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Living at 2530m for the past few months I wasn't expecting La Paz to be a struggle but it was. Deep joy the gunk coming out of my nose everytime I blew it changed from blood to green mucus. Never let it be said I don't share the whole travel experience with you!
As a city it was lively and a lot of fun. An essential part is apparently the Mercado de Hechiceria. If dried llama foetuses are your thing then its a must. Had a couple of trips out to Tiwanaku for my bit of culture then Coroico for a spot of adrenalin or what might be considered a moment of madness. The Tiwanaku site was impressive. Founded some 3m years ago it was home once to some 50k people. Equally impressive was the drive out there on a micro. Bolivians would win hands down the Guiness Book of Records for the number of people you can fit into a micro at any one time. The trick is to try and get the front seat and then once your in it guard it with your life and never vacate it even if you are busting for the loo. Mind you if you have seen the state of Bolivian loo's - which I seem to have seen a fair few of - you would try and avoid going in any event.
Coroico was an experience. It is officially known as the world's most dangerous road given there are vertical drops of over 1000m off the actual road and you descend 3500m over a distance of just 64km. Apparently ever corner tells a story of a lorry, car, micro, etc., plunging over the edge so god knows whose bright idea it was to let you cycle down it. I must to being a little bit anxious before we set off but once you got to grips with the bicycle and kept up a steady pace it was fun. Mind you I tried to avoid looking over the edge too much. I am not sure I could claim to have officially completed it though as 20 yards from the end I passed out and then when I came to, I threw up everywhere. Parasites you just got to love them!
After so much excitement I headed north to Copacabana for a bit of r and r on Lago Titicaca. Despite seeing it before you can't but fail to be impressed with it. How cool to think I have seen the largest, high altitude body of water in the world not once but twice. It is right up there on my all time faveourite destinations. After yet another bone jangling ride on a micro I found a hostal then headed down to the lake shore for a beer. There were bands playing and people dancing and at first I thought it was just some random fiesta. It then turned out to be a sort of unification process between Peru and Bolivia and El Presidente was there. I headed down to where all the speech's were taking place and given the height of your average Bolivian I was able to get a pretty good view of the stage. The speech's were desperately dull - one of the Peruvians even took a call on this mobile - and the crowd were getting very restless. People then started turning around, pointing up to the sky and laughing. Heading straight for the stage was some random paraglider. The microphones then packed up and a storm whipped in off the lake from no-where so everyone scarpered including the politicians. Just by chance standing there right in front of me was Evo. How cool to think I had only been in Bolivia 4 days and I get to see the President. After doing press interviews the weather broke, the band started up again and he then proceeded to dance through the streets of Copacabana. It was incredible. You can't somehow imagine Gordon Brown strutting his stuff down Whitehall!
Headed out of Copacabana to Yampupata which took you around the northern eastern part of the lake. It was like stepping back in time. The walk itself was about 18km and it took you through tiny little villages right on the lake shore. Met some great people along the way and ended up walking with a local woman for a couple of hours who was heading home after seeing her children. Despite living in a beautiful village right on the lake she hated it. She thought it was boring and hated fish so I guess everyone's idea of paradise is not the same! After I left her I managed to find a guy to take me across to one of the islands. After a bit of haggling managed to agree on a price and he took me to the Isla del Sol then I hopped on another boat back to Copacabana.
I wanted to go north next to the mountains. I hate being told I can't do something and practically everyone I asked said I couldn't get to Sorata without first going back to La Paz. Eventually I found someone who told me I could do it if I didn't mind changing buses. They dropped me in a one horse town known as Huarani where I had to wait for another bus. It all seemed relatively easy and I found out where I had to wait for the next bus. The only problem was - much to everyone's amusement - I couldn't get a micro to stop for me. In the end a guy took pity on me and flagged one down for me. You know when you look at something and you think how the bloody hell am I going to do this well this is exactly the thought I had trying to get onto the bus. It was full to capacity and I only just managed to squeeze myself on. Wedged into the stair well I then spent the next 3 hours standing up. For only 77p though it was a bargain and everyone was very friendly.
Sorata was a lovely village right up in the mountains. Not the most lively of places particularly as they have no electricity during the day but it was beautiful. Managed to find a guide and the next day headed out on a tramp. I am not sure my Spanish is improving quite as much as I think it is because I understood it was a 4 hour tramp. What I failed to understand was that it was 4 hours up and 4 hours down over a total of 30km up to an altitude of 4,200m. It was a bit of a struggle to say the least and I felt like a right whimp because all the kids taking their herds of goats, sheep, cows up to pasture seemed to sprint up the mountain without any difficulty whatsoever. I guess I am not as young as I used to be, boo hoo!
Thank god that all I had to do the next day was to sit on a bus. Headed south to Oruro. The guide book was very dismissive and despite my second bout of stomach problems I loved it. It had 2 lovely leafy plaza's where you could sit in the shade (in close proximity to a loo) and just chill. It had a great night market and Bolivians have discovered the perfect way of selling portable DVD players to men - just show a porno film. It certainly attracted a sizeable crowd!
Once the pills had kicked in I took the train south to Uyuni. It was an interesting journey. Pretty depressing initially because it took you through a rubbish tip. Bolivians don't seem to have land fill sites and just take their rubblish to the nearest spot of open ground and just dump it so it was pretty grim. Once you left the town though the scenery changed dramatically and there were these amazing mountains, lakes, with huge flocks of birds. Bloody marvelous! It was slighty surreal though watching 'Miracle on 34th Street' with Dickie Attenborough dubbed into Spanish on the trains video sytem.
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