La Paz and the Royal Visit - Week 37

26th May

Katie was up at 6am to for the greatly anticipated arrival of her parents! They arrived all well and with bags (thankfully no repeat performance with the lack of bags, Al!) which we were especially pleased about as they had brought HP sauce, M&S bras and maltesers!! The altitude hadn't effected them at all so typical Wright-style, it was straight out for sightseeing.

You must have noticed a slump in the editorial board's output and enthusiasm. We have therefore decided to import an ace stand-in from Manchester, England, who reports as follows [Last two sentances in Dad's own words...]:

La Paz is a fascinating dump of a town, situated in a bowl between 4200 and 3800m. From a 3 1/2 hour open-top bus tour of La Paz we learned that it has at least 8 government buildings, 2 universities, 3 schools, 1 cathedral, 1 football stadium and a kiddies' playground. Also, and this was hammered home with some force, the poor live at the top where the weather is very nice and the rich live at the bottom where the weather is even nicer.


Why do the indian women wear bowler hats? In the early 1900s, an importer acquired a large consignment of bowlers too small for men to wear. He persuaded the upper class women that bowlers were the height of fashion in Europe and shifeted the lot. The native women copied the gentlefolk and wear bowlers in great numbers to the present day.

The witches market complete with Llama foetus

[Back to Katie:] So after a busy day sightseeing and shopping in the markets, we booked our bus to Lake Titicaca, leaving the next day.

La Paz, Tiwanaku - Week 37

23rd - 25th May

Tiwanaku is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site, and one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire. It flourished as the ritual and administrative capital of the Andes for 27 centuries from 1500BC to 1200AD. It is thought that the city only reached a maximum population of 40,000 but the empire it controlled had 1,200,000 people at its height. Tiwanaku started to collapse around 1000AD, possibly due to environmental reasons, from an invasion of new people from the south, a loss of faith in the Tiwanaku religion, or a combination of all three. As a result many separate tribes evolved from the Tiwanaku culture, one of these would then evolve into the Inca empire in the 13th century.

Bolivian Archeologists, from what we saw they spend most of their time throwing mud at each other!

In the museam we saw many deformed skulls that they have excavated at the site. It was a common practice in the Tiwanaku culture. They applied rope and wood to children´s skulls between the ages of 2 (YES TWO?!) and 14 creating the strange shape below. It was thought that they would be more intellegent for this mishaping of the skull and therefore the brain.

In the evening we met up with Alex & Matt again for a few drinks and a chat. That would all have been well if only we weren´t sharing a table with a group of Ozzies. Drinking games followed. Not such a agood idea as James had signed up for downhill singletrack mountain biking the next day. Luckily James got away with drinking Coke in disguise for Cubre Libres so not too much damage done. Katie on the the other hand (never one to be out done by the boys) got stuck in with the result of being stuck in bed all the following day...

The mountain biking was in a word, amazing. Much more difficult than the stuff back home. The morning and afternoon trails both dropped from 4000m to 1700m and took 2.5 hours - so knackering, especially after pretending to play drinking games till 2am! The scenery was awesome though, the bike fan-bloody-tastic, and the guide a top bloke. The body armour was pretty cool too!

Me this time bricking myself, taken from another angle

'Twas good!

After an exhausting day there was just time for a bit of a itinery plan before Andrew & Irene (Katie´s parents) flew into La Paz Saturday morning. We´ll pick up the story there next time...

La Paz, 'Death Road' to Coroico - Week 36

20th to 22nd May

We spent Sunday afternoon and Monday mooching round La Paz in the endless markets and booking tours to keep us entertained until Katie's Mum and Dad arrive on Saturday.

.

Interesting markets, live guinea pigs for sale to fry-up!!

Yet another Bolivian demonstration, bus driver´s pay this time.

On Tuesday was the long-awaited 6 hour mountain bike trip down 'The World's Most Dangerous Road'. James was mega-excited and Katie terrified. We booked with a really professional company, B-side Adventures, who had excellent bikes. They were Iron Horse Yakuza Ojiki 2006 if you´re interested?! We left La Paz in the mini-bus and drove for a couple of hours to the summit at 4800m, which was actually not yet the 'death' road but 32km of nice wide tarmac. Katie began to feel a bit better about the whole thing and we whizzed off down the road. There were still incredibly steep drops from the road but the tarmac made everything feel very safe, even though we were going over 35mph! There was about 20 minutes of uphill and we were both very pleased to be the only ones that didn't get off the bikes and arrived at the top first!!

Ready to set off at 4800m with snow capped mountains in the background...

The scenery was unbelievable (the only reason Katie got on the bike in the first place!), we were cycling down a road through an enormous valley, completely surrounded by huge mountains. It was hard to keep our eyes on the road!

