Hangin' in Rio

I've been up since 6.30am on Friday morning in Rio. It's now about 2.30am Sunday morning in Rio so that's nearly 48 hours. I did doze a bit on the plane home (13 hour flight!) but I'm a bit tired so not sure how comprehensible this post will be. But it's been a huge day and I really feel I need to finish the blog with the last day post.

I was supposed to go hang gliding on Thursday morning but the weather was bad and it was cancelled. I stuck out my bottom lip for a while then rang them back and arranged it for Friday morning. They were pretty sure that there was time to fit it in and still make it to the airport for my 1pm international flight.

I had my bags packed and was ready to go at 7.30am as the park where the takeoff site is opens at 8am. Antu (or Hantu or something completely different) had only a 20 minute warning that I was coming and jumped out of bed to come and pick me up. We then went back to his place where we picked up a woman and a hang glider. Two minutes later a man on the side of the road handed him a card. Further up the hill another man got into the car and then another man handed him a ticket. He lives just down the hill from the takeoff site so we were soon all kitted up and doing a bit of a practice. My instructions were:

- hold lightly to the red handhold on his back and his side and we then run together. Don't hold too tight and don't push him or we will crash and die
- once we've started down the ramp, don't stop running or we will crash and die
- keep running off the end of the ramp - don't jump or push off or we will crash and die
- don't touch the bar or the cables or we will...hmm, I think you can guess

After this inspiring introduction and a disclaimer form (ssshh, don't tell Mum that hang gliding isn't covered by my travel insurance) we were ready to go. I followed all instructions exactly but had to shut my eyes going down the ramp so I didn't hesitate or freak out thereby causing us to crash and die.

When I opened my eyes we were flying over the trees of the largest urban forest in the world (Tijuca forest). So that's what it looks like for birds. We could see Cristo Redentor in all his scaffolded glory and had great views over parts of the city, the beach and out to sea. I absolutely loved it.

We glided over the golf course and some apartment buildings, then out over the sea and down to land on the beach. First of all when we were about 60 metres up (I have no idea how far up actually, that's just a complete guess, but it felt quite high) I lifted by leg up and Antu removed the cables holding my legs up. I really felt like I was falling but obviously I didn't. The photos with my legs hanging down look really funny though. We kind of turned and swooped quite bit on the way down and then we had to run along the sand and then it was all over. The flight was about 15 minutes but I loved it so much and I hugged Antu when it was over. I am definitely going hang gliding again. Antu reckons he's coming to Queenstown in the summer to do tandem hang gliding. I think I might have to pop down and have another go.

It was all over by about 9.15 so I go to the airport with plenty of time for the flight. We had a 10 hour stop over in Buenos Aires so had time for some last minute shopping (lots of wine and a handbag for Debbie) and dinner at one of the best steak houses in Buenos Aires (and there there a lot of good steak houses), La Cabrera. At all the other steak houses we've been too, you order a steak and you get a steak. It's large, but it's all alone on the plate. So we ordered fries to go with it. What a mistake. My very large steak came with 12 different little side dishes including a mini cast iron pot with an omelette in it. Debbie had ordered a half portion of steak so she only got eight side dishes. She didn't manage to finish even her half a steak (Jeannie, Leon where were you? We needed you to finish our dinner for us!) A very nice bottle of Argentinian Malbec (red wine) accompanied the meal.

Then it was in a taxi to one airport to pick up our bags and go to the international airport. We had a little prang in the first taxi. I had been expecting it for the whole 5 weeks of the holiday so I really was surprised. I think there was another sharp inhalation and my heart beat a bit faster for a while, but I was remarkably calm.

And now I'm home. Lots of photos and memories, a few bottles of Malbec to drink and remember, a stack of alfajors (yummy chococlate biscuits) and some dulche de leche (caramel spread) to help me get back to my usual weight, and a hankering to see more of South America. I'm gonna have to start saving my leave again.

Rio in a day

Due to a change in our flights made by the airline, we effectively only really had a day in Rio. we started slow with a walk to Copacabana beach. Thankfully, Debbie navigated otherwise we would have ended up at a tunnel (who could tell from the map?) We had a nice walk along the edge of the water until a big wave came along and went straight up my skirt and soaked the bottom of Debbie´s trousers. We took the hint and went shopping.

