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Published: November 11th 2005
We are starting to wonder when our luck is going to change!
We are currently sat at La Paz airport as our flight to Rurrenabaque has been delayed indefinately due to heavy rain and Rurrenabaque only having a grass runway! We were meant to fly at 7.15am, it is now 1.40pm and we have been told they will give us an update at 4pm. We also had to get up at 5am to get the early flight so we would have the full day in Rurrenabaque so we are quite tired. Ironically we decided to fly to save time!
Well enough of my grumlings!
After our return from our visit to see Aydi we went to an internet cafe to catch up on what was happening with Andy´s bank account and to see when we would be getting our money back. To our horror we saw that yet more money had been removed from the account and the account was now well overdrawn and a total of 5000 pound had been stolen! We rang the bank who told us we had to call back the next day when the special investigations department were available. Andy was really annoyed
as he had previously rung the bank up to check that the cloned card was definately cancelled as he thought more money was still coming out of the account. He was told by a rather snotty woman that the card had definately been cancelled and than no more money would come out and that the new transactions showing on the account were ones that had been carried out before the card was cancelled and that they were taking time to process.
It really put a downer on an otherwise excellent day so we decided to go and treat ourselves to cheer us up! We went to this really nice trendy Bisto playing chilled house music and had Langostine Kebabs, Spinach and Asparagus Pancakes and chocolate cake all washed down with a rather large quantity of red wine. The cost of this extravagence came to less than a tenner and that included the taxi back to our hotel!
Most of the next day was spent on the phone and resending all the faxes we had previously sent to the bank. After above 3 hours of numerous phone calls, faxes and e-mails we eventually found out that the department which
The Most Dangerous Road in the World #3
Here we have Suzanne and Andrew sporting the new seasons wear in Personal Protective Equipment, which will make you more visable to other road users and protect in falls of up to 200m over cliff edges!!initially dealt with our problem had been incompetant and cancelled Andrews card and not the cloned one and they had not passed on our problems to the Special investigations department which they told us they had.
As such Andy gave them a serious roasting and made an official complaint and as such we have been assured that they will sort the problem out and the money will be returned to us on Monday and the cloned card is now definately cancelled! We will await the outcome, I am not holding my breath!
The rest of the afternoon we had left we had to get Aydi a birthday present to leave at the World Vision office as it is her birthday in December. Therefore we have not really had much time to see the sights of La Paz other than the famous witches market that sells Llama foetuses and nice things like that. The Llama Foetuses are burried under new buildings as an offering to Pachamama (mother earth) so that no evil will come of the new residence or its inhabitants and to bring good luck.
That now brings us to yesterday the 29th october when we set
off in a minibus loaded with mountain bikes and headed for the "most dangerous road in the world". The most dangerous road in the world is the road from La Paz to Coroico and is known as this because on average 26 vehicles per year disapper over the edge. The road starts off as tarmac and 2 lanes and then changes to a gravel track just 3.2m wide and with sheer drop offs of upto 1000m. There are also sections were the edge of the road is crumbling away to a sheer drop and there are some overhangs with waterfalls running down over you as you go under. There are also numerous crosses along the side of the road in memory to the people who have gone over the edge. The worst accident on the road was is 1983 when a camion (truck) went over the edge killing the driver and 100 passengers. However the road is down to the Yungas which is a tropical area with forest and farming and Coca plantations and the scenery is fantastic.
Mountain bikes are meant to be one of the safest ways to go down as on this road the Bolivian road
The Most Dangerous Road in the World #5
Finally we reach the bottom. Check out the huge bag of coca leaves for sale. laws change and downhill traffic passes on the outside, whether thats the left or the right hand side of the road, this is so when vehicles need to pass in the passing places the risk is taken by the driver with the best view of the outside tyres and the edge of the road. The other veichle then squeezes through on the inside. Therefore cycling down with a minibus as back up is the safest option.
