Rocky canyon

Flamingos in the mirror!

Laguna Verde

Friends at Laguna Verde

Geyser

Laguna Colorado

Laguna Colorado

Having a sit down at Laguna Colorado

Rock forest

Climbing the rock forest!

Driving through the desert

Flamingos

Smoking volcano

Deserted Laguna

Sunrise over Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni

Our drivers were amazing, driving for up to eight hours each day, through sometimes featureless landscape, without getting lost.  They didn´t even get angry when we asked them to drive for an extra three hours on the first day, although they got their own back by serving us dinner at almost midnight following a long period of strange hammering sounds in the kitchen!  They even kept us moving on the day of the Bolivian general election, when no-one was meant to travel at all.  We did have to get up really early and drive off-road over a railway to avoid the police check points!

The Salar de Uyuni was formed when Lago Ballivián dried up 40,000 years ago and is now the largest salt flats in the world at 12,000 km².  It is estimated to contain ten billion tons of salt, of which 25,000 are extracted each year.  None of this is exported though- which doesn´t surprise me as I have seen first hand how much salt they use in all their food!  Apart from providing Bolivians with all their salt needs it also provides excellent opportunities for funny photos:

Eating out of the palm of my hand

Hitting the bottle

Walking on water

Left hanging

Under the thumb

Crushed

I´m gonna drop it

Balancing act

We all walk on water

Jump, jump, jump around

• Start point: La Paz (4650m)
• End point: Yungas (1100m)
• Vertical drop: 3550m
• Distance travelled: 67km
• Time taken: 5 hours
• Number of deaths per year: 200 – 300
• Total number of cyclist deaths: 30

The ride

For the first 35km it was along a tarmac road. It was smooth, wide, and with little traffic – it was great I could go really fast!

The less dangerous half

The remaining 32km were along the stretch of road known as “the worlds most dangerous road” so called because of the large number of deaths that occured on the road every year. A steep, twisty, dirt/gravel road with a vertical drop and no guard rail and at times hardly wide enough for one car. It is crazy to think that up until 3 years ago this was the main road from La Paz to Coroico, handling two way traffic. It is easy to see why so many deaths occurred. Fortunately a new road has opened on the other side of the valley now, which is much safer. We still cycled down the old “dangerous” road, but it meant we didn´t have to worry about oncoming traffic, just about not falling off the cliff!

The death road

The riders

Me: Looking very cool
Rach: Not looking cool at all, or even very comfortable!
Also: Malcom – an experienced dirt track motorbiker from Australia, and George & Benjamin – two Austrians with a hobby of mountain biking in the Alps.

Looking good!

So not cool!

The team

uh-oh no bikes!

So our group dynamics were pretty much like this: Our guide and the three experienced guys flew down full pelt at the front, with me wanting to keep up with them, but not being quite brave enough, while Rach plodded along several minutes behind! I think Rach may have got confused by our safety briefing on how to brake safely, as she seemed to keep her brakes on all the time! She said afterwards that she realised downhill mountain biking wasn´t for her when she saw me in front of her pedalling as fast as I could, then realised that she had both brakes on!

The result

It was a brilliant and exciting day and when we were brave enough to look up the scenery was great. We both made it safely to the bottom, so can count ourselves as death road survivors and even got a T-shirt to prove it!

The view

Rach on her own again!

Wheelies!

Danger in the Pampas!

Time for the jungle. Booked ourselves a flight to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon basin of Bolivia. Arrived at the airport and watched the lackadaisical staff throw our bags around in the back of a small twin propellor plane. Then we heard the news, it had started to rain in Rurrenabaque and since the runway was nothing more than a bit of grass, that was it, flight cancelled. We were transferred to a flight two days later, but two days later it was still raining and the flight was cancelled before we even got to the airport.

This was the Amazon, maybe it was going to rain for months. Opted for a jeep instead. Luxury – we had the whole back seat to ourselves. Rach got to lie down and sleep while I got crammed into the corner, sitting on the wheel arch, banging my head on the roof every time we went over a bump (about 10 times a minute). 15 hours overnight, a single driver, a narrow unpaved track, cliff one side, vertical drop the other, having to reverse every time a lorry came the other way – all of this for just slightly more than the cost of the 45 minute flight – bargain! I am amazed we made it alive, but after only a flat battery and one puncture we arrived in Rurrenabaque. It was still raining, why did we want to go to the jungle again?!

