So the first few days we stopped off at Copacabana by Lake Titicaca the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. 3811 metres with snow capped mountains around as well. The whole town was geared up for tourists but no tourists were around. It was more like a weird little ghost town so we just spent the day sitting out on some sun chairs by the lake drinking some beers and reading some books. Then two random Irish guys showed up who recognized us from Ecuador and we stopped to chat to them for a while. We decided the following day we were going to take a boat out to Isla Del Sol island, trek across it, come back and get to La Paz the following day then. We were a bit bored of the town.
Funnily enough the boat out to Isla del Sol, 2.5 hrs worth was mainly Irish people on it. Had a good chat and got to the island with great views of the lake all around. Very flat lake, nice sunny day but the people, the locals we met just weren't that friendly. Not like what we are used to. And even though the money is nothing they all seem out to want to make money off the stupidest things! Like at three different sections of our walk there was a local there trying to charge us to get by. It was a three or four hour walk from the north to the south in which we mainly stuck with the Irish and a few Canadians. Had known this guy Aiden now for a few days and had done a bit of the usual stupid small talk where you find out where people are going and stuff. But whatever way the conversation went we discovered that we share first cousins. He's just on the other side of the family than me, and he had been to my house yrs ago and I'd probably visited him too. Am used to meeting Irish I know in Australia or Asia but a little random island in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia when you discover someone your kinda related to was quite random!!
That night we got back got the bus to La Paz and went to The Wild Rover an Irish hostel famous for its parties, Irish food, big warm duvets etc. Three beers in got me so drunk. probably the first time that little since I was 15 or something. But we were at over 3600 metres where all sorts of crazy stuff effects your body. You should see the state of some people who've flown in directly from sea level. Also found out later the beer which is a good beer was 7% and also larger than a pint for less than 2 euros so that helped explain it.
One of the days in La Paz I went to this place which claims to have the hottest chilli's in the world. So if I finish the Vindaloo dish I get a free tshirt. I love spicy food so had to do this challenge and wasn't too bad. Hottest thing I've ever had still is called an Issan salad in Thailand!
We ended up spending about 6 days in La Paz. I wasn't too impressed to be honest it was just the crowd we had and the hostels that were great. We left the Wild Rover and moved to Loki probably one of the best hostel chains in the world!! Might have talked a lot about these hostels already but they have everything. Absolutely everything. This one even had oxegen tanks for people who were feeling the altitude!!! We had a few nights out drinking. Nothing special except that it was so easy to get drunk. A lot of people we've met come to La Paz and stay for weeks or months. I honestly could not see the attraction at all. For the first few days in Bolivia I seemed to bump into someone I kind of knew nearly everyday. For months without seeing Irish people there were nearly a majority of us in every hostel. One night in a bar saw this girl I recognized from Uni. Turned out she was in loads of my photos from the last week of Uni and recognized loads of people I knew. Then another girl in my dorm went to school around the corner for me and lived where I surf. This kind of stuff kept happening until I was out in one shitty nightclub in La Paz that reminded me of the old version of the knights at home and I bump into about three people from Clare.
Since the middle of October there has been a group of about ten of us travelling some people parting for a few days and joining up again and also a few new members to the group as well so have had lots of people to do activities with. We got a group of 12 people to go cycle the death road. A lot of people I know have done this. Lonely Planet which I always recommend for everywhere but have found it useless for South America says how you should only go with this one company gravity and a lot of the other companies have dodgy equipment. This road is described as one of the worlds most dangerous roads cause of its high cliffs, tight turns, crazy drivers and mainly the amount of people killed on it each year. There is barely enough room for two cars to pass on it not to mind the amount of trucks and buses travelling from La Paz to the Amazon. It closed two yrs ago due to a new road opening and is now open only to cyclists. So you do need good safety equipment to cycle it. I shopped around to about 12 different places checking it all out and decided on one company. A few of the others were skeptical about it because of the Lonely Planet article saying not to trust other companies. Well later on when we were on the road we could see that the company Lonely Planet recommend that charges 720 Bolivianos had the worst equipment, just luminous vests, no proper clothes, shoddy saddles and bicycle helmets. We got the cheapest price of all of them at 420 and got the best gear. Proper waterproof and protective coats and pants that barely any other company gave. Vests, helmets that were like motorcycle helmets, proper knee pads, bikes worth $3500 USD before they were shipped and breakfast, lunch and two big decent snacks and water. Plus a guy to take our photos and videos. It was great. The bikes were double suspension with hydraulic breaks.
