Bolivia Part 4 - The World's Most Dangerous Road

So I was in La Paz again for just one more day before making my way back towards Peru for my return flight to Buenos Aires in just over a weeks time. I had been in and around La Paz for over 2 weeks now and, with valid excuses, hadn't had the chance to do one of the most tantalising and controversial adventure activities in Bolivia - to ride a mountain bike down the World's Most Dangerous Road. Most other travellers I'd been talking with had been raving about it, while many others chose to not take the risk.

A section of the road on a better day - this was all cloudy on our day.

The facts aren't pretty - built by Paraguayan prisoners during the war back in the 1930's, the road is a narrow gravel strip of varying quality chiseled into the side of enormous cliffs that drop hundreds of metres down to the Coroico river below. It joins the tropical Yungas region (elevation of approx 1000m) to the capital of La Paz (elevation 3800m) via La Cumbre - a high point of 4700m - by barely hanging on to the side of an Andean mountain. Many of the prisoners perished during its construction, thousands of Bolivians since, and now the odd tourist as well.

Some pics from the net...

A long way down...

Last year a new, safer, paved road was finally opened (after 20 years of construction) which means the "death road" is now only used by local traffic and mountain bikers with their support vehicles. Unfortunately it also means what little road maintenance there was, is now even less (landslides are common in the wet season), despite a tax payable by each mountain biker to go towards keeping it open.

Anyway, onto those facts... while the road was the only link between northern Bolivia and the capital, it is estimated between 200 and 300 people died each year. In one year alone, 25 vehicles plunged off the road into the ravine below - thats one every 2 weeks! Many of these were large trucks and buses whose wreckages were too large to safely remove, so they still lay where they fell (we saw many of them on the ride). One bus had 60 passengers and there were no survivors. The nearest hospital is 2 hours away and rescues here are extremely dangerous and often not very successful.

Wet and cloudy - our group on one of the dangerous corners.

The same corner from a wider angle on a better day.

But probably the most startling fact is that 8 mountain bikers have died since organised tours began 5 or 6 years ago. One Israeli died just a few months ago. Amongst those 8 were 3 guides! When I asked how this could be, the answer from our guide was that they ride the road every day and therefore their exposure to the obvious risks is much higher.

All the South American guidebooks advised to choose your tour company wisely and to be wary of cheap operators, as this was one activity where you don't want anything going wrong or any corners to be cut. One company was consistently highly recommended and proudly boasted "the safest record", but was by far the most expensive, and although my funds were getting low I was reluctantly prepared to go with them. But then some guys I was chatting to in my hostel earlier said I have to go with another company named Freebikes, who offered all the same services as the other company (and more), but with a smaller group and at half the price. I checked them out and was pretty impressed, so the next day I was off on the most dangerous thing I'd done in a while with a small cheap tour company that my guidebook had warned against...hmmm!

The group turned out to be excellent and I would thoroughly recommend them. The bikes, gear, guides, food and transport were all top notch and it was much better to be in a small group of just 4 (plus 2 guides), compared to the 15 or so in the other more expensive group. A whole days fun with everything included - lunch, snacks, drinks, all equipment, showers, a t shirt and CD of pics - was just $US39 with Freebikes. Pretty cheap but still the most expensive daytrip I did in Bolivia!

The Ride - 68km distance and 3650m descent:

It seems strange that a road that links the highest capital city in the world to the low lying tropical jungle should rise at first, but it does - to a chilly 4700m, where our support bus drops us and we start our downhill ride. The first 20km are on smooth, paved highway with snow-capped mountains as backdrops, and cars and trucks as obstacles. It's freezing as we hurtle round the swooping big corners and long straights at top pace. Keeping to the right of the highway we pass some buses as if they are standing still, and then we get passed by some cars as well.

On the fast paved section. That's me in the front.

After passing through a police check, a tough uphill section (its hard to fill the lungs at 3000m!), the pavement ends and the gravel begins. We have descended 1600m already and are in the cloud forest region where, appropriately, it is very cloudy and misty. Unfortunately the clouds and rain didnt lift until the very end of the ride which is rare for this time of the year (dry season), but it did make for a great, muddy, wet (and sometimes slippery) ride down the death road.

