Firstly a bit of official news for you all. As you all probably know Jamie has been off the bike through injury for over three months now. Unfortunately after a series of trips to doctors and various medical facilities it is evident that the knee is not going to get fixed any time soon. Because of this Jamie has official retired from the cycle trip and will be putting on hold his plans to become a professional athlete. We met up with Jay in Tupiza before we left to say our goodbyes.
The following day we left Tupiza happy in the knowledge that we only has two days left cycling on mud and gravel roads in Bolivia, and potentially in the whole trip. Paved roads all the way to Colombia -woo hooo! Still, it was raining when we left making the mud roads incredibly difficult to ride, that plus a 20km climb out of town made two days seem a long time. The mud roads were also pretty slippery as we discovered when a truck came sliding down the hill towards us at an angle. We were getting ready to dive into the ditch by the road as it just slowly drifted past pointing in the wrong direction, the driver looking totally unbothered as if you are actually supposed to see where you are going out of the side window. To our amazement however early on the second day we came across a beautiful new paved road, not open to cars yet. We had to lug the bikes over big earth mound road blocks every now and then, but that was a small price to pay for the luxury of not riding through treacle.
That night, whilst setting up camp in a spot not as out of sight as we had hoped, we heard a voice calling out to us - "Hello boys, I´ve been stalking you since Ushuaia!". Now I know what you´re all thinking, but no, it wasn´t Shakira. It was Ben, another beardy English cyclist who set off from Ushuaia six weeks after us and has been following our blog and chasing us up South America. We stayed up til a very late 9pm (usually in bed by 7:30
that night exchanging stories about our trip.
Our aim the next day was to get to Potosí, the highest city in the world at around 4000m, but Blenk´s gut wookie was misbehaving again. Having some serious stomach pains the only thing for him to do was to get a bus, while myself and Ben cracked onwards on the bikes. Well, Blenk said it was serious, either that or we have discovered the highest slacker in the world (only joking, I heard there is one higher in the Himalyas somewhere
).
To describe that days ride as pretty tough would be a major understatement. We expected it to all be on pavement from that point but about 50km we were back on mud, all up hill. After 60km we had reached 4000m, only 40km to go and a climb to 4280m before a drop into town, but the day was getting on. We eventually made it to the 4280m pass where a truck driver ensured us it was only 18km to go and the hill we could see ahead was the last hill. Many, many ups and downs later it was getting dark and very cold, but being so close we decided to crack on. We had ridden really hard all day and the altitude was really starting to get to me, this was by far the highest we had cycled, we had to keep making rest stops towards the end so that I wouldn´t have to have a "Worlds Highest Vomit". The town eventually ended up being one of the magic South American towns that remain hidden until you are right on top of it. There really was no sign the the city even existed, not even a faint haze from the lights in the night sky until we turned a corner and were literally 100m from a mass of lights rolling down the hillside. Suddenly all my nausia and aches vanished and a great grin appeared on my face. In all the trip i´ve never been so please to get somewhere, there were a lot of high 5s, it was an emotional moment. Ben, who has run marathons described the day as the equivilant effort of one and a half to two marathons. Now I´m sure this was a massive heat of the moment overstatement but it made me feel better that I wasnt the only one totally destroyed by the day.
We had a comedy "drunken local" incident back with Blenk in a bar the following night when a guy out of his face kept saying "andeegib" repeatedly to us. We had no idea what he was getting at until his mate explained that the three of us beardy gringos looked like the Bee Gees. I think Andy Gibb must be the lesser known forth brother.
After a days rest we set off again for La Paz, with Blenka back in the team. Five hard days, and a few passes, one to a record 4320m and we arrived at the edge of the Worlds Highest Capital City. Riding to the city we passed through El Alto, kind of a suburb of La Paz, but has now become about as big as the city itself, probaby because it is far more sensibly located on the flat altiplano at 4000m. Despite hundreds of kilometers of this flat land someone clever decided the best place for La Paz was in a steep bowled valley, in the middle of all the flat land. The ridiculous location does make La Paz quite a spectaular sight however. Standing on the edge of the bowl you can see right across the cite 500m below, and then of course we got to drop down into town on the bikes, which was quite a lot of fun. We managed to find an excellent hostel "Adventure Brew" which has its own micro brewery - the worlds highest no less, surprise surprise.
First priority for Blenk in La Paz was to see a doctor. Quite excitingly (im sure thats the way he described it) it turns out he had the Giardia parasite, less commonly known as "Beaver Fever" as it can be caught from swimming in lakes made by infected beavers ( I swear I didnt make this up! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia ). I personally think the hilarity of Blenka having an illness called Beaver Fever was worth all the suffering, he may think differently. Anyway, after the trip to the medical clinic he´s all sorted now, and leant his lesson to avoid dirty beavers in the future.
