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Published: October 19th 2008
Waterfall
Hiked to this the first morning we spent in the jungle.Remember the scene in Animal House where they are initiating the brothers into the frat at the Omega house (the jock´s house) and they are paddling the pledges, specifically Kevin Bacon? Every time he gets hit he has to yelp, "Thank you sir, may I have another?" Well that is exactly how we have felt in Bolivia. It has seriously gone full force at us the entire time we have been here. Around each corner has been something else absolutely ridiculous; however, we are completely in love with the country nonetheless.
We decided to take an alternative route to get into the Amazon Basin town of Rurrenabaque involving a bike ride down the
Worlds Most Dangerous Road , then a bus ride down the southern part of this road, followed by a three day canoe trip down the river through the jungle. We thought it would just be an interesting way to get to our destination while also seeing a few things along the way. It turned out to be much more. So much more...
Of course, as is customary for me at this point, I got extremely ill to my stomach the night before we left. Travellers diarrhea is one thing (sorry,
Spiky bark
Thought the bark on this tree was amazing. this is going to be a graphic blog), but this is something else. Seriously, less than 20 minutes after I eat I´m running. It is horrible. So, as you read the following account of events, remember that I´m peeing out my butt half the time.
We started the trip off with a short drive up to the ridge line above La Paz, at about 4,800 meters, which is above 15,000 feet. We got a short briefing on how to mountain bike, and then were sent off on the Worlds Most Dangerous Road. Actually, we were on the paved, two lane highway above the unpaved most dangerous road. The vistas out across the valley were unbelievable. There were enormous, snow capped, 20,000 foot mountains towering over us, huge valleys below us, and a wind swept barren landscape surrounding. Flying down the road at break neck speeds on a mountain bike, with a brisk morning air flying at your face to wake you up (which was good as huge semis blew their horns at you) was an unforgettable way to experience this; it was really stunning.
We were able to get used to the basics of downhill biking on this
Flowers on the floor
There were yellow flowers everywhere on the floor in this part of the jungle. road before we turned off after a few hours, onto the unpaved, aforementioned, Worlds Most Dangerous Road. The name is not a gimmick and comes from the Inter-America Development Bank because the most people die on this road each year (only 52 so far this year, 3 were bikers). The road is covered in rocks, some small and some not so small, makes hair pin turns as it descends 67 kilometers down the valley and is flanked by 400 meter cliffs (over a thousand feet) on both sides. The biking wasn´t as hard as I thought it would be, and you are so focused on the road that you hardly notice the cliffs. Granted, the few times you do you nearly shit yourself, but, as I mentioned earlier, I was already doing that so I got over it pretty fast. There were a few times that my bike felt like it was going to lay flat on the turns, but I was able to avoid being flung into the cliff face and breaking my collar bone and made it safely to the bottom. In all honesty, it was a beautiful ride down, extremely tiring, but the views were amazing and
Night life in Coroico
A sleepy little town to say the least. I loved it. it was a great experience.
So, we got into Coroico, cleaned up, ate a quick little dinner, and went to bed early in anticipation of the canoe trip that was starting the next day. We thought it was going to be an easy drive to the river, and then canoeing for the rest of the day. Boy, were we wrong! We had to continue on the southern half of the worlds most dangerous road for six hours being driven by an absolute mad man. It was terrifying. The driver was speeding down these single lane roads where there is less than a foot of shoulder on both sides (and did I mention there are enormous cliffs on both sides of you!). He would go speeding up to the corners, lay on the horn, and whip the wheel around them, sending rocks flying out from below the tires as he went cruising around the bends in the valley walls. (Later we found out that one of those rocks careened back at the tire, breaking one of the screws holding the tire on in half, which needed to be repaired, but not until we got a spare a few hours down
View back on our bike ride
We rode down the valley on the left. the valley. i.e. We did half the trip on a broken wheel.) A few times as he took these insane turns a car would be coming down at us and we wouldn´t see them until the very last second. At that point, the rule of the road dicates that the car coming up the valley needs to veer, as fast as possible, to the left, at the edge of the road overlooking the thousand foot drop, and come to a screeching stop within a few inches of it so that the car coming down can pass without slowing down the slightest. As I said, I was already shitting myself from something I ate the night before, so I can´t use that expression to explain how terrifying it was, but my heart stopped several times. And, to top it off, this crazy ass driver once slammed on the gas after one of these near death experiences and our back tires started spinning in the mud and slowly migrating towards the cliff only inches away (oh yeah, I forgot to mention it had poured that morning so the road was completely muddy). Finally they caught and we got back onto the road.
Scared
Me with Eric on the left and Luke on the right in the back. The driver heard the back half of the car groan, he looked back, gave a chuckled, a thumbs up, and a half smile showing the only three teeth he had in his mouth as if to inspire confidence in his capabilities. It hardly had the desired affect. I´ve been on a lot of scary roads with tons of crazy drivers on this trip, and can confidently say, this drive took the cake, easily. India has its own intricacies, as the drivers are in a constant game of chicken while kids play in the street, cows graze, and chai vendors try to sell tea to god knows who in the middle of the road, all the while going over craters they call potholes. However, this road beats anything I came across in India... thats saying a lot. (Oh, and I forgot to mention, our guide, partway down the road, told us that the cliff and the other drivers aren´t the leading cause of death on the road. It is from boulders and landslides coming of the cliff on the right that crush cars and knock them off the road. That was an added bit of fear as if everything else wasn´t
enough. We are flying back to La Paz.)
