1. I left Puno, Peru about a week ago and after a reasonably stressful border crossing (they raised the price of a visa the week before and I´d only brought correct change!) I arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia. I climbed the hill over the town to watch the magnificent sunset over Lake Titicaca and met Emma from Ireland. It was a pleasant surprise the next morning to find her on my boat to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) along with two Dutch guys, Paul and Jocham, with whom I talked for the really long boat ride. Lake Titicaca was almost smooth enough to water-ski on (which was on my mind since family vacation started the same day) but with a temperature just above freezing water sports haven´t really become popular yet. The four of us hiked the length of the island together and saw the Incan ruins on the island. Incan legend says that the first two Incas rose from the island at a sacred rock shaped like a puma so we all touched the rock for some positive energy. We then hiked to the south of the island where we ordered some pizzas, having been assured by the owner that they would be ready well before our boat left for the main-land at 4:00. When this turned out to be false we ended up eating our entire pizzas literally on the run down the impossibly steep Incan stairs down to the water. Paul even hurdled a donkey. That night we had a fun night on the town and woke up the next morning to see a unique Copacabana tradition. Every Sunday people pull their vehicles in front of the cathedral all decorated in flowers and ribbons and the priest blesses every surface of the vehicle to protect it against accidents. Anticipating an upcoming adventure we made sure to receive a little blessing ourselves...
2. That afternoon we arrived in La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. The city reminds me of Quito a bit since it´s in a valley surrounded by snow-capped peaks but the atmosphere is much different. The boys had actually come from La Paz to Copacabana for the weekend so they showed us around the witch´s market, some churches, and ended with a meal in an open market. Emma was a little turned off by the relative squalor of the market but at Paul and Jocham´s insistance I had a plate of maybe the most delicious food I´ve had on the trip. It was just like greasy sausage and some yucca but I´m probably going back for more after this post. That night we enjoyed our hostel´s nice bar/restaurant and headed out for a wild night. The next day we visited the Coca Museum which provided a history of the coca plant with lengthy but informative displays. Coca leaves (cocaine is produced from coca but coca leaves aren´t, or rather shouldn´t be, considered a drug) are chewed throughout the Andes to help deal with the altitude and the museum gave a really interesting history of the medicinal use of this plant along with its more modern drug applications. We explored the city a bit more and reserved our spot for part 3.
3. Before I left for home there was only one thing my mom told me I couldn´t do: visit the most dangerous road in the world in any capacity. Oops. After seeing plenty of tourists throughout my trip wearing the famous "I survived" shirts and talking with Paul and Jocham we decided we couldn´t really be in La Paz and miss out on such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We booked through Gravity Tours, the oldest, safest, and most respected mountain biking company and set off at 7:00 on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately Emma came down with a pre
tty bad bug so she had to stay in La Paz but the boys and I had a fantastic day. The bike ride starts at like, 4,000 meters where the lakes are frozen over in the morning and the snow-capped peaks are only a couple 100 meters above. We got all suited up and watched a herd of 100+ alpacas run across the road as Alistair, our guide and the founder of the dangerous road bike ride (10 years to the day, which was cool), gave us the first of many "Fear of God" speeches. We started off down the newer highway which still afforded us views of spectacularly steep and high mountains and a pretty perilous drop off the edge. Within an hour we´d dropped enough to shed some layers and hopped onto the "most dangerous road in the world." Thankfully a new, two-lane road was built a few years ago but for several decades this one-lane, dirt road with 600-meter cliffs plummeting from the very edge of the road was the only connection between La Paz and the rainforest. The new road has more or less absorbed all of the traffic from the dangerous one but the road is still used by a few mountain bike groups and the more than occasional truck or car. Our bike group had amazingly nice mountain bikes with 
great shocks and brakes and set out. Heading down the cliff is on the left but you also have to stay on the left side because the up-hill traffic has the right-of-way and they´re coming up on your right. So for about 60 km I was flying down this mountain road with a 600 meter fall about a foot to my left. For obvious reasons we had to dismount on the right side of the bike...Although the road is certainly deserving of its title (two people started crying in fear at the beginning of the ride and one woman saw the road and stayed in the bus) it was a really fun day and for the most part I never felt too out of control or in danger. We never saw any traffic besides our own mini-bus and Alistair´s 800+ trips down helped assuage our fears. The trip ended at 4.