We booked a city tour for the afternoon and saw the highlights of Rio in 6 1/2 hours. We started with Cristo Redento (the big jesus on the hill). The train isn´r running because of the landslides so we took a van up instead. Jesus is also a bit sick because of the landslide and is covered in scaffolding. The views from the hill (highest in Rio) were fantastic - looking out across the bay, the lagoon, the favelas (slums), the beaches.

Next we went to the Maracana football stadium where I put my feet in the footsteps of some great Brasilian players - Pele, Kaka, Renaldo. I´ve never heard of any of them, but I´m sure some of you will be impressed.

Next was the Sambadromo where carnival is held. It´s a little boring without all the people, bright costumes and people dancing, but there was a video playing in a little musuem/shop and it would be pretty cool to visit during carnival.

We then turned a little spiritual with a visit to San Sebastian cathedral. It has some great stained glass windows and I imagine on a sunny day it would be stunning (it was overcast, with occasional drizzle).

Last stop was Sugar Loaf. It´s two cable car rides up to a 396 metre rock. The second rock is almost a sheer drop and I must be turning into my ssister because I almost announced to all 40 people in the car that we were going to die. Again, fantastic views, but this time at twilight and at night. Some people climb the rock but they must be nutters.

We finished the day at the restaurant where ´The Girl from Ipanema´ was inspired. Very touristy, but nice food. It all ended badly though when I looked down and say a giant cockroach on my thigh. I managed not to scream (sharp inhalation only) and shook it off to the floor where it was promptly squashed by the waiters shoe.

Then home to bed. The place where we stayed was really noisy - taxi stand just outside the door - but with ear plugs we were fine.

Brazilian haircut

No, it~s not some new form of waxing. I got my haircut today in Rio. It was another early morning start to get to the Brazil side of the falls and catch our flight to Rio. Nice two hour flight with some nice views of the coast.

We got our transfer to the hostel okay (nice drive through the city) but the damn hostel had screwed up our booking so we´re at a nicer cheaper place around the corner. Worked out well really.

We have a lovely lunch at a posh Asian fusion restaurant just one block from the beach (nice beach, can~t figure out why they~re all sitting in deck chairs when the sand looks lovely). Three course meal and wine all for about $30 each. Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the shops (and getting a haircut of course). Have a big day planned for tomorrow and then we head for home on Friday.

I´m going to sue the entire city of Puerto Iguazu for emotional distress

Okay, so only four people live here so calling it a city is a bit of an exaggeration. But all four of them have put bathroom tiles on the footpath outside their shop/house/vacant lot. And when it rains (which it has been doing a bit of lately) they get all slippery and I spend my days and nights walking with trepidation everywhere with the occasional slip, wobble and whoa until I steady myself.

Rant over. Have been for lovely meal of pizza (with fresh ham and some kind of lettuce - rucula) followed by brownie. mmmm.

Bus stop in Brazil

Today we saw the falls from Brazil. We missed the bus from Argentina and the next one wasn´t for an hour so we caught a taxi instead. It´s quite a different view of the falls from the other side. You get more of a whole of the falls view (funnily enough, just like the guide book said). there´s really only one walk worth doing and that didn´t take us that long. I took quite a few more photos - I´ve taken about 1500 photos in all so far on thsi trip. It´s going to be a nightmare to try and whittle them down to the best for showing to other people.

The most exciting part of the day was the trip home. We thought that there was bus to Argentina at 1pm but we got on a bus to Foz de Iguazu (in Brazil) and the women said that we should change buses. She even told us when we should get off. So there we were, in this shoddy looking excuse for a bus stop with no idea where we were or where we were going. A bus to Paraguay went passed and then Debbie had the bright idea that we should walk up to where there were road signs. Twenty metres down the road and a bus to Argentina went by. Damn.

So we went back to the bus stop and stood there watching traffic go by for a while and finally hailed a cab. Turns out we were about 200 metres from the border and we were standing on the wrong side of the road. Oh well, we got home with very little trouble in the end and it only cost about twice as much as the bus.