The strain on your hands as you clutch the brakes, and the concentration in your mind and eyes on staying on the road is pretty exhausting, so the regular breaks came as welcome relief. We would stop for photos (unfortunately the rain and clouds didn't help much), drinks/snacks, and to observe dangerous points where accidents had occurred or wreckages were still visible. Consistently along the entire road were countless crosses, plaques and memorials to lost ones, which was a constant reminder to focus and concentrate.

After riding under waterfalls, through streams, and over bridges we finally got down into the jungle area and could take off some layers and have fun going down the dry tracks a bit faster. One of the other guys took it a bit quick round a hairpin turn and came unstuck, but nowhere near a cliff edge, fortunately. The adrenalin was constantly running for the entire ride and as gratifying as it was to reach the end safely, it was also a shame for it to end. Definitely a highlight of Bolivia!

Muddy, sore and dirty but happy!

Bolivia Part 3 - The Amazon Jungle

Nothing beats travelling by river to your lodgings

After a few days rest and recouperation in La Paz I caught the next available flight to Rurrenabaque (Northern Bolivia) - a tropical jungle town on the River Beni where the Amazon basin meets the foothills of the Andes. The flight from the highest international airport in the world (La Paz at +4000m), through the Andes and down into the jungle (at about 200m altitude) onto a grass runway in a tiny 20 seater airplane was worth the $75 as a joyflight alone! A couple of days relishing the low altitude (I could finally breathe easy again!) and the boardies-and-thongs climate and then I was off on a 3 day jungle tour.

The 20 seater plane, grass runway, and "airport". The pilot is in front of the plane after just zooming up and down the runway on a motorbike (I have no idea why - to check for potholes??)

2 hours in and our first 4WD was rendered usless by the unforgiving off-road tracks. 1.5 hrs later and our 2nd 4WD had arrived to rescue us (surprisingly quick given our guide had to walk almost to the horizon just to get mobile phone reception). Unfortunately 2 hrs later and the Bolivian "roads" had claimed another victim - this time the suspension was totally rooted and the rear wheels were pushed firm against the chassis. Stuck halfway between our origin and destination, the situation looked grim.

So the guide started walking back to where he got mobile phone reception, and our new driver set to the task of "fixing" the suspension with what little tools and materials he had at hand. This consisted of 2 jacks (one to jack the car up and the other to pry the axle off the chassis - this 2nd one remained permanently in this position!), and a rubber tire inner tube which was cut into long thin strips and tied around the suspension leaves in order to restore some flexibility to the rear axle. It was difficult to watch this painful process over the course of a couple of hours, as all 9 of us were sure that with 11 people in the van this stop-gap solution would fail miserably on this terribly bumpy road. But, somehow, our driver was sure he had completed a perfect job and invited us back in to continue our journey (without our guide who had not yet returned from his walk).

The driver sitting(!) under the precariously propped van tying strips of inner tube around the suspension!!

5 minutes in and a huge pothole beautifully struck in the middle of the rear wheels almost sent the whole ship over on its side, and the nervousness of all on board was clearly evident (I don't think I was this scared even on the Worlds Most Dangerous Road!). The driver reduced speed down to a slow walking pace and was clearly not going to admit defeat just yet, despite voiced concerns from the pasengers. 20 harrowing minutes later and our guide reappeared from behind us, this time in another 4WD with yet another new driver. Needless to say we all literally jumped ship and were so grateful to be in another vehicle, and with all our fingers crossed we finally arrived at the river (only about 5 hrs late) to continue the rest of the journey by canoe. Thankfully that would be the last 4 wheeled vehicle we would see for a few days as our only means of transport from now would be our 10m long, leaky, wooden canoe.

Another perfect sunset!

Our lodgings were basic wooden huts on the muddy banks of the river - 9 of us in one dormitory hut (the beds had mosquito nets luckily!), a dining hut to eat in, basic toilets and a hammock hut overlooking the river where most of our spare time was spent.

This is honestly the un-zoomed view standing next to the canoe which was in front of our lodge - the resident gators were peaceful enough during our stay.