So, all was going well and then we reached the 'death road'. We had been very careful not to use this term before we did the trip as it just really sounded too much like tempting fate but, hey, now we've survived...!! It looked absolutely terrifying (to Katie, to James - not so much!). It was a stony one lane track with a sheer drop (in some places over a 900m drop!) that we were to cycle and we had reached cloud level (aprox 2800m) so you could barely see the scenery any more (which turned out to be a bonus as you can't really be scared of sheer drops that you can't see!). Katie and one of the other girls were seriously about to cry but there was no turning back at that point (imagine the ridicule!!) so off we went, very slowly.

Our group next to hundred of metres of nothing...

It´s not called dangerous for nothing! It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the "world's most dangerous road". One estimate is that 200-300 travellers are killed yearly along the road, with 2 vehicles going over the edge every month. On July 24 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia's worst road accident. There were lots of memorials on the wat down to those who had lost their lives in falls.

There is some positive news. They have opened a new section of road to bypass the dangerous section 6 months ago. Now the mountain biking is much safer, we didn´t come across another car on the whole run down. It still is very dangerous though. Just a couple of months ago an exuberant Israeli slipped off the side of the road on a mountain bike tour falling 190m. The pictures below show what it was like before the new road opened - Bolivia really is a crazy country...

Saying all that, it was great! Really not technical at all which inevitably split the group by speed so James raced off with another practised mountain biker from the Netherlands and one guide and Katie proudly brought up the rear with the other five and the second guide [remember here, I DID beat them all UP hill ;) ]. All was going well in the B team until Katie had a recurrence of food poisoning cramps which were enough to make her cry but there were only 20 mins to go so she made it to the end!

Can you spot us, we´re the little yellow dots.

So after starting surrounded by snow-capped mountains at 4800m we finished up at 1100m in tropical jungle. Then after packing the bikes away we went to Coroico, a lovely little town settled on the edge of the valley at about 4pm for a lovely hot shower and buffet dinner in one of the hotels. We decided to stay for the night and walked up the hill to a beautiful place to stay, Sol y Luna. It was a group of cabañas on the hillside, really secluded and comfy:

Grampa James & Granny Katie in our little abode.

After hanging round in deckchairs reading our books and admiring the view all the next morning, we headed back down into the town and bumped into Alex and Matthew that we had met in Mendoza two months ago! It was the Champions League Final too, so what better excuse for a few afternoon beers??

The minibus back to La Paz in the dark and the fog on the new road was actually far more scary than the bike ride. We just had to put our faith in the driver and hope for the best!! We were back in the La Paz hostel safe and sound by 9pm.


Books we read: Crazy in Alabama by Mark Childress

Rurrenabaque - Week 35

13th to 19th May

So next stop the Rainforest and Pampas. We decided to go into the rainforest proper in Bolivia as it is the easiest to access. The rainforset in Madidi National Park is supposed to be the most bio-diverse and pristine in all of South America, when compared to the rainforest in Brazil which has been subject to widespread slash and burn deforestation for decades.

So we had the option of a 20 hour bus ride along mountain precipice roads or a 45min plane ride: we took the plane ride. 40 quid well spent! James did find the plane a bit scary though. The little Amazonas plane held on 18 people and you could see right into the cockpit with lots of buzzers going off all the time. Mind you the pilots didn´t seem too worried as they seemed to spend most of the flight passing biscuits to each other! However, with views like this out of the window of the rainforest we soon forgot about the jiggly plane.

Rurrenabaque highstreet full of tour jeeps.

So as soon as we landed and found a hostel (Santa Ana - nice, fiver a night) we went to find a good deal on a jungle tour. We decided upon Flecha Tours for $20 a day as they sounded the most organised.

JUNGLE

Next morning we were heading up the Beni River in a leaky boat for 3 hours to the camp with Tomba, our guide, Fatima, our cook, Jo from Wales, the baot bloke and the two of us.

The swanky (with a silent s) camp

Sitting down for lunch, with Tomba wetting himself laughing for the tenth time that day...

Sunset fishing for Catfish using chicken and line

That night after dinner we went for a night trek into the jungle. The animals are much more active at night so we had high hopes of seeing some things. We walked along the small river behind the camp finding gruesome lookinf spiders and little frogs, until we heard some rustling in the bushes ahead of us. Tomba told us to turn of our torches and listen again. It was thought to be a deer as we found remains of half-eaten fruit but it was scared off. We carried on walking finding more spiders and thankfully none of the highly poisonous snakes, then stopped, turned our torches off again and sat listening to the sounds of the jungle for 10 minutes. It was sooo dark you couldn´t see your hand in front of your face. Lots of animal noises, insects, frogs, birds etc.


We started to walk back along the path we had came when all of a sudden we saw a pair of large orange eyes about 15m in front of us - A JAGUAR!! We saw it turn and walk away and Tomba told us to turn our lights off while he walked on to see where it went. So the three of us we left standing there in the pitch black thinking that we´d here a roar any second and get attacked from the side!! Luckily the Jaguar walked off to the look for the deer that had been eating the fruit minutes before, and we walked on with racing heartbeats.