Things were much more organised when we had a tour guide (thanks Shiry and Leon) but we´re quite enjoying our mistakes and having to navigate ourselves. We´re having to use our spanish quite a bit more too. And I don´t care what Debbie´s cussie Chris says, they really so say grassy-arse (Gracias).

Paraguain adventure

The guidebook says that Paraguay is a great place to shop. It also says that we need a visa to enter. But the man in the information centre said that we don´t need one and that we should only go to customs on the Argentinian side. So that´s what we did. I´m still not sure if we were illegal immigrants again for a couple of hours.

Ciudad del Este - the city in Paraguay right by the border - is basically madness. Crossing symonds street all those years at University was good training - except in Paraguay there are also motorbikes everywhere weaving there way in and out of the traffic and playing chicken with oncoming traffic.

I think we only went about 500 metres into Paraguay, but that was enough. There are people everywhere trying to sell you stuff on the street. Apparently, I looked like I was in desparate need of socks as everyone tried to sell them to me. There are arcades full of shops with electronic goods. Debbie bought some cheap GHDs (hair straighteners) but we´re not sure if they´re the real thing or not.

We ended up in a fancy mall having a fancy lunch and then coming home. As we didn´t have clue where the bus stop was, we just stood on the edge of the main street and luckily a bus with ´Argentina´on it came along straight away.

I read a book once set in South America where it said that sitting in the middle of hte bus was safest. The main character made the mistake of sitting in the front and his girlfriend died. As popular fiction is the best source of tourist infomration (ha ha), I´ve been following this advice as much as possible. However, the bus was jam packed and I found myself resting my arms on the dashboard trying not to lean against the door and thinking about this book. But it meant that I had a great view of the road and I probably had a better ride than if I´d been crammed in the middle somewhere. And they bus ride was only about 45 minutes.

Iguazu fly by

I think I pulled out the ´O for Awesome´ too soon. I could put an expletive in front of it, but my grandma may read this and there´s a small chance she thinks I don´t know those words. I was thinking ´Iguazu is the schizz´ but I´m not entirely sure what ´schizz´ means and it might be a bit rude.

Anyway, Judith Bassett told me in tutor training that ´wow´ and ´awesome´ are not appropriate descriptions and stating why things are so good is required.

So, we flew from BA to Iguazu and the pilot took us over the falls. Twice. They look great from the air with plumes of mist coming up into the air. Lorna from our group tour come with us and we all stayed in the worst hostel in Iguazu for the next two nights (Debbie and I have now moved and Lorna has gone back BA). El Guembe Hostel House is crap. The shower doesn´t work and the toilet only flushes when it feels like it. It was also very, very noisy last night. (Rant over.)

We got up early on the first morning and caught the first bus to the Argentinian side of the falls and arrived at 7.30am. Unfortunately, the park doesn´t open till 8am so we had a nice sit. The park covers quite a large area and I thought there was no way we´d see everything in a day, but it´s not a bit as it looks and we managed to see quite a lot. Getting there early was a good idea as we had several of the walks practically to ourselves.

There is so much water going over the falls that there is a mist in front of them and it´s quite hard to see from some angles. They closed one of the walks because there´s so much water. Just one of the falls by itself would be impressive but seeing them lined up one after the other is amazing. And they looks so neat and tidy. Huge amounts of water go over the falls, especially at the Devil´s throat. I was almost mesmirised watching it. They have a walkway out over the river and the islands so that you are right beside the fall. The photos simply don´t do it justice.

We took and inflatable boat ride down the river and saw a baby alligator and the river from a quieter angle. Then it was in a jeep from which we saw toucans and down through the jungle to a boat. It was an 6km boat ride through some rapids which were fun, but nothing on the next bit. The boat goes really close to the San Martin fall >(second highest in the park) and the water just sprays out at you (screaming in delight is compulsory and Lorna, Debbie and I complied). The boat also goes into the beginning of the Devil´s throat and practically under a waterfall. Just to make sure you´re really wet. Saturated but happy, we then made our way home and went out to a lovely chinese restaurant (wok) which makes a chocolate volcanoe which we all had to try.

