The Road

The Inter-American Development Bank - no idea what it is, but it sounds official - has dubbed the road from La Paz to Coroico "The most dangerous road in the world". Nonsense of course, the most dangerous road in the world is any road where my friend Marco decides to make his driving lessons comeback again, but I was still intrigued.

The road climbs up first from La Paz to a cloudy 4700m and then plunges 60km into the "Yungas" to Coroico´s subtropical 1700m. The first third is nicely paved, but the rest is a sandy- rocky-dusty-winding road of about 10cm wide, dropping down to precipices too deep to hold your breath. At strategic positions there are "traffic wardens" waving big green and red plastic bags. No idea what they are for ... At less strategic locations you can see crosses and monuments for the fallen ...

So ... biking time ! A crack team was assembled to go down. Two develish chicas from Eire & Inglaterra with their talkative sidekick. They comprised the braver red team, who took the cheap tour on bikes from Burkina Faso. The yellow team, team "we-like-to-die-please", consisted of two strapping South African lads, the giant Clive and sneaky ol´ me.
To make sure at least half of us made it to Coroico we had our guide "photo stop" José, the cheap mute tour guide from Burkina Faso, and the driver with the "bezemwagen" to pick up the pieces and hand out bananas.

The paved section was phenomenal. Our mountain bikes weren´t designed for speed, which was a pity, but it was still pretty fast. The trick was finding the best aerodynamic position (for me, butt first) and then just let go. The wet corners were a bit tricky but we all made it to the drugs control police stop.
Then the real thing started. My mountain biking buddies know the descends in the Ardennes (btw, Sander and Marco: get your asses over here right away and do this !). This was just like the ones there, only make it 3 hours long, add 500 meter drops at the side and some upcoming traffic. It was exhilirating!

I have been told afterwards that the views were spectacular (red team ...), but I only saw the road, at least when the dust or fumes from passing buses didn´t obscure it ... we went down like a yellow streak of lightning. Swerving through the turns, never knowing what lay behind the next corner. It´s really a miracle that no one fell and hurt him/herself badly. José got us through in one piece and took about 30000 pictures of us on the way (and two movies while riding - I´ll try to put them somewhere for you to see later; they´re awesome).

And where did it end ? In the lovely town of Coroico after a well-earned shower with shampoo for everyone ... and a late lunch at the poolside. The group was great fun; one of the best days of my travels here :-D

Now, to show my mum that I am not only here to get myself killed, I stayed in Coroico for a few days to load up a bit again ... in 8-euro-a-night luxury :-) This is my hotel room:

And this is the view when I take three steps out of my hotel room door:

And this is where I take my buffet breakfast. And these are the three Argentinian girls I met this morning during breakfast. They wanted to be on the Internet so badly, I promised to put them on the blog.

Happy New Year !!

La Paz - Impressions

La Paz: Ciudad de Las Aventuras

El Mercado de Bolivia

Señor Hans used to be known for disliking markets. Then again, Señor Hans used to be known for disliking French people, until he met some really nice ones. Downtown La Paz is one big sprawling market. And you know what ? Señor Hans se gusta ! Mucho :-)
Almost anything you can think of can be bought on El Mercado. That is, if you can find it. Per well-established developing nation custom the same kind of stalls (and shops) are all put together in one street.
The constant market bussle makes the city so lively, and you can buy cheap and yummy food and jugos de naranja, and Señor Hans can look over everyone´s heads, and there are table football games where every age or gender plays as if it´s the world cup.
Another interesting phenomenon is the ´Prado´. El Prado is the main traffic artery from one part of the city center to the other. It starts in the area where all the street markets are, and gradually finds its way to the more affluent part of the city center. And every step you take in that direction, is a step "richer". First the street stalls start to sell more luxury stuff (like Snickers and leche de chocolate), then they disappear altogether and make place for statues and expensive restaurants until it ends in a widely-spaced green boulevard. Very peculiar.
Just like the shoeshine boys. They dress like bank robbers !

Note: travelling around here almost makes you immune to things like child labour and begging, and here in La Paz it is startling. Many women, not only old, just sit down all day on the pavement holding up their hand. And so many kids work on the markets, in hotels or on the streets. It still makes me sad.