So we started off the day pretty early, great that we were all friends already and went up to 4600metres to start our cycle on a tarmac road. We had a good number of Dutch with us who claimed they would be no good cause they are used to flat roads and of course they went flying ahead. They were so fast. This wasn't the death road the first few km but I found it more scary cause I thought I should try keep up with them which I obviously failed to do!! We were told we were going at a max speed of 60 - 65 kmph at this section. We then reached the start of the death road. Gravel, very tight curves, getting warmer as we were going down and stripping off the layers. We were losing 1000metres every hour or so. By the end of it we had gone down something like 3700 metres from snow capped mountains in a moon like landscape where nothing grows, through pine forests, into jungle with banana trees and tropical weather to near the amazon. Very interesting change of scenery. The cycle on the death road was very interesting. Fast speeds, slowing down for corners one guide at the front, one behind, another for photos and two support vehicles. There was three minor accidents among our group! One girl fell at very start of death road and cut side of her face. Then one of the guys we came upon and he was halfway off the side of the mountain with his bike on top of him. Think he flipped over the handlebars. He got up laughing as if nothing happened. But looked quite scary from where we were. Then another guy did a slip over a rock in the middle of the road, not near the edge but still cut himself in a few places!! Id highly recommend Overdose if anyone else is going. I know a lot of people have done this already and have seen loads of photos but great guide, and great company.
So after this most of the group were heading to the jungle, amazon for a few days, Adrian was going ahead to Argentina cause he had to start his work visa by the 5th so myself and Mallory decided to head to Sucre and meet up with the rest of the group for the Salt Flats for the weekend. We bought our ticket for the night bus and it was only 70 Bolivianos which is $10 for a luxurious night bus that was like 12 hours. Even though Bolivia is cheap I was sure we were been scammed. Usually we were bargaining for buses in other countries but here I felt like I should have been offering him more than this just to get something comfortable. Like bargaining in the opposite way. Am so used to buses in Asia screwing you over, and in south America buses are better than first class planes. Just couldn't understand why a bus would be this price. So waited around for an hour and got on. Wasn't too bad. Full reclining seats and all that is practically a bed but just no toilet on board.
The main plan for the next few days was just to sit around relaxing and doing nothing. Dec 1st was our first day in Sucre and also the first day of summer and sure felt like it. The weather here changes usually with altitude not so much with season or distance from the equator. But definitely felt like a lovely summers day!! Weird when looking at all the pictures of the snow at home. Heading south from here the weather should keep getting warmer for a while, even though were going further from the equator we've been at altitude for so long now its been chilly enough at nights. Rain usually follows me everywhere I go but I must have some good luck charm lately with me cause I think I've only seen two days of rain since the start of October. Loving it. Also even though there was Xmas decorations as far back as October in Colombia we are seeing them more and more. Keep forgetting its nearly Xmas. And compared to Australia and NZ which seemed to do very little for Xmas with regards to decorations South America is definitely into it in places!!
Had a nice walk around Sucre and relaxed in the park reading and stuff. Very very much reminded me of Spain, blue skies, white buildings, hot, red roofs and pretty churches. Nothing to keep us there too long though to following day we moved onto Potosi the highest city in the world at over 4000 metres. Again was skeptical about the bus cause it was only 1.50 EUR for 4 hours. But of course it was fine again.
After that we are planning on moving on to Uyuni to do a salt flats tour and then head into the north of Chile and onto Argentina. Been looking forward to Argentina for so long now!!! Can't wait.
This is a map of the route with the list of hostels and transport and all that.
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