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Death Road
As you can see, there is no room for error. Tours are supposed to inspire you to be more organised, more adventurous, but after a 30 hour bus trip from Lima to La Paz, we felt tired and lazy. Our "adventure" in Bolivia consisted of 5 days wandering around the same markets, watching "Spiderman 3" and "Pirates of the Carribbean" and sitting in the hotel playing the various card games we've been taught on our travels. Suprisingly, these photo's did not make it on the blog.
Wandering around markets lead to many purchases of scarfs, beanies, jewellery, scarfs and some different coloured scarfs. There are also some presents for the family back home. Glad that's taken care of. We accidently ran into Imelda and Amber from our Peru tour, so we spent more time lazying around and eating lots & lots of good cheap Bolivian food (around AUD$6). It must be noted, that Burger King closed down McDonalds in La Paz, surely a world first.
We eventually got our act together and organised a tour of the salt flats. Unfortunately none of the Bolivian travel agency's have got anything together, so an "all inclusive" gringo tour meant we paid extra on the tour for breakfast, accomodation and park
Salar de Uyuni Day 1
A beautiful cacti island. entry, were given no itinerary and our guide didn't speak an ounce of English, though he was lovely. We have yet to meet anyone who has been 100% happy with their tour company in La Paz.
From the worlds highest capital city (La Paz), home of the worlds highest 18 hole golf course and worlds highest natural hot springs, we journeyed on the worlds most uncomfortable overnight bus, through the worlds bumpiest damn road and arrived very weary the next morning at the worlds highest salt flats, Salar de Uyuni.
The group of 8 squeezed into our 4x4 and raced over the dried up sea at 130kms an hour through the salt plains. As we were unable to understand most of what the guide was saying, we don't have a whole lot of information from the 3 days. What we can tell you is the sea dried up thousands of years ago and the flats cover some 12,000sq km, that's about it.
The scenery didn't need much explaining. Every few 100 kilometres, it would completely change, and out came the camera. From white plains to dusty red desert, frozen coloured lagoons to volcanic eroded rocks, each new
Salar de Uyuni Day 2
The Arbol de Piedra, or Stone Tree. landscape was as equally breathtaking as the last. Waking up in the cold on the last day to see the geysers was... well, cold. Almost too cold. Minus 20ºC. We stopped at each location, quickly jumped out the car, snapped a few photo's, and were back in the car to unthaw our frostbitten toes.
After another bumpy, restless overnight return trip to La Paz on the bus, Lia was persuaded to participate in a mountain bike ride down the deadliest road in the world, appropriately named The Death Road.
Our research on the best adventure companies led us to Barro Biking. It was an adventure alright. The bikes had seen better days, but we thought they'd be good enough. We were wrong.
We set off in the van with Rory and his crew that we met the day before, to the starting point at 4,600m above sea level. We were briefed of the dangers (trucks and 800m sheer drops) and then we were on our way. The riders were split into 2 groups. The fast group, and the insane and crazy mad fast group. Lia held up the rear quite nicely.
Poor Andy was the first
Valle de la Luna
At the Valley of the Moon. We bought hand made instruments from the man standing on the hill. to encounter the shortcomings of Barro Biking. We were at top speed, when Andy's brakes failed. He was fortunate enough to come to a stop, and the guide quickly fixed the problem. Next problem, broken chain. We thought that would be that, but later we hear Rory yelling from far behind, and we looked back to see he had been thrown off his bike. Upon return, we discovered his back wheel had completely FALLEN OFF his bike. He walked away with only minor injuries, and was back on the replacement bike in no time.
The 8km uphill was probably the toughest. At over 4,000m, it was excruciatingly painful to breathe, and felt as though your chest was about to explode. 3 of us made it up riding, but most people walked. Lia and the girls seemed to do it much easier then everyone else... in the back seat of the van.
After the uphill, we had a break and hit the offroad. This was the official start of the Death Road. It was a fast downhill track, sometimes only wide enough for 1 car, made up of loose stones, bumps, awesome jumps (but I think Lia missed most
Salar de Uyuni Day 1
Lia, Ryan & 25 billion tons of salt. of them), creeks, waterfalls and the occasional grave stone memorial. Every now and then, the tour guide would tell us to stop, point over the edge and say "Tourista... Finito... HaHaHa!" He thought human casualties were hilarious. We think he loosened that tyre on purpose.
We finally made it down the mountain after a total of 5 hours on the bike, to 1,200m above sea level. 16 minutes after us, Lia and her group also made it down the mountain safely. We stopped for a well deserved drink, and proceeded onto our hotel for dinner. It was an unforgetable thrill. We even got t-shirts to say we survived Barro Biking... I mean, the Death Trail but Lia states she isn't hopping back on a bike anytime in the near future.
Before we left, we did a city tour of La Paz. It took us to Kili Kili, a couple of museums, the witch's market and North, South and Central La Paz. There is a difference of 1000m between North and South, and the temperature varies 1 degree every 100m. This means the rich live in the warmer South district, and the poor live in the cooler North district.
Salar de Uyuni Day 1
With no neighbours for miles, this lone hotel is in the middle of the flats, and is made almost entirely from salt. We also saw the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), which are mountains of clay which have eroded over the years, and now look like a moon landscape.
We couldn't leave La Paz without visiting the infamous San Pedro Prison. Inmate guided tours into the prison are no longer permitted, but we were able to take a few sneeky photos before the guards were onto us.
On our last day in La Paz, we found out there was a big fiesta. All the streets were blocked off, and there was a day long parade down the main street. We didn't feel it was necessary to throw us such a big party for our farewell, but we enjoyed it anyway. We made it out of the country that afternoon, lucky to escape the dodgy Bolivian Police on the border. Having scraped by the dodgy Peruvian police on the other side of the border, we are now safe in Arequipa.
As we head up the north coast towards Ecuador, it's nice to see the warmer weather again. But beware, it won't be too long before the green budgie smugglers grace the blog page once again.
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