I have been on a bike about once in the past 5 years and so I am glad I had the tarmac section at the beginning to get my confidence back and also work out how to use the gears! The road went from tarmac and through baren snowcapped mountains to a gravel track winding through lush forest, one of our group fell off within a few minutes of hitting the gravel track and Andy had to lift his bike back up as it went over and got stuck in a bush. The climate changed from a cold air with bright sunshine to warm and humid with cloud cover and a wet fog.
I hung at the back as my hand started
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Back to saftey and comfort of the mini bus--OH MY GOD BRAKE!!!! to ache from brakeing and I wasnt very confident to go fast on the bike especially after someone else in the in our group skidded and fell off, luckily she didnt hurt herself but the bike came to a standstill not too far from the edge (she was further away!) I enjoyed pootlling down and enjoying the scenery as there were numerous Eagles and Vultures circling around at a similar height to us which was amazing to see.
We were in a group consisting of 2 french girls, and two people from England, the French girls were from Chamonix and were complete experts in mountain biking speeding off jumping over stones and small streams crossing the road.
When we got to the village at the bottom of the road there were numerous stalls selling huge bags of coca leaves. In Bolivia and Peru the coca leaves are very improtant in their society. It originated from Inca times and coca leaves are chewed and drunk in tea to help with the altitude and to releave hunger and tiredness. Coca leaves are also given as offerings to Pachamama. As you go into this area there are police check points, this
The Most Dangerous Road in the World #7
Back to the saftey and comfort of road side after our bus broke down. is to try and stop the illegal trade of coca. Coca is allowed to be grown for domestic uses and for medicines etc but obviuosly not for the produciton of cocaine. The goverment and the US governemnt want to irradicate the illegal trade of coca.
When we got to the bottom we were dusty and also sprayed with mud from earlier in the ride and our arms and bottoms were aching. We had a shower, a beer and a buffet lunch before starting the journey back up in the minibus, I can only say I am glad we were on the inside as some of the lorries reversing upto the passing places were precariously close to the edge.
As we had just got off the dangerous part of the road onto the wider tarmac road there was a big bang that sounded like a blowout and the minimbus vered across the road and came to a standstill. We got out of the minibus and the tyres were fine but it looked like the driveshaft had gone and we were going nowhere! The guide said he had made a call and that someone was going to set off from the bottom and come and pick us up. However after an hour or so standing by the road another bus came up with bikes on and the guide tried to flag them down. It was at this point we checked one of our mobiles and there was no reception and we realised that no message had been sent and none was coming for us!
After a while was managed to flag down an already overladed public bus which was seriously overcapacity with people and was loaded on the top with massive bundles of peoples belongings. We squeezed onto the bus and stood in the aisle. There were already 5 people sat around the footwell area near the door and lots of women had children sat on their knees. An hour and half later we arrived on the outskirts of La Paz and we dropped at a place we didnt recognise. We eventually got to our hostel at about 8.30pm and decided we needed a beer and a good old curry!
we had prevously picked up a leaflet with an advert for an Indian restaurant so we headed off there. I have to say that the curry was fantastic, I am normally disapointed when I have curries or similar aborad as they are never quite the same however this one was great. It also turned out that the husband of the owner was the vice consul for the British embassy in La Paz. We therefore had quite an interesting conversation about the current political situation in Bolivia. Therefore this morning I have registered with the British Embasy so they know where we are if any truoble happens. With the upcoming elections and continuing issues with the gas supply there are lots of road blocks and demonstrations. However we have lookily not seen any or had any problems.
Well as my eyes are going square from the long time on the internet trying to entertain myself I am going to head off and have a coffee to wake me up. Hopefully at some point we will make it to Rurrenabaque!
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Sarah
non-member comment
Hi you two. The pictures look awesome. Thanks for the update. I havent read the text yet - I am working tonight so Ill save it for then to keep me occupied. It was great to talk to you last night Suzanne. Love Me x