tty bad bug so she had to stay in La Paz but the boys and I had a fantastic day. The bike ride starts at like, 4,000 meters where the lakes are frozen over in the morning and the snow-capped peaks are only a couple 100 meters above. We got all suited up and watched a herd of 100+ alpacas run across the road as Alistair, our guide and the founder of the dangerous road bike ride (10 years to the day, which was cool), gave us the first of many "Fear of God" speeches. We started off down the newer highway which still afforded us views of spectacularly steep and high mountains and a pretty perilous drop off the edge. Within an hour we´d dropped enough to shed some layers and hopped onto the "most dangerous road in the world." Thankfully a new, two-lane road was built a few years ago but for several decades this one-lane, dirt road with 600-meter cliffs plummeting from the very edge of the road was the only connection between La Paz and the rainforest. The new road has more or less absorbed all of the traffic from the dangerous one but the road is still used by a few mountain bike groups and the more than occasional truck or car. Our bike group had amazingly nice mountain bikes with 
great shocks and brakes and set out. Heading down the cliff is on the left but you also have to stay on the left side because the up-hill traffic has the right-of-way and they´re coming up on your right. So for about 60 km I was flying down this mountain road with a 600 meter fall about a foot to my left. For obvious reasons we had to dismount on the right side of the bike...Although the road is certainly deserving of its title (two people started crying in fear at the beginning of the ride and one woman saw the road and stayed in the bus) it was a really fun day and for the most part I never felt too out of control or in danger. We never saw any traffic besides our own mini-bus and Alistair´s 800+ trips down helped assuage our fears. The trip ended at 4. 4. After the exhilerating and exhausting (psychologically more than physically) ride we ended up in La Senda Verde, an animal refuge outside of Coroico, Bolivia. The refuge takes in animals abused in the Bolivian trade in animals and tries to rehabilitate them. Right now the refuge has about 15 monkeys, an ocelot, 2 coatis, dozens of parrots and macaws, tortoises, dogs, cats, a boa constrictor, a goat, a donkey, and various other bird species. It was amazing. They also have a few cabins so Paul, Jocham, and I decided to stay. We´ve spent the past two days and nights reading and drinking beer by the pool and having a ridiculously good time with the spider monkeys and coatis. All of the animals are completely vaccinated and several have been raised by humans since they were born so they will just jump on you from the trees for a ride or pull themselves up and take a nap in your lap. We had a lot of fun and really bonded through the past 6 days. Unfortunately the boys are continuing on to the rainforest from Coroico while I had to return to La Paz to head south. We all became really close traveling together and I´m excited to get together again in Amsterdam, the US, or a more exotic locale.
And thus concludes this post. Thanks for hanging in there, hopefully I´ll still have a bed at home after Mom reads this. I hope the summer´s going well, I have about 2 1/2 weeks before head home so you´ll be seeing or hearing from me soon!
Coming soon: an interview in Cochabamba and Potosí, a city with a lot of "mosts" and "-ests"
3 comments:
First of all, I'm glad you're having fun, but I am extremely mad at you for going on the bike ride down the most dangerous road in the world without me! I do recall a conversation before you left where we said on a later trip we would, together, take a trip and have that adventure together. (And as I recall I was the enthusiastic one in the conversation, but I guess I'll let it slide.) Second of all I hope you are enjoying my camera because those pictures look amazing. Much higher quality than your silly camera could have EVER produced! Haha. Love you and hope to hear from you soon!
The most dangerous road in the world? Omgosh, I'm soo impressed. My heart fell down a couple flights of stairs when I saw how ridiculously steep the road is in the picture. I would have died. Good brakes or not.
Awesome post - I can't wait to hear more. Extreme to the max. I think you should write all of your blogs in the This American Life style.
P.S. I saved all summer's episodes for you on my computer!
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