La Paz - Bolivia

The Place: La Paz in Bolivia is an amazing sight upon entering the city. With snow mountains in the background, thousands of block shaped face brick houses cover every bit of open space, climbing the steep hillsides.

Some features: It is evident that Bolivia is one of the poorest South American countries. Its centre is what attracts tourists with loads of tours on promotion and many curio shops selling handicrafts. Musicians are all about, with many music shops selling both traditional and modern musical instruments.

Though everything closes early at night and the streets become a little dodgy, Nic and I managed to find a cool place (Sol y Luna) which was a relaxed restaurant/pub that hosted live bands and had a great vibe. Went there again with some Argentinians after Nic left. Had a great time practicing my spanish since their English was almost non existent.

Went to the Coca museum, giving the low down on what the coca leaf is used for and how the cocaine is extracted from it. Cocaine is one of two alkaloids in the coca leaf. 328kgs create only 1kg of cocaine paste, a quarter of which is processed into cocaine as we know it. Chewing the coca leaf increases the capacity for oxygen intake and hence is great for high altitudes. It´s important to the Andeans for religion and for health and has been proved to make the workers more productive (especially for those who were without meals for the entire day).

Strange fact: Coca-cola contained cocaine from 1885 (when founded) to 1915 when it was finally banned. It still however uses the coca leaf in its ingredients.

'Death Road' - Bolivia

The Place: Between La Paz and Coroico in Bolivia lies 'the world's most dangerous road'. Starting on bikes in the snow peaked surroundings at an altitude of 4670m the route travels downwards for 63km to the lowest point of 1250m, 33km of which is labelled 'Camino de Muerte' (Death Road) due to the thin muddy roads on the edge of steep cliffs on which buses and trucks overtake one another.
Some features: Wrecks of bus accidents which happen regularly are not recovered due to the treacherous terrain.
The weather we got was cloudy and wet with low visibility which increased the danger.
The bike ride was the most fun I´ve ever had on a bike. We raced down on the muddy roads stopping every now and then to let a bus overtake or let the rest of the group catch up.
With mainly mud and not too many rocks our confidence grew and we started reaching really high speeds down the road. I had Nic trying to take me out from behind (so that one of us would get what we paid for ... and die).
Its crazy sometimes how close the big buses are to the edge and even crazier that they have spots to overtake one another.
Strange afterthought: Having survived the road at the bottom feeling lucky that I was on a bike and not in one of those buses I was reminded that there is only one way back - the 4hr bus ride back up!

Amazon - Bolivia

The Place: Met Nic in Rurrenabaque, north of La Paz (Bolivia). Here started an 89km trip to the Chalalan eco-lodge accessable only by the mighty river which took us about 7hrs there (up stream) and about 4hrs back.

Some features: Chalalan offered adventures including hikes through the jungle, night canoe trips to go Caiman (similar to crocodile) spotting, and canoe trips during the day.

In the jungle we saw many monkeys (squirrel, cappuchin, and black spider) and massive trees over 800 years old. Some lucky spots were; the screaming groups of black spider monkeys which are the largest primates, who from high in the canopies shook branches to scare us away; the coati, macaws (blue and yellow) and an eagle waiting above a troupe of squirrel monkeys.

The coati is like a raccoon and can travel in groups of 40. It kills snakes by surrounding it, covering it with leaves and branches to distract it while the leader pounces from a tree above.

Saw tarantulas in their natural habitat (huge).

In our night canoe trip we went up close to a caiman of about 3m long.

In our free time Nic and I played soccer with the locals on their dirt soccer field in the thick of the jungle.

Unfortunately no anacondas, nor pirahnas in this area of the amazon. Will save that for another trip!

Strange concotion´s: Spent an evening local style with the San Jose (an amazonian village nearby) locals, who played traditional music and fed us coca leaves and baby puma milk. Heh heh, its kinda like warm white amarula with a kick and no, no actual puma milk. Kicked my stomach and scored. Threw up that night.

La Frontera - Peru, Bolivia

The event: Crossing the border was a little more tricky than I expected. In my usual absent-minded happy-go-lucky way, I took a local taxi (in vez de Turistico) for a 3 hr trip from Puno to the border. Got my exit in Peru stamped, only to find in Bolivia the visa costs 300 Boliviano's and there are no banks close by - nada! So back in a taxi to Puno (3 hrs).

La Frontera: Next day returned to the border (local again) this time with the problem that now my passport had been stamped with yesterdays date! A bribe later got me my passport stamped after which I got into Bolivia (tho not without questions as to why my passport was stamped yest. aswell as today).

The trip: To La Paz was crazy. Stopped first in Copacabana where I stopped to take photos before catching the next bus to La Paz. Might have to return - really cool! The drive took us past Lake Titikaka again which from the Bolivian side looks more like the ocean.

Had to cross the lake on a boat . . . and so did the bus!! Heh heh what a sight.

Got to La Paz which is a massive crazy city (very poor) also with an amazing backdrop of the snow-peaked Andes.

From there went to Rurrenabaque which is where the Amazon adventure begins.

Strange observation: Couldn´t breathe well in La Paz due to the high altitude and it was freezing. 1 hr later couldn´t breathe well due to the humidity of the amazon and it´s boiling!