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Published: October 28th 2006
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Finally left Puno!! The guy at hotel Monterrey was all rush to get us to the bus station, we paid 20USD each for a directo bus to La Paz and it was only when we were an hour or so into our journey realised that the bus ticket was for
Copacabana...so´s it looked like we were ripped off or there was some kind of break down in communication......so stayed in Copacabana for the night in La Mirador Hotel, 5.00USD each and it was lovely, right on the lake, and the views of sunset were just spectacular(must start staying in hostels..not only because its that bit cheaper but you meet way more people than staying in hotels and plus if I keep spending the way I am I’ll be home next month!!!
Copacabana...what a lovely little town...esp. for restaurants, ate some of the nicest food their and very cheap. Unfortunately didn’t stay around long enough to find out more about the town but first impressions ....Lovely!
The next day we didn’t bother to go to the Islands as after The Inca Trek it was enough trekking for us so we headed straight for La Paz which was about 3-4 hrs
Death Road
Up there with the clods by bus. The
border crossing from Peru to Bolivia was fine, no huge surprises, except when we all had to get off the bus at one stage and get a small boat across the river and then the bus had to get a boat!! Comical!
La Paz Met up with Marie and Brian (Tip&Cork) again which was great, stayed right in the centre (Sagarnaga Street) La Paz is so diverse, my previous perception of this city was that it wasn’t going to be safe but I didn’t get that feeling at all and loved it, there’s a great feel here, smack bang in the middle with Mercado negro... street markets, local bars....something you would have to experience...but the Bolivians were really welcoming and there were lots of cheers, Salutes...and Slaintes... and the Bolivian way which I can’t remember what exactly it was...some of the street vendors that were on every corner were simple businesses...(and they will make a business out of anything) from selling freshly squeezed orange juice to selling sweets.....hats...Alpaca fur....chicken...some other not so appetizing foods...everything you could possibly imagine, one thing I did find really bizarre was that the guys that shine shoes for a living
Death Road
Irish&Auzzie death road survivors! wore balaclavas to hide their identity, this is the only place in the Americas that I have seen this...kind of sad that they have to do that I think (esp. in that heat! aswell)
Bought a good few things to post home, hammocks, Alpaca hats etc..and very cheap to send and seems to be safe as the procedure was sewing up packages, copies of passports, filling out documents etc (you wouldn’t want to be in a rush to get out of the post office put it that way)......lets hope now that they arrive safely!
Saturday night seen us checked out the new
Irish bar in La Paz that is just opened a week, owned by 2 gay Argentinean guys, really cool guys but no way were they budging on the music...slightly filled by Cuba Libres and Mojitos...we even offered to get on the table to dance to Shakiara Shakiara...but they didn’t have the CD...TG! went to
Ram Jams Club which isn’t in the lonely planet, but a great club. not quiet sure what time we all finished up!!!
Karen, Marie and Brian left Sunday for the Salar-de-Uyuni Tour which is a days travelling by train
Death Road
Zoo Landers! and bus but I wanted to do a few other things so stayed on, hope to catch up with them in a week or so.
I booked the tour for
The Death Road mountain biking
....
64KM of craziness...4 KM of up hill&
60 KM of down hill WUUUUUHUUUUUUUU!!!!!! All I can say is that it was CRAZY (as I did think it might be a bit of a tourist trap but I was sooo wrong), the story the guides were telling were about these passes called Italian Boy pass, French girl pass, Israeli girl pass (she was letting a truck pass and moved too far back and fell off the cliffs edge, apparently 16 something busses go over the edge every year... at the moment the government are building an alternative road but check out the link below if your bored!
BOLIVIAS DEATH ROAD http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6136268.stm
only 4 of us made it to the finish the rest of the group gave up and took the van...
There was 7 in our group and 4 stayed on in Corico while me and the 2 Auzzies took the 3 hr drive home with the guides.....sooo
for the looong journey back we got a few bevies!!!
Everyone believes in something and I believe I’ll have another beer!!
On the way home one of the guides seen this really cool puppy...like a husky with blue eyes...we named him Milky...he was taking him home to his kid (so he said) and an hour and a half later a van pulls up and waves us to stop, the owner had found out that the van we were travelling took her dog and she hitched a lift and stopped us and said something in Spanish to the guide (I can only imagine what) and then left with Milky but it left her in the middle of the road o her own and night was closing in ...she had to hitch a lift all the way back...alls we could think of was that she loved that dog!!
that was it...got back to the hotel and the three of us went out on a pub crawl (I mean celebration)...not a good idea when you have 16 hrs of travelling the next day but it was good fun!!
Next stop Tupiza
for the Salar-de-Uyuni Tour the next day as I have met up with 2 great Irish girls, Marie Therese and Ann...(Cork)
Death Road
Truck rounding the corner while we are forced to the edge! Scary stuff..... 3 hrs bus journey then a 13 hour train ride to Tupiza....Tired...wrecked....hung-over....can’t even begin to explain... and that damn ruck sack is no joke..It´s now 18.5Kgs...
More Crazy Pics of Death Road...click on fast slide show Message to my Girls...I know its bad....god do I know it....I cant bring myself to use anyone other than Jacqui but times are bad and I will have to face a Bolivian hair studio and they are bad...also...the blue top.... (it is my fav backpacking top!....what can I say...Im a back packer ....with a hair straightener and heels...JUST THE ONE PAIR....priorities like!!
8 Bolivianos to 1 USD
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Karen
non-member comment
Hello Again
Great Blog the bevvies seem to be flowing nicely. I like your little quote. A girl after my own heart. You are looking preettyy tanned ya f*****. Miss ya loads. K