In La Paz there was one thing we had been looking forward to. This was cyclng the Yungas road from La Paz to Coroico, otherwise known as "The Worlds Most Dangerous Road". This road is a narrow dirt track running along the side of a mountain from 4200m high down to around 1300m with a sheer drop of up to 600m on one side, and of course, no barrier. The road is only wide enough for one vehicle in places, and until about three months ago was the major road out of La Paz to the North (there is now a new seperate paved road to take the traffic, maybe it should now be The Road Formally Known As The Worlds Most Dangerous Road). Everthing used this road, buses, trucks, and one went off the edge on average once every two weeks. So what do you do when a road has claimed countless lives over the years? Well in Bolivia you make it into a tourist attraction and send hapless gringos flying down it on mountain bikes, of course. So this is what we did, and it was brilliant. We had to miss a part at the top because of heavy snow (which caused a rock fall on the road below so our support bus had top be left behind!, and then came the safety talk in which it was pointed out that decending traffic (including us) had to be on the side of the drop (so truck drivers can lean out the window to make sure they dont go over the edge) and that the road had claimed a few cyclists in the last few months, perfect. Its hard to explain the feeling of cycling down a dirt track with a 600m drop two foot away from you, exhilerating is probably the best word I can find! As the slogan of our tour company states "Going Down´s Never Been Better". Highly recommended for anyone visiting to La Paz - there are some photos in our gallery (more to come), for the full set from the day you can go to http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/
GravityBolivia/March2007/20070331 (password is "photos".
Back at the hostel that night was a big party for the hostels first birthday. I dont need to say too much about this, except beer + rum + sangria + high altitude = dancing like a fool + air guitar + vomit . The photos will tell the story.
The other major highlight from La Paz was going to see Cholita Wrestling. Think WWF style fighting (and I dont mean pandas) between indigenous women in traditional get up - pig tails, bowler hats, big skirts etc, and men in tights and Nacho Libre style masks. This was probbaly one of the more hilarious things I´ve seen in my life. By the end most of the fighting was done out of the ring and the crowd were throwing whatever they could get their hands on at the baddie of the fight - plastic bottles, fruit, chicken bones. At one point one of the wrestlers was thrown over the barrier into Blenks lap. I think Blenks highlight of the night though was when the popcorn lady said he looked like a sexy mountaineer.
We both really loved La Paz, it was a great break after some really tough riding, but all good things must come to an end. Peru is calling...
THINGS WEVE BEEN SINGING:
BEAVER in the morning, BEAVER all through the night...
Night Beaver, night beaveeer...
Dreaaaam Beaver, I believe we can make it throught the niiiiiight...
The following day we left Tupiza happy in the knowledge that we only has two days left cycling on mud and gravel roads in Bolivia, and potentially in the whole trip. Paved roads all the way to Colombia -woo hooo! Still, it was raining when we left making the mud roads incredibly difficult to ride, that plus a 20km climb out of town made two days seem a long time. The mud roads were also pretty slippery as we discovered when a truck came sliding down the hill towards us at an angle. We were getting ready to dive into the ditch by the road as it just slowly drifted past pointing in the wrong direction, the driver looking totally unbothered as if you are actually supposed to see where you are going out of the side window. To our amazement however early on the second day we came across a beautiful new paved road, not open to cars yet. We had to lug the bikes over big earth mound road blocks every now and then, but that was a small price to pay for the luxury of not riding through treacle.
That night, whilst setting up camp in a spot not as out of sight as we had hoped, we heard a voice calling out to us - "Hello boys, I´ve been stalking you since Ushuaia!". Now I know what you´re all thinking, but no, it wasn´t Shakira. It was Ben, another beardy English cyclist who set off from Ushuaia six weeks after us and has been following our blog and chasing us up South America. We stayed up til a very late 9pm (usually in bed by 7:30
that night exchanging stories about our trip.Our aim the next day was to get to Potosí, the highest city in the world at around 4000m, but Blenk´s gut wookie was misbehaving again. Having some serious stomach pains the only thing for him to do was to get a bus, while myself and Ben cracked onwards on the bikes. Well, Blenk said it was serious, either that or we have discovered the highest slacker in the world (only joking, I heard there is one higher in the Himalyas somewhere
).To describe that days ride as pretty tough would be a major understatement. We expected it to all be on pavement from that point but about 50km we were back on mud, all up hill. After 60km we had reached 4000m, only 40km to go and a climb to 4280m before a drop into town, but the day was getting on. We eventually made it to the 4280m pass where a truck driver ensured us it was only 18km to go and the hill we could see ahead was the last hill. Many, many ups and downs later it was getting dark and very cold, but being so close we decided to crack on. We had ridden really hard all day and the altitude was really starting to get to me, this was by far the highest we had cycled, we had to keep making rest stops towards the end so that I wouldn´t have to have a "Worlds Highest Vomit". The town eventually ended up being one of the magic South American towns that remain hidden until you are right on top of it. There really was no sign the the city even existed, not even a faint haze from the lights in the night sky until we turned a corner and were literally 100m from a mass of lights rolling down the hillside. Suddenly all my nausia and aches vanished and a great grin appeared on my face. In all the trip i´ve never been so please to get somewhere, there were a lot of high 5s, it was an emotional moment. Ben, who has run marathons described the day as the equivilant effort of one and a half to two marathons. Now I´m sure this was a massive heat of the moment overstatement but it made me feel better that I wasnt the only one totally destroyed by the day.
