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worlds most dangerous road
Me and the girls all kitted out for DANGER!Hi everyone!
I've finally found the time to sit down and have a little ponder about what I've been up and put it into some words and pictures. I'm now in Huaraz, Peru, staying with the wonderful Delgado family in their home and volunteering at a local secindary school. But before I tell you about that, here's a summary of that which has gone before.
La Paz..
.. is one big crazy city nestled into and sprawling out of a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains. I arrived here with my tour group and this was to be my last stop with the group. The last month on the tour has been great fun, however we covered so much ground that we were constantly on the move so I was looking forward to slowing down the pace a bit and spending more time in places and moving on whenever I felt like. Our journey to La Paz was an exhausting one and on the back of a active expedition to the salt flats. We were tired, hangry (angry with hunger) and disorientated in this high altitude, traffic-thick, loud city. After lunch I went for a wander around the infamous witches
The most terrifying pose of my life
This is us, perched at the edge of a cliff on TWMDR. If it wasn't so misty you'd see the tears in my eyes! market. I was expecting a narrow alley of market stalls, clouded in incense smoke with cackling leathery women thrusting amulets at me. Not so much. The street was pretty typical of a touristy souveigner street found in most Bolivian cities. The only thing to distinguish it were the bundles of dried llama foetuses hanging for sale from shop doors. Apparently they are buried under the front of houses for good luck. Guys at home, you should receive yours in the post anyday now...
The next day.. THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS ROAD!
The road from La Paz to Coroiba is the most dangerous road in the world owing to how many people have fallen to their death from the narrow track carved into the mountain 600 metres high. Anyone who saw the TopGear christmas special will know what I'm talking about. So what did we do? Mountainbike at the speed of lightening down the 60km road of course!
It was absolutely amazing, I loved every knee-trembling exhilirating minute of it! We had chance to get the hang of our bikes on the smooth tarmaced road before TWMDR. I've never been so fast on a bike in my
whole god damn life, and all without peddling! When we reached TWMDR the road narrowed and was no longer smooth but bumpy and gritty. And it started to rain. GULP. The bright side of the zero-visibilty, wet conditions was that the steep drop from the dirt track was clouded in mist. Normally in Bolivia you would ride on the right hand side of the road, but on the WMDR you have to cycle on the left. Guess what side the drop is on? Yup, left. We were literally cycling a metre from Impending Doom! My god, was it fun!
I managed to stay on my bike all the way down, as did the girls I was with but two of the lads in our group hurtled of theirs, thankfully not over the edge but they got a massive fright. We must have cycled for about 4 or 5 hours until we reached the end, where we finshed by visiting an animal sanctuary. We walked in, soggy and splattered in mud from head to toe and were handed a well deserved ice cold beer. And what we were all waiting for, our survivor's t-shirt!
After lunch and a hot
shower we walked around the sanctuary where they had dozens of rescued monkeys, macaws, tortoises and an anaconda. We all jumped on the bus for the four hour drive back up the road we had cycled down. We started off in high spirits after our adrenanline splurge and enjoying our 2 litre bottles of cuba libre, but the mood dampened as our guide pointed out all the crosses we'd flown past on the way down marking where individuals and bus loads of people had fallen to their death. The last cyclist to die was just May last year. While accidents do happen, unfortunately there are companies less reputable than ours who do not carry the necessary rescue equipment and do not keep as close an eye on their group as ours did. We always had a guide up front, one behind and the bus inching its way behind us. We would stop frequently to check on everyone and the guide would precisely explain the upcoming turns and what to watch out for. The sombre truth aside, it was a fantastic day and one of my highlights of my trip so far. And an adrenaline junky is born.... (sorry Mum).
Island Hopping on Lake Tititcaca
From then on, Me and Marj cut loose from the tour and free-wheeled our way up to Peru. On the way we befriended a lovely aussie girl, Jackie, who joined us for a few days. First stop, Copacabana, a small town on the shore of Lake Titicaca, a huge beautiful lake that has borders with Bolivia and Peru and is home to many inhabited scenic islands. We arrived and checked into our little hotel, our own private room with own bathroom with hot water for just £2.50 a night! God bless Bolivia, haven for budget travellers and producer of some of the best wine and chocolate I've had the pleasure to gorge on. For lunch I had the most delicious trout kebab. The trout here is pink because the lake is at such high altitude the sun colours the fish and makes it all yummy.
The next day we got the boat out to Isla Del Sol, which the Incas believed was the birthplace of the sun. We arrived and trecked up hill for 45 minutes to see some Inca ruins, including a sacrifice table and a few buildings. Rather than get the
boat down to the south of the island we decided to take the 3 hour trek across island. I was not prepared for this in flip flops and handbag, but I figured the Incas probbaly would not have had the luxury of hiking boots or rucksacks. The walk was pretty tough but afforded spectacular views of the lake and the snowy andes in the distance. The sun was incredibly hot and the rocky steep paths difficult to navigate in my havaianas! Bless the Bolivians, they love a tax. We had to pay an entry tax at three points across the island. The kids are pretty entrpeneurial, dragging up their family llama to every passing gringo selling you your chance to your photo taken next to the woolly bleeter. Back on the boat we then heading to the Floating islands. Sounds cool huh? Well, we rocked up to a small manmade island, upon which stood two straw covered bars and a Bolivian woman asking for a 1 boliviana tax to step foot onto the 'island'.
A few days later, from the Peruvian town on Puno we visited the authentic Islas Flotantes of Uros which was a great experience. Our boat
was greeted by brightly dressed local woman singing and waving to us. The head guy of the island explained to us how the islands are made and a little bit about island life, which is pretty nomadic as they can up anchor whenever they feel and even saw their island in half if they get pissed of with their neighbours!
From their we continued sailing for another 3 hours to reach Taquile island. Here we visited a local family who gave uis lunch and performed a traditional dance to us. They explained to us that in their culture, a couple will live with one another for two years before deciding to get married, as a result divorce doesn't really exist here.
At this point in the trip a got hit by a bug and spent the next couple of days curled up on either a boat, bed or bus trying not to be sick, but alls well that ends well and my jeans fitted a bit better after the ordeal.
Next stop, Cuzco! (which was about 2 weeks ago so I'm almost upp to date!)
Lots of love to all back home, Liz xxxx
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