The next morning, after a nice cruise along the river spotting many alligators and caimen basking in the sun, we set off on a walk across the pampas (flat wetlands/plains) for a few hours in search of the harder to see wildlife - anaconda, cobra etc. It was a pretty tough hike for me, mainly because I didn't have knee-high gumboots on like everyone else (they didn't have a pair I could fit my big hoofs into!) so I had to wade through the knee-deep swamp/mud/river with my hiking shoes and bare shins! My legs were pretty cut up and my shoes took days to dry out - I later threw them out as the mud was impossible to get rid of!

We had no luck with anaconda but our guide did snatch a pretty big cobra from its hiding place in the reeds and swung it round his head for a few minutes (to wear it out apparently - not sure if animal rights activists would have approved!) before grabbing it behind the head to show us its fangs and tongue - pretty impressive. Later that day we swam with pink river dolphins (in the same part of the river where we later saw alligators!), which are the only freshwater species of dolphin and are native to the Amazon river system. The water was pretty brown and murky (but refreshing nontheless) so you couldn't see the dolphins until they came up for air - apparently they are the only practically blind species of dolphin in the world.

The next day we baited up small handlines with raw beef and fished off the canoe for piranhas. The little terrors loved it as soon as the bait hit the water, but were pretty tricky to land. I didnt catch one but the half-dozen or so that were landed were fried up for lunch. They were pretty small so didn't have much meat on them, but they tasted ok.

All up we saw countless species of birds, tons of alligators and caimen, cobra, monkeys, dolphins, turtles, capibaras (like a docile big rat the size of a dog) - so it was a pretty good 3 days.

There are 5 turtles and an alligator in this pic - really there is...

...and there are 3 monkeys on top of a woman's head, a hand, and a banana being devoured in this pic.

Bolivia Part 2 - The nightmare trip

Well I've suffered from some of the setbacks that can hit you as a budget solo backpacker here in Bolivia. Everything was going great until i arrived in-10C city of Uyuni, the jumping off point for the Salar de Uyuni 3 day 4WD tours (amazing deserts, salt flats, mountains, lagoon scenery etc).

The tour started off bad and just got worse with every minute. The guide/driver was terrible - a senile old man with no teeth who hardly spoke a word, just mumbled a few indecipherable words of spanish every now and again. The cook was hopeless, she got so drunk the first night that she had to be shaken awake and then she didnt serve us any breakfast. The car was the oldest and most uncomfortable of all that we saw, and was freezing cold and full of dust consistently.

Luckily the people i was with were really good fun - 4 canadian girls and 1 british guy. we had all booked thru different agencies though so we were all told slightly different itineraries!! and the girls had booked a 4 day tour but Peter and I just 3 days - the organisation was terrible!!!

But the worst thing is my health. The sore throat I woke up with in Uyuni (the hotel had no heating) rapidly descended into much worse. The dust in the bus, the freezing cold, and the consistently high altitudes of around 4500-5000+m was making it really difficult for me to breathe and swallow. The first nights accom was all 6 of us in a shoebox right next to the kitchen so all night and morning we were choked by smoke. No heating or hotwater of course. The second night was worse - at 4350m, about -15C outside and again no heating or anything. By this time i had lost my voice and wheezed and panted as I tried to breathe. The Canadians and Peter helped with medications (not once did the guide or cook ask how i was!!), but nothing much helped.

Although the scenery was amazing I didnt quite enjoy it as much as I should have. And because our car was so slow, we were always last to each sight and spent little time there. Many sights we missed out altogether. When we returned to Uyuni we each complained to our respective agencies and i was pleased enough to negotiate in Spanish for them to pay for my return ticket to La Paz (only about $US12 - the cost of the tour was $80). The Canadians were aiming for more since of course the guide informed us on the last night that there was no way we could split the passengers up into other cars and that we would all have to return after 3 days. In Uyuni it was freezing cold again and i was having trouble walking, breathing and carrying anything. I was sick from both ends in disgusting toilets and just wanted to get out of there. The nice tourist bus that Peter was going on was full so I had to get on the cheapest one. It was full, uncomfortable, pretty cold and had no toilet! And it was SOOOO bumpy - I wanted to catch the train back for the first leg out of Uyuni like I had on the way down because it skips the unpaved, bumpy section, but it wasn't leaving until 2 in the morning and I didnt want to wait in freezing Uyuni till then, or worry about a connecting bus 7 hrs later. So the 12hr overnight bus was painful, sitting next to a fat, snoring bolivian who took up half my seat, and whose bag kept dropping down from the rack onto my lap, scaring the shit outta me!