The magnificant Jaguar.

Next morning we went on a 5 hour trek through the jungle starting along the same path we had been the night before and found Jaguar pawprints in the mud, so we weren´t dreaming! Tomba took us acrss trail through the thick undergrowth cutting a path through for us with his machete. We were worried about snakes again but luckily we saw none. We ended up at the only village in the area to see how they lived. There are 18 families growing crops in the jungle, but they have had agriculture courses from the government and so were farming in a sustainable way, rotating their land leaving areas fallow to recover.

The village was full with dirty cute kids.

The third day we went on another trek to a view point to look over the jungle in the morning mist. On the way back we went cross track with machete dodging huge tarantula webs, again no snakes - phew! After a huge lunch, 2 hours after breakfast, we headed back to Rurrenabaque with a boat full of Israeli´s from another camp. If you have spent a little time with a group of Israelis you´ll know how "fun" that boat trip was!

Katie dressed as queen of the jungle - where´s Ant & Dec?

The jungle was fantastic. Seeing a Jaguar 15m in front of us was obviously a highlight, a rare one too as they are only seen once every 20 days on average. The downside was though; no showers and a crazy amount of mosquitos. We didn't take our trousers off once for three days but they had manged to bite through the fabric and our socks even with repellant liberally sprayed!! We were definitely roughing it, but it was an amazing experience.

PAMPAS

After a well needed shower we went on the lookout for the next trip to the pampas. We had heard that Flecha Tours camp in the pampas wasn´t as nice as some of the others, and we wanted a different T-shirt! We decided to go with Fluvial Tours, for $55 for 3 days. We were very excited about the pamapas as we had been told that it was much easier to see the wildlife as they has less things to hide in!

The first part of the journey though was a 3 hour muddy and bumpy jeep ride along a terrible road. After that and some lunch at a strange place with a monkey, a parrot, ducks and a deer we arrived at the boats. It was an hour ride to the camp, and even after the first 10 mins we had see birds of paradise, eagles and pink dolphins!

An unsuccessful minibus that we had to pull out of the mud.

The boat with an international mix. 3 English, 1 Welsh, 2 Canadians, 2 Israelis and the weird Bolivian guide.

The pampas

The campsite was a bit less basic than the jungle, and the weather cooler so not showering was less of an issue! The camp did have its fair share of "pets" with a white stork type bird that hung around all the time, what eneded up being a very naughty cat (more later) and a massive alligator!!

Apparently tame-ish...

Us strangely relaxed with the alligator?

The pamapas trip is much more relaxed as there really isn´t anywhere to walk that isn´t flooded, so we just sat in the boat and were taken to see the wildlife. And what wildlife! You could get so close to everything as they couldn´t hide as easily as the jungle and didn´t seem too bothered by us. They seemed to know they were well out of reach...

There were three different types of monkey, loads and load of huge birds and eagles. Katie and I being the wildlife fanatics that we are cannot remember any of the names, but we have some pretty pictures!!

The second morning we went out on the boat again after deciding that we didn´t want to wade up to our necks in the river to try and find anacondas. Apparently they are very hard to find now when the water level is so high. In July they can be found easily when the water is much lower, and they can be up to 8m in length and capable of swallowing a cow or alligator whole - whoah! They then settle up for a month or so to digest their huge meal. So we went pirana fishing instead. We wedged the boat up into the bushes and got our hooks and line, attached a pice of bloody meat to the hook and dangled it over the side. It was a very strange sensation and you could feel the piranas biting the meat and pulling it away from you, once you felt they had taken enough of the meat you struck hoping to hook one. James failed (sorry Dad, i let the family fishing heritage down) but Katie got one, and the guide had the knack and was pulling them out easily. We were told that these red piranas are the most agressive and can strip a goat clean in minutes - we did not want to fall into the water!!

All fried up ready for eating.

fancy being nibbled by these teeth?!

Probably the highlight though were the Pink Dolphins. Now the photos i manged to take were perhaps not the best but they a shy little things and VERY difficult to take photos of. These are the best of about 50:

A borrowed one to show what they really look like.

The return jeep ride wasn´t much fun. A one point we thought it was going to break down and we´d be stranded - luckily it held on. We went out to a nice bar called Pachamamas for some nice food and to escape the ever present mossies. Then next day luckily flew back to La Paz. The plane hadn´t been able to leave for the last two days as the weather and the grass runway had been too bad. It was quite a shock coming back to the 4000m -2C coldness of La Paz after the tropical climate in Rurrenabaque. It is always one of the most fascinating things about travelling that you can be in a tropical jungle in the morning then freezing at high altitude in the afternoon.

Nevermind, next on the agenda was to bike down the worlds most dangerous road...


Books we read: Human Traces by Sebastian Faulkes - excellent, unputdownable!