In the heart of Bolivia: Time out - La Paz and around in five days

So, as I already mentioned Julia and I took a five days time out from work and left on an adventure to La Paz. We headed to the Cochabamba bus station last Friday at 6am and jumped on the next bus towards La Paz, which cost us as only bs30 (about 3€) as we took a last minute deal. About eight hours and some thrilling mountain roads later we had traveled about 232km and rised over 1000m in altitude. With the help of a Bolivian stranger who spoke both Swedish and Finnish we found our way to our hostel, a cozy family-owned hostel called Sol Andina which I warmly recommend if anyone is traveling to La Paz in the near future.

The city of La Paz

After a quick check in at the hostel (and a very long hot shower for the first time in a month) we headed to a hotel near by where we were going to have dinner with Siw, some people from the Salvation Army in La Paz and the Norwegians, who where enjoying their last night in Bolivia. It was that night Julia had her first llama beef- which according to her was "quite okey" a.k.a "aika jees".

Our first morning in La Paz started early when we together with Siw jumped on a bus towards Lake Titicaca, which is the "highest located" lake in the world and the largest lake in South America, on the border of Bolivia and Peru. Siw had got us on a tourist bus - which is believed to be "safer, more comfortable and faster". I have to say that it was an interesting experience as I've never taken a tourist bus while traveling, and I still don't really understand the difference. The tourist bus is lot more expensive, more crowded in this case and in the end it's the same dangerous roads, so if the bus is going to drive off a cliff the beautiful curtains or WI-fi aren't gonna save the ones on it. Though Julia realized that the advantage with Wi-fi is that you might have the chance to say your farewells on Facebook before you crash into the bottom off a cliff, in case you have a smartphone...

Anyhow, the view from the bus was amazing as we descended down the Andes towards the small town of Copacabana at the shore of Lake Titicaca. Surrounded by snow-tops at an altitude of over 4000 the view was breath taking as the lake opened up below us. As our bus was late we just had a quick stop at Copacabana and continued one and a half hour by boat towards Isla del Sol (Island of the sun), where we would stay over the night.


Isla del Sol right in front of us

Isla del Sol, what can I say... The perfect place for a time out. Even though the whole island practically is a tourist attraction, you can't see or hear anyone. The island is quite big and is consists of several villages and communities and there are no roads or cars, only small paths to get you from one place to another. As Siw had been on the island before she knew the perfect place to take us to - the very top of the island, from where we could enjoy the sunset on one side of the island and the sunrise on the other side. Trembling up the hill is not very pleasant as you basically run on minimum oxygen being at an altitude of 4000m, so many tourist stay at the lower parts of the island, close to the harbor. Therefor it is quiet and peaceful on the top and the most living creatures you meet are donkeys, llamas or sheep.

Our plan on Isla del Sol was basically to relax and enjoy the scenery, and so we did. Having a beer as the sun went down, pizza and wine for dinner and a early wake up to a beautiful sunrise. What more can I say. It was a well earned time out. Last but not least, we had some spare time the next morning while waiting for the boat back to Copacabana and I just couldn't resist to take a swim in the lake. After all, the water is believed to be holy.

sunrise

The holy lake Titicaca, mountain tops and Isla de la Luna in the background. It was freezing, but awesome!!!

After chilling at Isla del Sol it was time to get our adrenalin flowing. Julia and I returned to La Paz, from where we the next day would leave on what we now would refer to the coolest ride of our lives. In other words, a ride down the Yungas road; the worlds most dangerous road a.k.a the death road or as they say her "Camino de la Muerte" on mountain bikes.

We went with a company called Gravity assisted mountain biking, which is said to be the best in Bolivia and I have to say I would agree to that. Gravity is run by Kiwi's, so the guides are native English speakers. As all extreme-sport guides also ours were a bit crazy, new their thing and had a great sense of humor. The continuous joking about us driving of the cliff or our brakes failing somehow made it easier to handle the millions of butterflies in our stomachs. Our guides were also filming and photographing our experience the whole time, so most of the pictures are thanks to them!