It stopped a couple of times in the middle of the night for toilet breaks, but I was at the back of the bus and I knew it was so freezing outside thatI would be sick again, so I decided to hold on till the morning stop. Unfortunately there wasn't one - supposedly there was meant to be a toilet break every 3 hours - but from 2:30am till 9:00 they just drove past hundreds of gas stations without a flinch. At 8am I couldnt stand it any further as I knew I was about to be sick from both ends again. So guess what- they stop on a side of a cliff and point to some bushes halfway down!! I almost died there!

When I got to the bus terminal I almost collapsed and was still struggling to breathe and swallow. I had some good help from different people at pharmacies with respect to drugs etc, but i couldnt even lift my bag so i was directed to a doctor in the terminal. Of course there was no doctor in, so the ladies at the pharmacy gave me more drugs and called in a doctor. Of course no doctor came and i was getting worse so they called an ambulance, which didnt seem too excessive at the time, given how i felt!

So off in a crazy ambulance with sirens blaring through the manic La Paz traffic to the hospital where I was interrogated by about 15 different doctors and nurses (only one with a basic knowledge of English). Each one asked me the same questions and it was extremely hard each time to answer thru the oxygen mask and without a voice! So I had about 5 injections/needles in my arm, one in my butt, an x-ray and a blood test. After intial concerns of it being bronchitus, they just said it was a bad infection of the throat, together with gastro and the altitude and cold temperatures just made everything worse. So they put me on more medications and I was out of there in about 5-6 hours - all in all it was a fairly professional hospital I would say.

After minor dramas trying to locate my two bags that didn't come with me to the hospital (well my day pack did come with me in the ambulance but it took me a while to find it - the lady from the terminal who accompanied me in the ambulance took it back with her to the terminal but neglected to tell me, or her co-worker who had replaced her as she had finished her shift by the time I got there). Anyway I got them all and checked into a really nice but expensive hotel that the Canadians recommended and that the British guy Pete was staying at aswell. It was so nice to have a comfortable bed, a heater, a clean toilet with paper, a warm shower and a TV. So I ate for the first time in over 24hrs in the hotel restaurant with Pete and crashed out but still had trouble breathing during the night. All day today I just watched TV and kept horizontal as much as possilbe as its the only way to relieve the constant coughing, sneezing, wheezing etc. I ate a beautful breakfast and lunch at the hotel cafe as well - heaps of fresh fruit, orange juice, hot teas and hot soups. Still dont have the energy to go much further yet! I'll probably stay here for at least another couple of days until I feel better - lucky I dont have any plans or any strict timelines. When I do feel better I'll probably head to the jungle to get down from the high altitude here in La Paz and into some warmer weather.

Anyway, it was a long story but now I can say its been "ticked" - the Salar de Uyuni tour:

The stone tree, known famously in a Dali painting

Me in front of the Green Lagoon

Pete and I climbing the "Pringles Tower"

Amazing island full of cactus in the middle of the salt flats

Its hard to explain but its like another planet out here

Baby pink flamingo (not yet pink though...)

The clapped out Landcruiser that got all 6 of us back alive (just!)

Bolivia Part 1

My first touch with Bolivia was via the dodgy border town of Desaguadero. Even my guidebook said this was a "desolate and unscrupulous place". I'd only chose to go through here because it was cheaper and quicker than passing through the more touristy Copacabana on Lake Titicaca (which I'll do on the way back). For the first 2 weeks of this 6 week Peru/Bolivia trip Marcela and I had pretty much worked out how to eat, sleep and travel comfortably within a certain budget. So I planned for the last 4 weeks travelling on my own that I'd keep to a tighter budget and the same principles of eating where locals eat / not booking anything too far in advance / and booking direct with the operator etc, in order to not get ripped off like many unsuspecting tourists. In addition I'll have to stay in dorms in hostels and occasionally "couchsurf" with some locals when it worked out. (Couchsurfing is a worldwide network for travellers to connect with locals - see couchsurfing.com)

While walking thru Desaguadero, checking thru border control, getting my bags inspected, and walking to find a local bus to La Paz, I didn't see one other tourist, which felt kinda strange. Actually Bolivia has yet to learn the art of tourism as well as Peru, so it is nice to not be hassled by touts every time you walk along the street. The military / police / army etc presence here in Bolivia is a lot more prevalent than anywhere else I've ever been. Yet the stories of robberies, kidnappings etc are all still very prevalent...