A place where you can flush toilet paper

I told myself that I was not going to write about toilets on this trip, but it was so, so nice to be able to flush toilet paper down in Buenos Aires instead of putting in a little rubbish bin in the bathroom. Of course, now we´re in Iguazu and back to the rubbish bin, but those four days were fabulous.

Buenos Aires is fabulous for other reasons as well, of course. Shopping, for instance. The main tourist shopping area is Florida street and it´s full of leather and clothes and markets. Of course, latin american women and small and nothing fits me. Not the beautiful leather boots nor the lovely tops. They have some quite large shops where individual designers have their own little shelf or two each where I found a top and a skirt. Just as well because I´m really sick of the clothes that I brought with me. What kind of moron thinks three t-shirts will be enough? And I´ve bought a couple more along the way.

We´ve seen quite a bit of the Tango with lessons and a show the first night and a visit to a local tango spot where they were having a competition on the third night. We also visited La Boca and had a small tango show with lunch. La Boca is the old port area but is really really touristy now and is much smaller than I expected. I did buy a painting there though and Debbie got some jewelry.

I did a city walking tour with a bunch of others from our tour group while Debbie slept and shopped (she´d done the city before). We started at the place where Parliament sits (Wednesday´s only - what a life) and walked down past some of the lovely buildings including one based on Dante´s Inferno - can´t remember the name of it. We stopped at the Plaza de Mayo and the guide gave us some of the history of the dirty war and the mothers who still protest at the square every thursday. We encountered a number of protests on the walk, including one group who were letting off very loud fireworks every couple of minutes. Apparently there are 8 protests a day in BA on average.

We stood outside the Casa Rosada where the president works and saw the balcony from which Eva Peron spoke (and Madonna sang - which may mean more to some of you). Debbie and I went on a tour of the Casa Rosada on a different day - it´s usually closed but they have opened it for the 200 year celebration. In one room they have photos and brief bios of some of the important women in Argentinian history which was interesting. There were some great paintings as well.

The city tour also took us to the obelisk which is in the middle on the widest street in the world Avenida de 9 Julio. Actually, a street in Rio is wider but in some point in history the one in BA was the widest and no-one´s had the heart to break it to the Argentinians.

People in Buenos Aires tend to stay out late and I did my best but failed miserably. On our first night after the tango show, we went out to Palermo to a bar. We boogied for a bit and had a couple of drinks but by 2.30am I was ready to go home so came home. On our last night, we had dinner in a nice place in San Telmo. It looked a bit dingy but the food was really nice (I´ve never eaten so much steak in my life). We then headed back to Palermo to other couple of bars and drinks. Again, at 2.30am I piked and come home (we did have to get up and fly to Iguassu the next day).

One of the best things we did in BA was visit MALBA - a latin american art museum. Some really great paintings in a really nice gallery. The only disappointment was that they didn´t have many prints of the art actually in the gallery. Quite a few Van goghs and monets but who goes to South American to buy european art prints?

Chile feels like such a long time ago

But really it was only about a week ago. And we were only there for two days. Our visit started with a border crossing experience. One must sit in the bus for an appropriate amount of time looking miserable before you can cross. Sitting in the sun outside the bus is not allowed and god forbid you get out a pink frisbie and start throwing it around. They will let an entire busload of people in front of you.

Once we passed that test, we were officially in San Pedro in Chile. There is not a lot there. A lot of restaurants and art and craft shops and markets but no pharmacy or supermarket. We made the most of the restaurants and shopping (surprising I know).

We did go sandboarding which was heaps of fun and both Debbie and I were very successful. The photos look very impressive. The video less so as you can see how slow we are actually going. But we managed quite a steep dune without falling over. The downside is that our driver was probably stoned and later in the day he was having a wee tipple of pisco sour before driving us all home. But wait, I{ve skippéd a bit. The Valley of hte Moon was included in the tour and he tried to charge us extra for entry (we did{t pay) and then we were late for the sunset. The views were still pretty awesome though.