Anyway, we fueled up after lunch, which was an interesting adventure in itself, as there is currently a petrol shortage in Bolivia. Evo Morales, the president, kicked out all the foreign oil companies and now they are producing only a fraction of the oil they previously had been, so when there is petrol, locals will buy it in hordes and stock up on it. Then, when it runs out, they sell it at twice the price making a nice little profit. Well, we bought some boot leg oil (after fixing our broken tire) from the drivers friend, a guy with only one tooth in his mouth. (Sorry, pointless story going no where, just thought that incident was a nice way to break up all the scary ass other stuff that had been happening.) So, we made it down to the river to get into our boat finally. From here it was supposed to be a breeze...
We cruised down the river in a long dug out canoe that was probably thirty feet long, with benches for two across the middle, a crew of boatmen, cooks, and guides and ten tourists
Not a fortelling of events
Let´s hope our plane back to La Paz does better than this one did. in total. It was a fantastic way to see that section of the Amazon basin. You got a feel for the life of the locals on the river, took a few side trips into the jungle, saw some amazing plant life, very little animal life (other than insects), and a few waterfalls as well. However, every so often you would dock up to shore, either at the end of the days journey or to go for a hike, and the driver would seriously plow onto shore, scraping the bottom on rocks and doing no help to the cracks that were already letting in an overly abundant flow of water into the bottom of the boat they would occasionally bail out. And, once on shore, you had to deal with sand flies. I had never encountered these before, but they are insufferable. They are tiny gnats that take chunks out of your skin and leave welts that itch several times worse than a mosquito could ever do to you. It is incredibly frustrating, and there are hordes of them surrounding you at all times. Eric was just getting over his bites from the trek to Macchu Pichu four weeks ago, and
now we both have fresh sets all over our legs. And, to make it worse, my stomach was still tearing me apart, so I would have to squat behind bushes while brushing these damn flies off of me, trying to keep my balance, and explode. It was insane. Sadly, I didn´t keep all the flies off of me, and now my butt has sand fly bites on it. It itches, is annoying to sit on, and simply isn´t cool.
So, to add one more problem to the equation, a storm rolled in as we were going down the river. The wind would pick up, grab the top of the boat, and push us over in any direction it wanted to nearly capsizing the boat several times. I wasn´t worried, until I looked at our boatmen, and they were frantically looking at each other for solutions and things to do, but no one had a clue. So, we just stopped. We didn´t move. We just let the storm kick us around until it was done. I felt like the Minnow. Ugh... I was done with almost being killed, and Bolivia was almost done trying to kill me, but not Luke
Eric´s Sandals!!!
He picked these bad boys up at the market in La Paz. Couldn´t bargain better than $7, but they were so stylish he had to go for it. (our friend from the U.K. we met on our way to La Paz and who has been traveling with us since then) and Eric...
We finally,
finally made it to Rurre safely. We checked into the hotel to get cleaned up and get dinner. At dinner we were cracking up at the series of unfortunate events on our journey; surviving the bike ride down the Worlds Most Dangerous Road only to give up control to a crazy, half-wit driver with a death wish, our incompetent guides on an enormous river and a half sinking boat, welts covering our flesh from bugs trying to eat us alive, and, of course, me rotting from the inside out all the while. It was hilarious. Then, out of no where, a moth the size of a small bird nailed Eric in the side of the head just to add good measure. He got out lucky. Luke went to the bathroom at the hotel, sat down, looked up, and a tarantula was crawling at him. He hopped up, well finished what he was doing first quickly, and then hopped up and ran for a camera so he could get a photo of the huge,
Big Butterfly
Those are a pair of pants it landed on. It was about the size of my fist. scary spider he had been hoping to see in the jungle (funny he actually found it when he was trying to go to the bathroom). I told the guy at the front desk there was a tarantula in the bathroom and he just brushed me off and went on watching T.V. laughing at me. No big deal. HA!
So, that has been my life over the past week. It has been an adventure to say the least. However, as I mentioned, "Thank you sir, may I have another." Bolivia has tried to knock us around, throw us down cliffs, put us in the bottom of the river, eat us with tiny, annoying, painful gnats, and destroy my intestinal track by making me erupt like Mt. Saint Helen every few hours, but we love it. It is an amazing country and we are having an amazing time. Tomorrow we head off to see some huge anacondas, crocodiles and piranhas (with Bolivia trying to take us out we figured we would at least let some animals take their shots), and then we fly back to La Paz for another weekend enjoying the city (where I will blog on our previous and
future escapades in the crazy capital of this hilariously, ridiculous, fabulous country) before we head further south. Hopefully, for our health and the health of our parents and family (Love you guys!), the next blog will involve less fear...
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clark and deming
non-member comment
sounds nuts! i hate having crazy a-holes in charge of my transport!