Snowy mountain peaks over 6000m look over La Paz

The bus to La Paz was a minibus, like a Tarago, that can somehow fit up to about 20 Bolivians. One of the first things I saw on the drive was a guy doubling a sheep on his bike (no kidding!). The bus was freezing and dropped me in the middle of the street in the cementary district in La Paz (which I found out later is a prime crime area for gringos). I eventually worked out where I was and found a hostel for a couple of nights before couchsurfing a couple more nights in the living room of some French girls who I met in Arequipa when I was couchsurfing there. La Paz is quite an interesting, busy town to walk around in for a couple of days, but I was more interested in the sights outside of town.

The first of which was a day tour to the only Bolivian ski field, and the highest in the world at 5300m, the "Club Andino Boliviano", Chacaltaya. This place was really fascinating: a solitary ski slope on a glacier serviced by an archaic cable tow that rarely functioned; the closest ski field to the equator; established in 1939 but only open in the summer months when conditions are kind enough; but unfortunately now due to global warming, the size of the glacier (and hence ski run) has shrunk to almost nothing. Still worth a visit and a relatively easy way to climb a 5400m+ mountain (only an hours hiking!) - and an awesome view all the way across the altiplano down to La Paz.

Looking back down to the clubhouse at the top of the "cable tow"

At the peak of Chacaltaya (5450m) - despite how warm it looks I was freezing and regretting not bringing the woolly hat and gloves up on the hike!

Peru Part 3 (the pics) - Lake Titicaca and Arequipa

Hi all... please scroll down and read the older posts first for explanations...

by the way these pics are uploaded straight from my camera - some are in need of some editing/cropping/colour touchups, but thats a bit too hard to do in an internet cafe in Bolivia...

Our transport between islands arrives. A merrier bunch of sailors I'm yet to see...

This little guy was good value. And yes this reed boat did carry about 15 of us a few hundred metres between the floating islands. The boys propelled the boat using long thin tree trunks pushing against the lake bed.

Thumbs up from the skipper - no lives lost on that voyage!

Typical floating reed island. Although your feet sink a little bit while walking, only once did Marcela's foot get wet (when she went a bit too close to the edge).

Our host family on the island of Amantani, Lake Titicaca. Note everyone is knitting or weaving! (There are 2 daughters missing from this photo - they are right of frame and weaving a big blanket on the ground and weren't interested in getting up just for a photo, and I didn't want to bother them!)

An amazing sunset from the top of the island - our hosts said the days finish like this everyday!

Traditional dress was easy for me - just a poncho and a beanie. For Marcela it involved layers of big skirts, embroidered blouse, blanket/shawl/headress thing, and platted hair. Note our host Julian is not impressed with Rosa - she probably drank some of his beer.

The passionate punch-drunk Peruvian pipe boy band.

Walking back to the boat down the hill through all the neighbours' yards.

On the desert highway out of Arequipa on the way to the Colca Canyon. These are wild vicuñas, rarer than llamas and alpacas, and their wool is almost priceless (a pure vicuña wool suit will set you back $50,000 apparently!).

Wonder Woman at 4900m in the volcanic desert.

I doubt the Incas had one of the greatest empires on earth by drinking Inca Kola. It's like creaming soda but even more sugary. It's the national (non-alcoholic) drink. The national beer is Cusqueña, whose bottle has cool inca type walls wrapped around the glass.

Another street market and another interesting stall. That's an anaconda in the bucket, dead of course. Its fermenting in there for about a month, after which the liquid will form a balm that cures all your muscle aches. On top is an article about an anaconda that ate a human whole - charming stuff!!

My "SO GAY" water bottle. Nuff said.

Traditional local dancing - at dawn!?? They know that the tourists pass thru this town at about sunrise on the way to see the condors, so of course they crank up a huge PA system and start dancing to pipe music in the freezing rays of the morning sun!

Just one view of the Colca canyon, it was pretty impressive (but unfortunately my attempts at capturing the condors on film weren't as impressive).

One of Arequipa's fine Spanish cathedrals built in the 15th or 16th century.