We had a little trouble leaving Chile as they had moved the bus stop, but the border crossing was fairly tame (form, stamp, empanada, leave). The drive from to Salta across the Andes was pretty cool though. Lots of great views and a very dodgy game of high-low going on in the back seat. I wasn{t game to play, but I did get a good laugh at some of the antics of the others in the group. Not sure if Jeannie walking down the aisle as a chicken, Nurain with his pants down or Anish working it and kissing his guns was the funniest. Others were in rather less good taste.

We had very little time in Salta. We had a bus trip along the route of the Train to the Clouds for the whole day. There was some really lovely scenery but we were all day in a bus having just spent the previous day in a bus. And we didn{t really have time to see Salta. Debbie and I were a bit grumpy when we go back so decided to go out for dinner by ourselves. After a bit of shopping (Debbie bought art) we turned up to the best restaurant in town according to my travel book and found the rest of hte group. Had a really nice meal with them as we were in a much better mood after some retail therapy.

I´m having far too much fun in BA to do a real post

I´ve finally found time to stop at an internet shop and they close in 10 minutes. Rest assured, I´m still alive for those worryworts out there (that means you Iris!). Having a great time. Will have to catch you up on Chile and Argentina when we get to Iguassu (our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon).

The Rotorua of South America

I wouldn´t get up at 5am in the morning to go and see a tiny wee geyser as home so I´m not sure why I did it in South America. But it was Nikki´s birthday so we woke here with a resounding rendition of Happy Birthday at 5am before heading out to see some bubbling mud and a geyser. It was lovely to see the sun rise on the mountains, but it was way too cold to open the window in the 4WD so I hope my photos turned out okay.

The highlight was the hot pools at about 8am. We stripped to our bikinis in the freezing cold and jumped into the clear waters on a lovely, reasonably hot natural springs. We hadn´t had a shower for days so it was very, very welcome. All it needed was a massage and a pedicure.... The pancakes and dulce de leche (caramel kind of sauce) for breakfast were pretty good too.

Then we were headed for another border via some more spectacular scenery. Laguna Verde, some vicunas, some snow tipped mountains. It´s a hard life really.

Pretty (stinky) flamingos and snow men

So here I am in Buenos Aires, but I´ve yet to tell you about the rest of Bolivia, let alone Chile and Argentina so far.

Our second day on our 4WD trek across the salt plains and Atacama desert was very different from our first. Gone was the smooth white sea and we were back onto bumpy roads (my poor right butt cheek - I think I´ve broken my bum. Debbie is determined that there are no bones to break, but I´m not so sure. It´s been over a week now!) There are a number of lagoons filled with various minerals where the flamingos hang out. We got some lovely photos, but I have to tell you: flamingo poo really stinks. Kind of like Rotorua when the wind is blowing the wrong way. We had a nice (quite short) walk alongside one of the lagoons before lunch and then headed into the national park.

Unfortunately the entry fee (included in the tour) had increased from 30 bolivianos to 150 bolivianos on 1 May (apparently to pay to improve the roads which, quite frankly, could do with millions of bolivianos so I think you should all visit. Quite a price hike and our guide didn´t have enough money. I had american dollars but they wouldn´t take those so it Leon had to find someone who would change them for us.

It had snowed recently and the landscape was really pretty. Bits of snow littered the tundra like white plastic bags and was scattered across the mountains like icing sugar. It was quite hard and crunchy and difficult to mold into snowmen (or snow balls) but we did our best. There are some interesting rock formations which we also stopped to see and had another snow fight.

Much of the day was spent in the 4WDs. We had a bit of excitement when we got a flat tire but our driver lived up to his name (Gonzales) and had it changed in the time it took me to peel an orange and we were on our way again.

Our accommodation for the night was freezing. Debbie was sporting a sexy outfit which included nearly everything she had with her including her merino icebreaker dress. She got really cold in the night despite all of the layers, sleeping bag and about six blankets. Someone needs to introduce heaters to these people.

O for Awesome

Speaking of the alphabet, have you ever done the actions to YMCA while speeding across salt flats? I can now cross that particular item off my to do list.

But wait, I´m getting ahead of myself. Last post was from Potosi.

