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Published: November 12th 2009
ATTENTION: DESPITE THE THOUSANDS OF INTERNET CAFES IN LA PAZ, WE ARE STILL YET TO FIND ONE WHICH WILL ALLOW US TO UPLOAD PHOTOS. WE WILL KEEP TRYING TONIGHT BUT THEY MAY BE LIMITED. This is very frustrating, as the photos are the best bit, so sorry, you´ll just have to chew over this:-
We were delighted to read all of your comments. It really does help us on our way knowing that there are so many people keeping up to date on what we are doing.
So, we have come from Lima to La Paz in just over three weeks (including several indulgent "rest" days) so we are rather chuffed with our progress, though still worrying about what lies ahead, in particular the remote salt flats, unpredictable weather and the apparently uncyclable routes to the salt flats.
Puno was fairly good to us, as previously mentioned, though leaving whilst still nursing a hangover from the night before was less than enjoyable. Once more into the baking heat we rode at a staggeringly slow pace, so unhappy with our situation that we could not muster a wave nor even a smile at the passing lorry drivers. Lunch soon
cheered us up though as we went through the familiar language struggle as the waitress listed what was on offer but were delighted to be fed with a delicious (this time being right on Lake Titicaca) fresh trout. This soon wore off however as the sun continued to show no mercy. Weak and weary, with darkness falling and nowhere to camp, being on the altiplano now, we panicked again. It was about half four, an hour before it gets fully dark and we were just about 25kms from the next town called Juli. We decided to block out the pain and pedal relentlessly in the hope that somehow we would come across this town. Miraculously we arrived and were guided up a steep hill in search of a hostal. It seemed like a pretty cosy hostal, the only problem being that our bikes were to be stored for the night up three flights of stairs, onto the roof. Retrieving them the following morning was very much an Herculian task.
Juli was our last night in Peru. We met a fellow Englishman by the name of Fred who is walking through parts of Peru. We took a wander to the
bizarre pier on Lake Titicaca where it seems Peruvian tourists flock come peak season, though whenever that is is anybody´s guess. There was a massive (empty) fountain and a bizarre concrete boat which presumably is a restaurant. Once more, we found another mellow, tourist free (except us and Fred) town with a well kempt central plaza where we munched our breakfast of two plain bread rolls and Peru´s version of YOP. This forced us to break for an early lunch after a steep climb out of the town. We wheeled our steeds off the road onto a beach, yes a beach. Here we dined with two flamingos, though I feel that their helpings of fresh fish were far superior to our once again bland noodles. We knew we would cross a border today, though we were still unsure as to which one...Although Copacobana came recommended by many as the easiest, we heard rumours of strikes and thought not too risk it, so crossed at Desaguadero. The crossing came out of nowhere and it suddenly hit us that our time in Peru was up. Without being too reflective, on reflection Peru had been awesome. Though very few people enjoy cycling uphill,
along with at times unbearable heat and cold, Peru is a brilliant place full of very friendly people and amazing views. We both agree that despite some of the pain we have been through, our route and method of travel is for us far more preferable than whizzing through on a heart-attack inducing bus.
We were slightly anticipant about crossing the border as many people had told us they had to pay bribes and were ripped off exchanging money etc. We had none of it. It was probably less of a hassle than crossing Hadrian´s wall up to Scotland. We received our exit stamps from Peru, wandered over the bridge and handed our passports over for a Bolivian stamping. The air, the weather, the people, the landscape and scenery suddenly changed. No, only joking, it was all more or less the same for a while at least. We did not expect the Bolivians however to be as encouraging and accepting as the Peruvians were but were pleasantly surprised. Thus far the people have seemed to understand better than the Peruvians what we are doing and thus we have been met with even more encouraging waves and smiles from lorry
drivers, and I even received a standing ovation from a roadside farmer. These small details seemed to give us more energy and will to press on and just before nightfall we came across a town Tiwanaku, slightly relieved that we would be putting off camping in Bolivia for at least a few days. We found a very acceptable hostal, dumped our stuff and headed into the town. Reluctantly repeating myself, this was yet another good-looking plaza, this time with bizarre wooden sculptures dotted around. There was also a church here with large puzzling carved stone statues outside. Having enjoyed the wonders of the plaza, we headed to the nearest shop and bought some beer, chillies, a red onion and some tomatoes. This spelled and amazing supper and that it was.
