13th – 16th January

Last day in La Paz – Day 17

We set out to see more of the city starting with a walk round the indoor market where all the office workers were crammed into the numerous tiny food stalls (seating around 12), the portions of meat and rice were huge and all for under £1. From there we headed over the bridge of the main busy road and up the hill to a more affluent area called the Plaza Mririlla to look at the presidential office. We were also now getting to that stage in our travels where we were bumping into people whom we had met along the way – always good to see friendly faces.

Ready to say goodbye to la Paz we headed to the bus station only to enter into a mild panic when we discovered that our bus ‘Todo Tourismo’ left from a different address. Luckily for us it was just across the road with a much nicer office than the shabby bus station (made Pond street Sheffield seem organised) while another delay in departure gave us the chance to meet a couple of new travelling companions, Flo and Manu (from France but who live in Shepherds Bush). Finally we set off on the 12 hour overnight bus ride mainly on unpaved roads (so very bumpy and not much sleep) to our next destination.

Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats) – Day 18

Arriving at the Red Planet offices in Uyuni a city in the southwest of Bolivia, we met our group (Flo, Manu, Dave from South Africa, Ben from London + 2 random Canadians ….oh yes and Ash & Andy from the Inca Trail!) and our guide Carlos and set off in two 4×4 Toyatos to a train ‘grave yard’ (abandoned in the 1940s after the collapse of the mining industry in the area).

Next it was on our way to the Salar de Uyuni which at 10,500 sq m is the worlds largest salt flat and working land owned by the local villages where the workers dynamite holes to manually extract the salt for sale all over Bolivia. In order to add to this vital process, we mucked about having our pictures taken (fighting life sized dinosaurs and drinking from giant wine bottles) before driving to an area further out on the flats where the recent rain acted as a mirror reflecting the clouds and blurring where the horizon meets the sky.

With a two hour drive ahead of us and fed up with Bolivian radio we switched on Dave’s iPod and played 3 song dj (basically you get to pick 3 songs and pass it to the next person) with the boys secretly trying to play the best 3 songs. Finally arriving at Cluper K we checked into our hostel (which looked like a prison) for food and an early night.

Chiguana Desert / Desert of Siloli / Red Lagoon – Day 19

After the usual tour breakfast of ham and cheese rolls, we had a full day seeing more of the beautiful Bolivian landscapes. From huge rock formations to vast desert expanses and lagoons, there were plenty more picture opportunities. Our song dj had also now firmly evolved into who could find the cheesiest tracks…what’s not to love about listening to Bananarama’s ‘Venus’ in the desert?

After an al fresco lunch out of the back of the 4×4, we went to see Flamingos in the Red Lagoon. Ascending to over 5,000m (our highest yet) to see the steaming craters of the Sol de Mañana Geyser, we then headed back to our final hostel of the 3 day journey (and a 5 man dorm) in the middle of nowhere with electricity just for 2 hours in the evening. It also gave our driver time to fix his truck after we’d temporarily broken down on the way there – still there was always the Bangles to play if we’d have been stranded.

Next stop – Chile

10th – 12th January

Friday – Welcome to Bolivia

Leaving early (again) we were on our way to the Peru / Bolivia border on a bus that wasn’t that great but much better than what was to come later in the day. At the border we had our Peruvian exit visas stamped, changed our remaining Peruvian SOL to Bolivian Bolivianos (BOBs!) and walked across the border to get our new visas.