It as a long bus ride from Potosi to Uyuni where we started our salt flats tour. The bus, a private one, was apparently quite a lot better that the standard public bus even though we took orders from a 10 year old kid. No, you can´t have the windows open, turn down the sound on the video.... There was no toilet in the bus and there is literally nothing between Potosi and Uyuni so the toilet stop on the 6 hour bus ride was behind a rock while truck drivers watched on from above (at least, so I´ve heard).

The scenery was amazing. Mountains, little valleys with willow and poplar trees, rock scapes. Very beautiful. I´ve taken way too many photos.

There is nothing to do in Uyuni except go out onto the Salar de Uyuni and three 4WDs picked us up the next morning from the hotel. Our 4WD was driven by Gonzales (I kid you not), but we weren´t very speedy. He was a careful driver for whick my right butt cheek was very grateful. He had three CDs in his car - Disco Fever 1 and 2, and a bolivian national music. We were to hear much of all three over the next three days.

After playing silly buggers in a train graveyard, we were out on the plains. They´re like nothing I´ve seen before. You see a little mountain peering over the horizon and then a couple of hours later you´re dwarfed by that same huge mountain. There are little ´islands´along the way. And they´re covered in cactuses - I hadn´t expected there to be cactuses. The white of the plains stretches on forever and it´s really hard to get proper perspective. Great for photos. We had lots of fun for several hours playing with our cameras. Debbie has a great photo of her flicking me off her hand. I got to be the tiny person in a lot of photos.

Next we were off to our accommodation for the night. A hotel made entirely of salt. It was nothing like I´d expected. They cut bricks of salt our of the ground and build it just like a normal house. Only difference is that tiny pieces of salt fall off the walls and ceiling during the night and hit you on the head - I had a wee chicken little moment until I realised what it was.

The evening started badly with drinking games. I cheated massively as I just don´t recover like I used to and only had four drinks for the whole evening. It was quite fun though.

Everything in the salt hotel is run by generator so the lights are on until 10pm. Poneh and I went for a walk outside after lights out. The stars (no moon) were absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, they locked the doors on us so we had to undertake a bit of banging on the door before they´d let us back in.

Boom!

Our transport from La Paz was a night bus to Potosi - the bus was actually quite comformtable and I slept for quite a bit of the trip (8.30pm to 5.30am). Our hotel in Potosi is pretty crap and I´m a bit suspicious of the sheets so have using sleep sheet (thanks Penny!).

Potosi used to be one of the riches towns in South America and much of the spanish empire was funded from the silver mines here. It´s a very pretty little town and we had a wander around the streets and some of the markets after a bit of a kip and breakfast at the hotel.

We went for a tour of the silver mines yesterday afternoon. I´ve been down a coal mine on the west coast and had envisaged a similar sort of thing. We were dressed up in gumboots, leggings, top, helmet and light (Debbie had a sexy pink pair of leggings, I was in a yellow and red ensemble). All quite familiar so far.

Next we stop off at a shop to buy supplies for the miners we were going to see - you know, the usual: biscuits, cigarettes, cacao leaves, dynamite. On the west coast it was Playboy magazines so I had my first inkling that things might be a bit different.

I had to bend over just about double to get into the mine and things did not improve much from there. It was often low, narrow and you had to watch out for ´hole on the left!´. I felt quite uncomfortable in a number of places - as did many of our group. The tunnels we were in were built in the 16th century so that´s why they´re so low. Also, the people are quite short over here.

On meeting our first miner (at 60, a miracle man as most miners die by about 45) most of us had a go at using the hammer and chisel to make a dynamite hole. Then, out of the blue, our miner disappears and we´re told we need to move back down the tunnel as he´s going to let off some dynamite. All of our lights are off, we´re huddled in the dark (well, apart from the lights from everyone´s camera´s) and then BOOM followed by nervous laughter from all of us.

I´d had enough by then and would have been quite happy to leave, but we had to go through all of these other tunnels, meet other miners and go and visit the devil. This is a statue underground with a very large red topped penis. If you touch his penis you can make a wish. I declined. The devil is how the spanish convinced the native people to continue mining. They told them that the devil would take their spirit if they refused to work. Eight million people died in the mines. There is still about one death a day, but now it is a cooperative (if I understood the guide correctly) so they are responsible for their own safety. They use oranges as a guide to bad gases. They put half an orange out and check it every 10 minutes. If the orange goes rotten, it´s time to hot foot it out of there quick smart.