This wasn´t to be the end of our transport fiasco. On the way back from the jungle lodge our jeep got a puncture. We all piled out the jeep while some makeshift tools were employed to fit the spare. A few minutes after we set off again we saw a piece of metal bounce off behind the jeep, and suddenly we were careering all over the road. We were both convinced the jeep was going to roll, I thought the wheel had fallen off but it was just another fast puncture!  You have to love Bolivian roads!

Our sad looking jeep

Since we now had no spare we deserted the jeep at the side of the road and hitched a lift in the back of a huge lorry for the last 30km back to Rurrenabaque. All fun and games for the first couple of minutes, until I almost broke my bottom going over a big bump, and had to squat for the rest of the journey. My thighs were exhausted by the time we arrived.

Rurrenabaque is the base for tours into the jungle and also the pampas wetlands. Most people choose one or the other but after our ordeal of getting here we decided to make the most of our stay and do both. Being in the jungle listening to the sounds of wildlife was amazing. We went for early morning walks where we spotted monkeys, pigs, coati (racoon type animals) and lots of spiders including a tarantula. One afternoon we took a canoe onto the lake where we spotted numerous birds, and caiman, another was spent fishing for piranhas which were cooked up for lunch the next day. Our jungle cabin had wire mesh for walls so it felt like we were sleeping right in the jungle. One afternoon during our siesta we were lucky enough to observe a group of monkeys playing and jumping in the trees right outside the room.

Jungle lodge

Monkey business

Monkeying around

Squirrel monkey

In the pampas we took a boat slowly down the river where we saw hundreds of alligators, black caiman, turtles, capybara (massive water rodents) and occasional glimpses of pink river dolphins. There was so much wildlife, so easy to spot, I wondered if the whole thing was a setup with models and robots! After dark we headed back on the river to look at the alligators eyes which reflect red in the dark, but the real highlight was seeing hundreds of fireflies twinkling like christmas lights in the trees.

Bird grooming a capybara

Blurry toucan from afar

Turtles

Inflight

Eagle

Alligator

Tiger bird

Birds of paradise

up close and personal

Well we don´t seem to be able to get a straight answer – the Peru section of our lonely planet says that it is, while the Bolivia section says that it isn´t, but at 3920m above sea level it is definitely a contender for the Guinness book of world records, and probably only Norris McWerter can know for sure if it is number one.

A couple we met in Ecuador had recommended a hostel in the small village of Copacabana, on the Bolivian shores.  It was overlooking the lake and we had been looking forward to staying there ever since, so imagine our disappointment when we tried to book three days ahead only to find it was full.  Fortunately this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as they had availability in their sister hostel, where for only a little extra, we managed to get a two-story eco-cabin with a floor to ceiling stain-glass window looking out across Lake Titicaca.  After over three months of travelling we had been starting to miss some home comforts, so we took full advantage of the cabins facilities to enjoy a warming home cooked pasta dinner and a bottle of red wine, with a backdrop of the sunset over Lake Titicaca. 

Room with a view (and a cracked window!)

Lake Titicaca

View at sunset, Copacabana

Sunset over Lake Titicaca

The view from our room was all very well, but to really appreciate the lake we thought we should get out onto it.  Before arriving in Bolivia we had visited the Islas Flotantes on the Peruvian side of the lake.  These floating islands made of layers of buoyant totora reeds have been inhabited by Uros people for several centuries, after they fled there to avoid invasion by the Incas.  They are shockingly commercialised now – of the two islands we went to, one consisted only of a restaurant and gift shop!  But it was still interesting seeing the Uros unique way of life and walking on the spongy ground trying not to sink. 

Floating Islands

Family house, Floating Islands

Floating Islands

Reed boat, Floating Islands

Rach relaxing on the Floating Islands

Much more beautiful was the Isla del Sol in Bolivia.  The Incas believe the sun was born here, and as we trekked for four hours across the island there certainly was a lot of it!  To really appreciate the views of the lake and the sun we stayed the night on the island so that we could watch the sunset and the sunrise.  It was a close call with the sunrise though, since we had no idea what time it would happen, we randomly set our alarm for 5.15am and after a couple of snoozes we had to run up the hill to make it in time!

Isla del Sol

Inca ruins, Isla del Sol

Rob enjoying the view, Isla del Sol

The long and winding road, Isla del Sol

Isla del Sol

Sun going down on the Isla del Sol

Just made the sun rise, Isla del Sol

Mystical sun rise, Isla del Sol