Laughing kids, llama fetuses, and long dangerous roads

On October 18, we left Peru and headed east for Bolivia. After one of the easiest border crossings we´ve had yet, we arrived at Copacabana. This is not the Copa of Barry Manilow fame, and definitely not the hottest spot north of Havana, but a pretty little town at an altitude of 3800m, sitting on the shores of Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable lake in the world). Our first impressions of Bolivia were the laughing people, the vastness of the lake, and how cheap things were. Yippee, we´d arrived in the land of $4-5 accommodation and $2 meals. We spent a day taking in a ceremony whereby a priest blesses the automobiles of travellers passing through Copa, and a hike to the viewpoint to enjoy the beautiful sunset over the lake.

The next day, we were joined by Lizan (a Dutch woman who had crossed the border with us, and who became our travelling partner for the next 2 weeks) to take the boat to Isla del Sol. According to Incan legend, the Island of the Sun is the birthplace of the sun. Upon arriving at the north end of the island, we visited the sacred rock where the Inca creation legend began, and walked approximately 3 hours to the tranquil little town of Yumani at the south end where we spent the night. With the only forms of transport being llama and by foot, the island was very quiet and we spent the next morning catching up on our journals and enjoying the views across to the mountains of the Cordillera Real. In the afternoon, we played with some local kids who started by asking for candy, and ended up playing with us for hours - we tore ourselves away to head for our boat with the kids begging not for candy, but for Edwin to throw them in the air one more time - "Gringo, gringo, una mas, una mas".

Our next stop in Bolivia was La Paz, a huge city set in a canyon, at an altitude of 3660m. Although the city of Sucre still calls itself the constitutional capital, La Paz has unoficially become the "highest capital city in the world". And the hills! I don´t think there is a stretch of more than 20m in La Paz before you are huffing and puffing up and down the steep streets. The area where we were staying, near the Witches Market, seems to be a huge street market, with anything and everything for sale, from shriveled llama fetuses (for which we heard different prescriptions - general health, or to be used as a natural abortion inducer) to food to hardware to handicrafts. Each section of the street is devoted to selling only one product, so all the nut vendors are together, the stocking vendors are together, and yes, the llama fetuses and other magical potions are all together as well. Comparison shopping has never been easier!

On October 24th, we joined 12 other slightly crazy tourists to mountain bike down "The World´s Most Dangerous Road" with Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking. (Our parents will be proud that we actually chose the most expensive company to go with due to their excellent safety record and full suspension bikes). The road holds this dubious claim to fame for having more deaths per kilometer per year (roughly 100 deaths per year, including 3 cyclists so far in 2006). The road itself is narrow, rutted, winding, with precipitous cliffs on the side, but what makes it so dangerous is the transport trucks who seem to think that going full speed around blind corners is the best way to make up time on their routes. We arrived by bus at La Cumbre (elevation 4600m), and had a ceremonial drink of 96% alcohol, each of us pouring a little offering on the ground for Pachamama (Mother Earth). The first part of our ride was 22kms on pavement, descending 1000m in just over 45 minutes. After a safety talk by Anne (our guide was from Hazelton, BC, Canada), we began the next leg on the World´s Most Dangerous Road. The safest part of the road for us was actually the outside edge, which meant riding on the left, with a 300m drop to our left side. We had to practice dismounting on the right side, so that if a truck came flying around one of those blind corners, we could get off the bike quickly, and have it between us and the valley below. The rest of the ride was 45kms, a 2000m descent through waterfalls, mud, a river and lots of dust to Senda Verde where we were greeted with beer and our "I survived" t-shirts. There were only a couple times where we were surprised by trucks, and as long as we didn´t look over the edge (so as not to steer in the direction of our gaze) it was loads of fun.

We spent a night in the small town of Coroico near the bottom of our ride, in the lovely Esmeraldes Resort which had a pool, sauna, and the best hot showers we´d had in South America. The next day, we hopped in the Gravity Assisted van for the ride back up to La Paz. It´s hard to say which was scarier - riding down, or being a passenger on the way up! Fortunately for us, uphill traffic has the right of way, even when it meant that two transport trucks had to back up and into the small pull outs to make way for our van.

Location: Samaipata, Bolivia