When we were finally outside, our guide lights up a dynamite stick and then calmly walks maybe 200 metres away from us, puts it down and then runs back to us. There was actually plenty of time - it was about a minute and a half before we got our second boom. It gave me such a fright that I pushed the stop button on the video recorder of my camera - still go the explosion though.

The tour was interesting, but I was a bit unimpressed. There was very little information given, the safety information was non-existent and I felt that they were making a tourist attraction out of the poor working conditions (that damn Janet has got to me).

We had a lovely dinner out and I had Bolivian food (well, kind of) for the first time. Llama, chicken and bacon skewers with chips and veges. Mostly I´ve eaten Italian and Asian food in Bolivia. There are some quite interestly food on the side of the road, but I´m not prepared to get sick again.

The British Invasion

Even though we´ve booked a 26 day tour, it´s actually two tours joined together so not only do we have a new tour lead (Leon the Brit living in Argentina) but we also have four new people. All Brits. Half of our group are now British. And we are no longer a group of chicas. There´s two new women, Lorna and Lucy who I don´t know a lot about yet except that Lucy is a primary school teacher. There are also two blokes Anish and Nurane (unsure of spelling). So three guys (including tour leader). It´s a very different group dynamic. There´s few single girls in the group so should be interesting.....

I survived death road (with only a few scrapes and bruises)

An early morning start, a very unsatisfying breakfast (reheated toast, a one hour bus trip and we were freezing our arses off at the top of some very foggy hill. They´d provided us with pants (too short), gloves, an orange vest and a helmet. My red raincoat topped off the look. Our aim: to mountain bike 3345 metres over 64 km down hill. The first 25 odd km was on a wide, well-marked tarseal road and was quite good for gaining confidence with the bike. I had the brake on most of the way as I don´t like to go too fast. Then, we got on the bus for the 4km uphill before we reached the death road.

The death road got it´s name for obvious reasons. Lots of people have died on it. But it used to be the main highway and therefore had lots of traffic on it. They´ve put in a new road now and there are hardly any cars so it´s a lot safer - as long as you take a bit of care and stay away from the sheer drops. The first 10km are the worst so I took that really slowly and was a bit nervous.

The rest of the death road was a lot of fun and we had some really good views as we got lower down. The flora really changes (probably the fauna too but the most we saw were a couple of really huge brightly coloured butterflies). We got down to about 1000metres and my lungs couldn´t believe their luck. I hardly got out of breath on the slightly uphill bits! I´m gonna be able to run a marathon when I get back to sea level.

Having successfully navigated the death road, we took an alternate route down and this is where I took a wee tumble off the bike. Don´t worry though, my right butt cheek took most of the brunt of the fall and that´s well padded. The worst was that my sunglasses slid up under my helmet and I have too small cuts on my forehead (paired with the tan marks from my sunglasses, I´m looking quite the thing right now).

I got back on the bike and did the last 10 minutes (otherwise they wouldn´t have given me the t-shirt!). The chappie from the bike company then washed down my arm and put disinfectant on my cuts. He looked a little concerned when I mentioned that my bum was sore, but I reassured him that I wasn´t expecting him to wash it.

It was a three hour trip home on the ´good´ road (ha, ha). Once again, we had problems getting into La Paz. It was 1 May (labour day) and there were all sorts of celebrations going on. People dressed up in flamboyant costumes (some looked quite oriental) and blocked roads. We eventually made our way back to the hotel where I had a well deserved early night. Debbie had chickened out of the bike ride in favour of a more relaxing day (smart woman) but they´d encountered May day protests with people firing guns into the air so stayed close to the hotel most of the day.

Today has been quite a quiet day. A wander though some parts of the city looking as some museums and taking in the atmosphere. We´re on the night bus (groan) to Potosi tonight with our new tour guide Leon for the rest of the trip - a Brit from Argentina.