We soon realised that we had stumbled across a very important ancient site. Our travel book had pages on the place and it seemed that La Paz, 72kms away, did regular and highly regarded tours to this place. We though it rude not to have a peek the following morning. It was a slight relief that we would not be cycling first thing in the morning and with this
in mind, we both had an amazing nights sleep...Not expecting too much from the ruins due to prior experience, we were astonished by the size of this site and it´s intrigue. It even had an on site museum which we gladly wandered round, not just because it was included in the ticket. This was a major ceremonial site, constructed by a civilisation from as early as 600BC in around 1000AD only to be lost about 200 year later. The museum was full of ceramic pots, jars, jugs and bizarre pottery creatures, all genuine. The site itself consisted of a large pyramid (about 200 sqm, so not relative to Egypt) which was covered with small groups of excavating archaeologists. There were a few other smaller areas, one with massive slabs of stone lying broken on the ground. There was also a sunken kind of tomb which I think was only excavated in 1991, and next to this was the Puerta Del Sol, the Gateway to the Sun. This was a megolithic door carved from one single piece of stone with inscriptions which for obvious reasons meant nothing to us. We agreed this was one of the best sites we had been
to and wanting a souvenir, we were disappointed to notice that there were plenty of workers around making it difficult to pilfer shards of pottery lying unnoticed and uncared form so we left them.
Having had our cultural dosgae for the day, we set our sights on La Paz. This was for some reason a slow and painful cycle, despite the roads being relatively flat. Perhaps the howling head wind had something to do with it, or perhaps it was once again, the bloody boiling sun. We arrived in La Paz yesterday at about half fivem though local time being half six, as we had actually crossed into not just another country but through another time zone. It was a very rapid and pleasant decent into La Paz and we dug our heels in a busy hostal with good facilities; a bed and a shower.
It is an odd place, it is huge, and it is built on or in a valley making the majority of the streets at a gradient we found very restful after a couple of hard days cycling...Just walking to the nearest restaurant is like climbing Ben Nevis. But some of the food here
is well worth the climb. Unfortunately we do not have the time to climb a real mountain, Huyanta Potosi. This and mountain biking are pretty much the main events for tourists and as appealing as it sounds, spending our rest day on a bike was not our favoured option. So instead today we visited the Coca museum. Very interesting though we were handed an English booklet as the displays were in Spanish, so other than the pictures, we could have read the booklet in the comfort of an armchair. We then discovered a Zoo out of town, and at 35p entry, we could not refuse. On leaving however, we were tempted to ask for a refund. It was a nice stroll around some greenery but in terms of the animals it had, we were not impressed. They did however have a collection of Condors. These are massive, but ugly and incredibly bored and uninterested, not surprising as they are more used to swooping around in canyons cruising at around 1000m. There was an enclosure, arguably the worst enclosure anywhere in the world. It consisted of a donkey, a horse and some sheep, in a zoo! Maybe they made the enclosure
first, ran out of exotic animals, and thieved some off the mountain side in an attempt to fill the gap. Next to this enclosure was a small collection of rabbits. Just ordinary rabbits. The large pond in the centre contained a handful of ducks and a goose. There was also an aviary which contained some pigeons and doves. All in all, a rather disappointing Zoo, but at least we saw a decent Boa constrictor, two lions, four condors, 3 blue macaws and a large guinea pig. Wandering back to the city we felt dissatisfied with our daily activities and hurridly thrust ten quid into the hands of a local bike rental and hired a quad and a motorbike for one hour. The novelty was that we did not have to exert any physical force into moving along the road, but this soon wore off and we returned the motors thinking to ourselves, if only our bikes could do that. We leave tomorrow morning and hope to be back on the internet soon.
There is just one more thing...We may have picked up a straggler. Just this minute we are off to have a final meeting to discuss with Raphael
whether we should cycle together from tomorrow, as his route is more or less the same, within a very similar time frame. This may add an interesting dimension to our journey, especially as he can speak Spanish, as well as English, and he used to work as a bike mechanic in Switzerland.
Thanks for reading, and thanks again for the comments. Don´t hesitate to comment further, even if it may be abusive, we welcome constructive criticism.
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Al Humphries
I persuaded Tricia with the greatest of ease to come and listen to Alistairs' (OS Rt) talk on his travels on a bicycle - am sure you have read his books - 4 years it took him to go around the world! He was brilliant and inspiring and maybe this is what YOU will both be doing when you come back....he is finding it very difficult to settle down to a desk job - so just plans more adventures instead! Will back from Belize - it was NOT a holiday - but he looked well! Keep going!