Tuesday morning we woke at 6AM. we went to another hostel for breakfast at 7AM (it was across the city). the breakfast was the most amazing bolivian breakfast we have had (considering that mostly we just munch on fruit or what ever else we have lying around). they had hot coco, tea, coffee, bread, jam (apple=yum!), etc. we ate and then put on bike shorts and bike shirts. we got into a huge van with 10 other tourists, two guides and a driver. our bikes were stored on top of the van. we drove to la cumbre, which sits at 4.700m above sea level. from there we mounted the bikes in preparation to bike the ´world´s most dangerous road.´ it was chilly at la cumbre, but not that cold. we started the biking and pretty soon came upon the first of two government checkpoints. we went through this one, but sierra got a bloody nose, so that took a little while to stop. at this point we were biking on paved roadway, which was curvy and entirely downhill, so it was fun and i went super fast. i even passed a truck...which was such a rush. we had to pay a tax at the second checkpoint, which sucked. then the road went uphill for a little bit, which made my asthma act up because of the altitude. i also couldn´t get my bike into a lower gear, finally did and then couldn´t get it to change again.
after the uphill bit, we arrived at the turn-off for the dirt road, which was actually the ´dangerous´ one. it used to be the only road between coroico and la paz. that meant that trucks, buses, cars, and bikes all had to share it (this is not a two lane road....its a two way road, but its more like one lane with maybe passing room in some spots). now, there is a new paved road, so only bikes use this dangerous road. that takes most of the danger out of it (which i was pissed about). the road used to see at least 100 deaths a year because of the curves, the dirt and the entire thing is downhill....oh yeah, there is no guardrail and its on the side of mountains, will the jungle below (and by below i mean that when we started we couldn´t actually see that far down because of the fog and depth). at times my wheels were only about a foot from the edge. you have to ride on the edge side incase anything is coming up the mountain (that way they can see you and vice versa).
the first 1.5 hours were fun and i went pretty fast. it was kind of difficult because i kept feeling like i was going to fall off because i kept hitting rocks that would alter the direction of my bike. then we rested for a while and i slowed down, after almost falling in a waterfall. there were waterfalls along the way and i had no choice but to go through them. the last 1.5 hours went slower because my hands were so red and sore from having to use the brakes so much. also the rocks caused me to bounce and made it harder to hold on.
the sceenery was beautiful and the ride was really nice, but intense. the final 20 minutes were fun. we had to ride through two rivers (not deep, but i got really wet). then we had to go over a speed bump. they had warned us about it, but i didn´t realize i was at it until i was in the air above it. we finished the ride in yolosa, at 1.100m above sea level. the entire route covers about 80 km and took us 5 hours or so.
then the guides took us to a fancy hotel in coroico (this vacation destination near la paz). we showered with hot water and had a buffet lunch/dinner. the food was good and we were so low that i could eat like a human again. at higher altitudes its harder for me to eat a lot. after hanging out there for a while with our group, sierra and i went and found a cheap hostel in town. we went to bed super early because we were exhausted.
wednesday we woke up early and took a bus to a town about three km from coroico, from there we walked in the hot morning sun to the cascadas, three little waterfalls about 3 km from the little town. the road was dusty and narrow, so it was hard to breathe when cars passed. again, we had to cross the waterfalls which meant getting wet becuase the water crosses the road to go down the cliff on the other side. the waterfalls were nice, but not that worth it. we couldn´t find a bus back to coroico, it passed us in the other direction, so we walked the entire way back. we grabbed our bags (just our little backpacks, we left the big ones in la paz) and headed for the bus station. i got a coffee to go because i wanted to try the local coffee, which was good. we had to wait an hour at the bus station and i played cards with some guys (aussie, brit and kiwi), while sierra watched because she didn´t know the game.
then we got on a little bus (more like a van) to la paz. i had the window open and was reading when some little kid threw a water balloon at the van (they do it all over peru and bolivia...it happened today too). my book survived, my shirt was soaked as were my pants. luckily the passport and money were in a plastic bag in my money belt because that was soaked. the water actually felt good and made me ´cleaner´ than before. the bus ride sucked because i was so crammed in and uncomfortable. also, it got progressively colder as we got higher. i dried off pretty quickly though. at one point we were in a tunnel that was so long and dark that i could not see sierra next to me...not even an outline of her. it was sooo scary. it also rained most of the way back to la paz and was still raining when we arrived and had to find a micro (local bus) to the center.
we finally found one to the center, but the center was a distaster becuase the miners were striking. roads were blocked everywhere and there were firecrackers being set off. we bought tickets to sucre. then we went to the hostel where we did the bike tour. we got our free shirts and CDs with pictures from the trip...we still haven´t checked them out though. then we had dinner at a bolivian fast food place - hamburgers and fried chicken...there are a million of these places. the burgers were good and this was basically the first real food we had eaten all day, so we didn´t feel too guilty about the calories. then we went to our hostel, but had very little time left before our bus left. we changed (we were sooooo wet; some little girl on the street asked her mom why we were so wet, that was hilarious), grabbed our stuff and ran out the door. we jumped on a micro headed to the terminal and got there 6 minutes before our bus left.
the bus to sucre was really nice, esp. for bolivia, but it was even nice for argentina. the seats were too big and they gave us blankets, however, i didn´t sleep much.
No comments:
Post a Comment