks on arrival off we went. The outside of the hostal looked bleak to say the least and it was up loads of steps! but to be fair it is the cleanest hostal iv been in so far. We went out for dinner to a thai place... the food was crap and the waiter was absolutely stark raving bonkers. Im sure he was on something... or alot of things he told us how he was hit by lightning, is writing a book, is a historian, and lots of other far fetched tales. Apparently the book is out in december and he is going to email when its out so il look forward to that. Oh he also told us how he has seen ufo´s but then somewhat spoiled the story by saying he was stoned at the time! Some of the stuff you would not believe, crazy! After dinner we headed back to the hostal as we were told there was a playboy party, we got to the bar and other than the people that ran the place we were the only ones in there. So I did the only thing i could have in that situation and went to the bar and ordered 6 shots of something strong... and my god they were strong. Quite possibly the worst tasting stuff i have had in my whole like, its nearly 24 hours later and i can still taste it! My ozzie friends were getting a bit boring and asking for fanta and iron maiden to be played... of course we can have none of that so me and the locals bonded over our love of trance music and were blasting out tiesto ans loads of other proper tunes. The ozzies gayed out and went to bed, we as in me and 6 locals went in one of the guys cars (a four seater!) and headed to another hostel it was called the wild rover and is an irish hostel the party was happening there! Ater a few hours of drinking and dancing we all went to a nightclub which was absolutely awesome, it was a proper underground place playing trance and electro not many gringos. The musis was awesome and we danced and drank untill i remembered i had to go to death road! So i got a taxi back and arrived at the hostal at 4.30 am. My alarm woke me up at 5.55am I was still fully clothed and had my bunny ears still on, theres no denying it i felt crap! I quickly got realy and waiting to be picked up, i got on the bus and everyone was obscenley fresh nd happy... yes they had all been sensible and had an early night! The bus was old and had no suspension and the road was cobbled or stoned and very bumpy for almost 2 hours i was constantly fighting the urge not to be sick. When we finally stopped i toppled out desparate for frest air... which i got! it was about -10 at the top of death road with freezing fog and ice it was sooooooo cold. We then got our biking gear on which i later realised i was that smashed i had my top on inside out... which no one thought to mention! We had to wear full face helmets which just made me feel sich all over again with the strap under the chin... then i had another predicament... what if i needed to be sick. Thankfully i didnt! After a lot of fannying about we finally set off. Now iv not rode a bike for years and years but i was off. I was expecting to just fly down but oh no... once we got some decent speed up we all had to stop so he could talk crap and we could wait for the girls to catch up.... and that was what the whole tour was like to be honest it was crap. I just wanted to fly down there as fast as i could but oh no! Then we had a few tears and tantrums from some of the girls, not good. Death road itself is awesome, the scenery was amazing but the tour really was poo, i had visions of hurtling down a million miles an hours nearly falling off the edge but it was just a bit safe, no way anyone could have died! The first hour or so was unbearably cold as in nose funning cant feel fingers... which was probably why i was so fast cos i couldnt feel to use the breaks properly. It gradually got warmer and where we finished was absolutely red hot! Off to get an early night now because im absolutely dead on my feet! tomorrow i might try and get my self in to san pedro prison.

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