The Last of the Great Ruins

Regular followers of my adventures know my love for history and its remains. The last of the great Andean civilisations I had to visit were the people of Tiwanaku. In their hayday, around 700AD, they exerted religious and cultural influence over a vast area of Bolivia and beyond (see more in the history links). Alas, not much is left of their once great city. Already the Incas, who admired what they found here enormously, started to use the stones for their own purposes. The Spanish chroniclers still found a huge abandoned city. But like the Coliseum in Rome, it turned out to be a very convenient source of building material. It is sad to see that only a few walls and statues remain.


Climbing the Mountain

As if Señor Hans doesn´t torture his body enough, the luminous idea came to him to climb ´a really high mountain´. Huayna Potosí is a mountain of almost 6100 meters high, which is very close to La Paz and ... which is ´climable´ without any real experience. Gotcha !
The team existed of our guide, "cerveza" Eloy, my Israeli climbing buddy, "shit happens" Eyal and myself (no nickname required). Oh how blissfully ignorant we were of what was to come !

The first day was by car to the 4700m base camp, where we were instructed in the dark arts of ice climbing ... big uncomfortable boots with steely spikey thingies attached, a dangerously real pickaxe and a clown´s outfit. It was fun. In the end Elloy wanted us to climb a 10m vertical ice wall. We both reached around halfway up before plunging to our certain deaths if it wasn´t for the fact that the little devil already climbed up to put all sorts of safety stuff in place.

Second day was ´going to rock camp´ day, which is the last place before the ice started. We had to lug all our stuff up their though, which meant going from 4700 to 5100 meters with a 15-20kg pack on our backs. I am not built for this kind of thing ! But hey, I wanted to climb the mountain. Although very tiring, it didn´t take long and we spent the rest of the day resting in the tent, protected from the cold.

The day of reckoning started at midnight. Well, you want to see the sun rise on the mountain, right ? Yeah yeah. Two hours of sleep, freezing cold, over 5000 meters and in our full colour (multi-multi-layer) outfit, we started the 6 hour ascend. It was completely inhuman... Although starting briskly, soon we were walking like old men, very slowly, panting al the time and using our pickaxes to lean on. But we made progress and even scaled a 30m high near vertical ice wall, which was completely amazing !
After that things got worse. Eyal was having stomach problems the first day and he wasn´t fully recovered. We had to stop more often (of which I was glad as well) and after four and a half hours, with the summit in sight, it was over. I still had some energy left, but we had only one guide, so we had to go back. We were at 5900 meters and at least minus 10 degrees where the ´shit´ happened (figuratively and literally).

Although I was a bit disappointed for not making it to the top, it was an Experience; the most exhaustive of my life and one I am not sure I will try again ... but ask me again in a week or so ;-)

PS. Tomorrow: 60 km downhill bike ride from 4700m down to 2000m ... :-D

Titicaca - Impressions

The pictures from the lake and around. Have a happy holiday ! Mine will be cold, lonely and white ...

El Lago de Titicaca

As the world continued to turn, Señor Hans decided to stand still for a while. It seemed even his near limitless energy capacity needs to be refilled once in a while.

And I must say, there could hardly be a better spot to do it then at the Titicaca lake, the very birthplace of the sun and the moon. A sixth floor hotel room in Copacabana with pristine lake views was all that was required for a relaxing and invigorating few days.

The lake itself is mesmerising. Once it has drawn your eyes, it is impossible to look away. The water is a deep blue, almost going to purple, changing during the day as the sun plays around with it. The lake seems to go into the infinite, the only thing you can see are the clouds forming over the lake or on the distant shores, preparing for their daily finale of thunder and lightning.

Many strange and wonderful creatures come to see this natural wonder: the Bolivians themselves who never see the sea and choose to peddle the water in little boats; the hippies that line Copacabana´s main street trying to sell their wares; the local pilgrims coming to see the holy virgin, to climb the holy hill and then throw their plastic bottles all over it; the fashionably correct gringos and of course the not so fashionably correct gringos (like Señor Hans).