Before we began descending from an altitude of 4700m at La Cumbre, we followed the Bolivian traditions and honored the goddess Pachamama (Mother Earth) by giving her a few drops of 97% alcohol (pirtua). A few drops on the ground, a few drops on our bikes and one zip for ourselves. It is believed to bring good luck and bless us during our ride.

Trying to lean over the edge to see the ruins of a bus that had driven off the cliff a few years back - nobody survived

jeeeeeeeeeee!

Woohooooooooo!


Trying to fight the wind resistance!! And of course looking cool.

After coming down 22km on an asphalt road we reached our first checkpoint from where we got back in the van and drove 8km uphill to get to the actual death road. It is possible to bicycle the eight kilometers, but as there's almost no oxygen it wasn't recommended. Therefor our guides practically bribed us with granola bars and bananas to get back in the car. It wasn't an option not to if we wanted to have energy for the remaining 40km.

Again looking cool and doing what I shouldn't be doing, posing with one hand off the wheel. With Julia right behind me, looking cool as well!

The line is the road we'd just bicycled - here you can see where the road got it's name from.


Funfunfun heheee not looking down

The postcard-corner. I.e the most famous spot of the death road

Me looking at the views, again something I shouldn't be doing. Behind is our third guide Fernanda and our van

We made it!!! Sweaty and relieved!

A few hours and about 63km later we had descended from an altitude of 4700m to 1200m where we ended the ride, and the feeling was awesome!! Overall the experience was so much more awesome than we expected (as we really didn't have any idea what to expect) and both of us survived the whole ride without falling or driving off the edge. What comes to Gravity they made the experience what it was, providing us with mountain bikes worth over 2500 dollars, good clothing and equipment, professional instructions and guiding, and a shoulder to cry on if needed. At the end the guides also bought us all a cold beer, the very moment we got of our bikes all sweaty and feeling like jello. I have to say that luckily we also had a really nice group of 11 people, who all survived the ride and together made the experience a lot of fun.

After enjoying our beers we continued to our last part of the trip, the animal refugee La Senda Verde. Gravity is the only company who has the privilege to take their groups there, and it definitely was a great way to end the day. There we could have a shower, take a swim and enjoy a great buffet dinner, all included in the trip. Of course we also got to see some animals who are running free at the refugee, but keeping the stripper rule in mind - the animals can touch you but you can't touch them.

Who's in a cage now?

A pit stop next to La Senda Verde, a local Cholita and a lot of coca leaves. The area "Coroico" is one of the biggest coca-producers in Bolivia...

Late in the afternoon we headed back to La Paz, tired but happy. I don't know which one was more scary, driving the mountain bike down the death road or enjoying the road sitting in the car. At least while driving the bike you don't have time to look down over the edge, though the views from the car were amazing at the time of sunset.

Below is a link to a short video about I put together, about our day with Gravity. Due to a very slow internet connection I couldn't upload the video directly here so you can find it on vimeo. And excuse me for the bad quality, it's also because of the internet. Just click on the link and type in the password: wmdr (as in "Worlds Most Dangerous Road"). Enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/78020793
password: wmdr

After a whole day of adrenalin rushes and rocky mountain roads shaking your body at least I felt like jello, and I didn't have to make an effort to fall asleep that night. The morning after we enjoyed a good hostel breakfast and spent the day in the city scooping through dozens of handicraft shops, getting amazed and a bit creeped out by dried llama fetuses at the witches market (El mercado de las brujas), and ending the day by having dinner with our Norwegian friend Elise, who also has been volunteering at Corazon Grande. After a long but fun day we jumped on the last bus towards Cochabamba, woke up to the sunrise at the mountains and returned to our every day life here at the girls home. Felt like we'd been away for weeks.