A short ride in the same coach it was to Copacabana (not of big nosed Barry Manilow fame) where the journey really began to get bad. Firstly we stopped for an hours lunch only to be told we had to be ready for next coach within 25 minutes so we had no time for food as we needed to grab our bags to put them on the new coach ourselves (what cheek!). When retrieving our bags the receipt we had was worthless as it became a free for all as the driver gave any bag to anyone. Then we joined a scrum to get our next bus ticket (everyone grumpy as no one had eaten) and were given seats 41 & 42 only to get on the packed bus to find out the seats in the bus only went up to 41! So it was with knowing smile the bus driver had a reluctant Jason ride shotgun on the ‘flip’ seat in the drivers cabin with no head rest, seat belt or any type of comfort – not that Charlie’s was much better, the only thing missing here was the chickens, maybe this will come later in the trip? Tired and hungry Jason just managed to get to sleep before the driver decided to put on the best South American pop music he could find to wake Jason up. At the next port, we all had to pile off the bus again so we could be loaded onto small barges – diesel fumes everywhere – and transported across the lake for 15 minutes before being reunited with our bus for the next 2 uncomfortable hours into La Paz.

Arriving into La Paz, you realise what a massive place it is you descend into the city from the hills that surround it. You also a feel that is it’s quite a poor country from the state of the old cars, half finished buildings and number of stray dogs roaming the streets so it was after this journey that we (J&C + Andy & Ash) agreed to have a big Friday night out…only for everyone to crash and burn before 10 as everyone was so tired esp with the altitude now at over 4,000m – poor marks all round.

Saturday – ‘All Dayer’

After a lie in bed to 9.30 we got up explored a little of the city and booked ourselves a nice little ‘gravity assisted’ bike ride the next day (sorry Nay….). Having learnt the lesson that we all seem unable to stay out late, the 4 of us agreed we would meet at 4pm for an afternoon ‘session’. This worked a treat as we found ourselves a bar (we’re ashamed to admit an English pub originally named ‘The English Pub’) just in time for a couple of drinks before happy hour kicked in and we got free shots.

Having finally found our ‘beer legs’ we had a few more drinks before ending up in a nice Mexican cafe, once again treated to some great food in South America.

Sunday – ‘Death Road’

Meeting at 7am we met our group at a coffee shop and piled on the mini-bus with bikes on top to drive out of town to The ‘World’s Most Dangerous Road’. Built in the 1930s by POW, the dirt road starts at 15,400 ft (4,700m) and drops 11,800 ft in 4 hours with 40 miles of downhill riding including blind bends, sheer cliff drops on the left hand side of the road and few guard / crash rails. At the instruction session we were told by our Kiwi instructor from gravity that we needed to ride – guess where – yes on the left next to the cliff edge to give us our best chance of seeing cars, taxis and trucks who still use the road coming round the blind bends – oh great, this was going to be fun…

After some final tears (why were these people even doing it?) the group of 14 of us set off quietly – one instructor leading the faster riders at the front and another at back for the slower riders – and we all made it safely to our first stop. 15 minutes into our second ride we had our first casualty as one of our group applied the front break too hard and went straight over the handlebars – luckily for her on a wider part of the road. So she had to get onto the support mini-bus that followed behind to pick up the injured and their bikes. Now 13 riders in less than one hour we continued down the road riding through the clouds and getting hotter and hotter as the temperature changed from freezing cold at altitude to tropical the further we descended.

We soon came to appreciate that we came with one of the best companies as we saw other groups careering down the road on shoddy mountain bikes in packs almost knocking each other off never mind anyone else. Passing through single track sections, under waterfalls and through small rivers which flowed off the edge to turn into more waterfalls we continued down the mountain stopping to admire the views / catch our breath / slow down / try not to get too cocky before reaching our destination.

Arriving at the bottom we were rewarded with a beer and an offer to go zip lining across the valley floor…just in case we hadn’t had enough excitement for one day. Of course we accepted so spent the next 30 minutes tied to the zip wire whizzing through the air several 100 metres above the forest floor. We finished up at an animal sanctuary where we had a chance to eat and shower before jumping in the mini bus and heading up the death road again. Spirits were high until as we ascended it started to get dark and the guys to the right of the mini-bus started nervously laughing as they couldn’t see any road only sheer drops (think the Italian Job) and one of the more nervous girls started to cry again! The Bolivian driver got us to the top safely though much to everyone’s relief and it was back to La Paz after an exhilarating day. Note to people back home – everything else from now on will be with both feet safely on the ground!