To top it off I met Mathilde and Rachel, two strange and wonderful maidens of France, and the three of us set out for La Isla del Sol, the sacred and peaceful Inca island in the lake. We walked the length and breadth of the island showing off our interesting habits, like sneezing, standing cross-legged or taking pictures of every llama in sight. The volatility of the lake didn´t disappoint us as we had to run for cover in the evening ahead of the dark hail storm, our little hotel protecting us from the wrath of the Incas.

The next morning I regrettedly said adieu to my lovely companions and went on to La Paz. And a peculiar ferry service had to be overwon to get there, requiring the people to leave the bus and take a separate boat ... but look for yourself ... and my backpack was still on the bus !

And Now For Something Completely Different ...

Just arrived in La Paz, safe & sound and as good as ever before. But during my lazy week at the Lago de Titicaca (more on that later), something happened back home ...

If you know me you how hard it is for me to leave center stage for someone else, especially in my own blog, but in this case I will stand aside with mucho gusto for:

TRISTAN

He´s the newborn baby of my nasty-but-very-close cousin Richard and his lovely girlfriend Talitha. I love him already !! (Tristan of course, not Richard). I really do feel like an uncle; tio Hans :-)

The happiest of lives to the little bugger and many fun and adventurous travels !

You can see some more of him here: http://www.durandal.nl/tristan

PS. And some more on the name Tristan in the links on the right

Bolivia !

Al final ! A new country. It almost looked like I had decided to stay in Peru forever. Well, I must say I am glad to be here now. The Sacred Valley was fun, but back in Cusco I was reminded that I do not like the town. And it didn´t help either that I got sick there after eating in a so-called good quality tourist restaurant.

Well, sick I still am, but now in Copacabana on the shores of the magical Lago de Titicaca (3810ms high, yipes ...). I had an interesting trip here. In the bus to Puno I sat next to a man called Zakarias and we chatted about this and that (despite me hardly not practising at all, my Spanish does get better). At one moment it turned to religion and he asked me if I believed in "Dios". No I said, I believe in the causality of Nature. People do not need a higher power to answer to, they should do that to the people around them. And in "El Diablo" then ? (I was tempted to ask him if he played Diablo or Diablo II ... hehe). No I said, I believe demons are inside people´s heads. He looked me in the eye thoughtfully. "Poor misguided soul", he thought. "Poor misguided soul", I thought back :-)
He did invite me to his house in La Paz though. Nice man.

I didn´t make the trip from Cusco to Copacabana in one day alas. They close the border at Sesame Street time ... I spent my last night in Peru in Yunguyo. So it´s 70 days in Peru in stead of 69 then.

Bolivia ... I can already say that most things are cheaper here than in Peru (even than in the non-touristy bits), except the internetting which is way more expensive and quite a bit slower. So with all the blog updates and emails I have to send everyone all the time, I guess I´ll break even with the Peru budget ;-)

Gotta get back being sick a bit more (but not for long!)

Señor Hans in Bolivia


PS. There is a Copacabana beach here too and the one in Rio de Janeiro is actually named after this little town, because of religious regions. Copacabana is the most sacred town in Bolivia.

PPS. Tweelingzusje, you are a bright and shining example of the topographical knowledge of an inhabitant of Los Estados Unidos ... :-D

Peru - Impressions

The adventure continues, but Peru is at an end ... after 69 days, 8300 km and 7000 soles. I loved las montañas, las ruinas and los niños who will always put a smile on your face. They are engraved in my mind. I endured the noise and the touts, which will fade away to be forgotten.

Muchas Muchas Gracias por all the great people I met: Martí(j)n, Ethel la Profesora, Rachelita with the eternal smile, Marieke, The Bloke from Oz, my faithful Samwise (Adriana ... Té !!), die Meuterer who had no chance against their Kapitän, Curious George, Alexia protector of all children, Lady Rose from Somerset, Little Bex and all others I forgot. Buen viaje, mis amigas y amigos !

And all the people that follow my small travels in this big continent, you can´t imagine how I enjoy your meddlings. Please stay tuned ! We will continue shortly, after these messages ...