Blogs from La Paz, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 131

The self styled 'World's Most Dangerous Road' (WMDR) is a stretch of dirt 'road' from La Cumbre high above La Paz (4700m) down to Corioco (1200m) and is a notorious must do for travellers to this part of the world (recommendations from Marcus, Fionne, Kim, Ricky and multiple others). The trip with Barro Bikes started with a 07.30 breakfast where we unexpectedly met Kevin/Claire who had enjoyed the same bus journey as us from Uyuni to La Paz. We were also joined by Joe, a professional poker player from California. This was obviously a trip for risk takers. An hour's drive out of La Paz brought us to La Cumbre where we were introduced to our bikes which were in the same good condition as the one on display in the office, something we weren't pinning ... read more

November 26, 2005 (Puno, Peru) Sean: After visiting Machu Picchu we spent the day wandering around Aguas Calientes, just bumming around after our long day trekking up and down the stone steps and alleyways (the Incas must’ve had great leg muscles). Even with our previous night’s refreshing slumber, we didn’t dally about until the wee hours and went straight to bed. The next day it was up early and out the door to catch the train and head back to Cuzco. After a fairly uneventful 2 hour train ride we managed to catch a cheap ride for the final two hour leg into Cuzco. Side note: Today was Thanksgiving and in keeping with tradition and the spirit of the pilgrims, I ate grilled Alpaca. It was quite delicious. It tastes like a very lean beef, but ... read more

We had breakfast and got on an early bus to La Paz. Now Lake Titikaka has Boliva on one side and Peru on the other, owever the penisula with Copacabana on is on the side of Peru, so to get to La Paz we need to go back into Peru or make a small crossing. Of course this is the way to go. Now we assumed there would be a bridge - well we were wrong! We had to get of the bus which was then driven onto a a shallow raft thing (did not look secure at all) and then we caught a boat across. This was well worth the trip alone - seeing these buses just floating across the river! Coming into La Paz was very cool too as it is set in a ... read more

(with apologies to Señor Garcia Marquez for the cannibalisation of his book title) It had to happen at some point and now it has - we´ve been hit by illness! Tom has been laid low by a devilish combination of an intestinal amoeba, gastroenteritis and another infection. What started as a painful stomach rapidly deteriorated into a serious condition and bang goes a week in Bolivia. We called in a doctor straight away and were pleasantly surprised when the ridiculously friendly Dr Ebert Orellena Jordán pitched up. He speaks excellent English, though he claims that he talks like a drunk parrot. At first it was thought that the condition was mild. 18 excrutiating bouts of diarrhoea later (sorry - too much information...) and antibiotics were clearly in order (and Tom was down to his fighting weight...). ... read more

Our flight to La Paz was on the OLDEST plane either of us have been on, a Boeing 727-200. The novelty factor just outweighed the fear factor! It was chucking it down when we arrived and was bloody freezing as well. We were both looking forward to getting into our nice warm hostel room. Our hostel room turned out to be colder than a winter´s night in Antartica (okay, a dlight exaggeration but you get the gist!) and to top that there was no hot shower, bruuhh! We wrapped ourselves up and went out to look round the city. We found solice and warmth in Burger King (Guy was in need of some ´normal´ food after his recent illness!) We spent a couple of days in and around La Paz, visiting the Coca Museum which was ... read more