We had a comedy "drunken local" incident back with Blenk in a bar the following night when a guy out of his face kept saying "andeegib" repeatedly to us. We had no idea what he was getting at until his mate explained that the three of us beardy gringos looked like the Bee Gees. I think Andy Gibb must be the lesser known forth brother.
After a days rest we set off again for La Paz, with Blenka back in the team. Five hard days, and a few passes, one to a record 4320m and we arrived at the edge of the Worlds Highest Capital City. Riding to the city we passed through El Alto, kind of a suburb of La Paz, but has now become about as big as the city itself, probaby because it is far more sensibly located on the flat altiplano at 4000m. Despite hundreds of kilometers of this flat land someone clever decided the best place for La Paz was in a steep bowled valley, in the middle of all the flat land. The ridiculous location does make La Paz quite a spectaular sight however. Standing on the edge of the bowl you can see right across the cite 500m below, and then of course we got to drop down into town on the bikes, which was quite a lot of fun. We managed to find an excellent hostel "Adventure Brew" which has its own micro brewery - the worlds highest no less, surprise surprise.
First priority for Blenk in La Paz was to see a doctor. Quite excitingly (im sure thats the way he described it) it turns out he had the Giardia parasite, less commonly known as "Beaver Fever" as it can be caught from swimming in lakes made by infected beavers ( I swear I didnt make this up! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia ). I personally think the hilarity of Blenka having an illness called Beaver Fever was worth all the suffering, he may think differently. Anyway, after the trip to the medical clinic he´s all sorted now, and leant his lesson to avoid dirty beavers in the future.
In La Paz there was one thing we had been looking forward to. This was cyclng the Yungas road from La Paz to Coroico, otherwise known as "The Worlds Most Dangerous Road". This road is a narrow dirt track running along the side of a mountain from 4200m high down to around 1300m with a sheer drop of up to 600m on one side, and of course, no barrier. The road is only wide enough for one vehicle in places, and until about three months ago was the major road out of La Paz to the North (there is now a new seperate paved road to take the traffic, maybe it should now be The Road Formally Known As The Worlds Most Dangerous Road). Everthing used this road, buses, trucks, and one went off the edge on average once every two weeks. So what do you do when a road has claimed countless lives over the years? Well in Bolivia you make it into a tourist attraction and send hapless gringos flying down it on mountain bikes, of course. So this is what we did, and it was brilliant. We had to miss a part at the top because of heavy snow (which caused a rock fall on the road below so our support bus had top be left behind!
, and then came the safety talk in which it was pointed out that decending traffic (including us) had to be on the side of the drop (so truck drivers can lean out the window to make sure they dont go over the edge) and that the road had claimed a few cyclists in the last few months, perfect. Its hard to explain the feeling of cycling down a dirt track with a 600m drop two foot away from you, exhilerating is probably the best word I can find! As the slogan of our tour company states "Going Down´s Never Been Better". Highly recommended for anyone visiting to La Paz - there are some photos in our gallery (more to come), for the full set from the day you can go to http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/GravityBolivia/March2007/20070331 (password is "photos"
. Back at the hostel that night was a big party for the hostels first birthday. I dont need to say too much about this, except beer + rum + sangria + high altitude = dancing like a fool + air guitar + vomit . The photos will tell the story.
The other major highlight from La Paz was going to see Cholita Wrestling. Think WWF style fighting (and I dont mean pandas) between indigenous women in traditional get up - pig tails, bowler hats, big skirts etc, and men in tights and Nacho Libre style masks. This was probbaly one of the more hilarious things I´ve seen in my life. By the end most of the fighting was done out of the ring and the crowd were throwing whatever they could get their hands on at the baddie of the fight - plastic bottles, fruit, chicken bones. At one point one of the wrestlers was thrown over the barrier into Blenks lap. I think Blenks highlight of the night though was when the popcorn lady said he looked like a sexy mountaineer.
We both really loved La Paz, it was a great break after some really tough riding, but all good things must come to an end. Peru is calling...
THINGS WEVE BEEN SINGING:
BEAVER in the morning, BEAVER all through the night...
Night Beaver, night beaveeer...
Dreaaaam Beaver, I believe we can make it throught the niiiiiight...