Bolivia land of protest part II

So there we were, wending our way through the streets of El Alto to no avail. A quick conversation between the guide and some people and a bulldozer and we were off back the way we came, looking, I thought from trying to translate their spanish, for a bridge. Eventually we turned off the main highway and followed a group of cars, trucks and buses and forded a stream. All of the other cars, trucks and buses turned left and we kept going straight ahead. Oh f%$k, I thouhgt, where on earth are we going to end up. The outlet for all the sewage apparently. The road kind of disappeared and we forded stream after slushy pile of sewage to the soundtrack of whoops of delight from the driver at another successful manoevre and some lively spanish folk music followed by something reminiscent of a communist russian rally chant.

Thanks to some creative visualisation from Debbie, we eventually arrived at a tarsealed road and were back to hour hotel quite some time after we´d planned.

Debbie and I then went out for Pizza.

The 30 April in La Paz was a bit of a shit day. Not the fault of the city. I´d been feeling a bit unwell for a while, but felt quite crappy and had to go the pharmacy for some medicine (it kicked in really quickly and I´m feeling much better now). We wandered through some of the markets, watched a protest (very well behaved) through the main street. I think it was for education again. It was our last night with our Tour Guide so we went out on the town (I was home by 10pm - not feeling well annd all - but some of them stayed out to the wee hours of the morning).

To answer Mum´s question, Bolivia is a really poor country. La Paz is made up of three sectors. The top at about 4100 metres is the highest and is where the poorest people live - but they have the best views. The lowest is about 3000 metres and this is where the (relatively) rich people live. The reason that they live in the area without the views is that it´s about 6 degrees warmer at 3000 metres. Most of the farming I´ve seen is done by hand or with the help of a donkey.

Bolivia - land of protest

We were supposed to see the ruins of Tiwanaku on our way from Peru to Bolivia but, because of the change of plans, we headed out from La Paz yesterday. From the motorway we say a big stream of people walking down the street. The bus driver said that it was parents protesting for better equipment in their children´s schools. Sounds far enough to me - I´ve seen some of their schools.

La Paz is actually made up of two cities - La Paz and El Alto. And we needed to go through La Paz to get to the ruins. Unfortunately, the protests were continuing. This meant that the main road was blocked with so we did a little tiki tour (aptly named, you´ll find out why later) throught the back streets (all dirt roads) of the neighbourhood. It added about 30 minutes to our trip but was quite interesting looking into backyards etc.

(Apparently the reason for the protests is that the Ayamara people would like a separate district in the city from the other people (mainly Quechua)).

There was some lovely pastoral scenery again out to the ruins. The houses are still built like they were 100 years ago. Clay bricks, thatch roofs because this provides the best protection from the heat in the summer and cold in the winter. Mind you, they were still harvesting the crop by hand, so it must be a pretty tough life.

The ruins we visited were from the Tiwanaku people who were around from c.1500 BC to c.1250 AD. They were the longest surviving empire after Egypt. They were faily well advanced with their own pyramid at Tiwanaku along with a temple and other ruins. They were the predecessors of the Inca people (Quechua speakers) and I think also the Ayamara people (who were one of the few people who had an alliance with the Incas rather than being conquered by them). There are a number of statues surviving at the ruins, including a sungate and the Kontiki statue from which the reed boat expedition to the Easter Islands and then (failed) to New Zealand took it´s name.

There´s also a museum at the ruins and the guide (Eduardo) took us through it explaing the most important pieces. It made it far more interesting that if we had wandered through ourselves. I made a last minute toilet stop and the bus nearly left without me. Fortunately, a chorus of ´where´s Nina?´ saved the day. It would have been a long walk back.

The guide gave us some interesting pieces of information about Bolivia along the way. For example, health care is free. Education and health care is compulsory for children. Public university is virtually free (c.US$ 30 a year) and c.50% of med students are women. 50% of Engineering students are also women. Perhaps we should send someone over here to find out how they managed it?????

Getting out of La Paz had been a bit of a challenge. Getting back in was a three hour cross country journey. We tried to go throught El Alto but met road block after road block after dead end. The main road was littered with rocks (some of them quite large) and therefore unpassable.

I have to meet with the group on 3 minutes so I´m gonna have to leave you on tenterhooks as to whether we managed to get back into the city yesterday.