[020] Around La Paz
I'm travelling in South America. Here's what I'm up to, some photos and other bits
It’s been six weeks now since we finished our cycle on the salt flats. Safe to say I’ve fallen behind with writing, so I’m going to do a dump of the last six weeks (not that kind - does this addition tell you I’ve been listening to too many Partridge audiobooks? Is this use of bracket as a footnote actually a direct consequence of listening to a lot of Patridge audiobooks?). Forgive the shoddy update.
Me and Izzy are still travelling together - we’ve been largely in and around La Paz, using it as a base to do some great cycling, walking and animal spotting. It’s amazing the diversity of landscape within just a few hours of La Paz - there are the sunny terraced hillsides around Lake Titicaca, glacier capped mountains which surround the city, and then the long steamy road which descends 4,000m into the jungle and pampas.
La Paz is a pretty unique city. It’s uniform browny-clay-red brick buildings sprawl up the web of valley sides, and it’s surrounded by huge snow-capped mountains. Less than a million people live in La Paz but it gives the impression of a much bigger city. Locals are friendly and the network of funiculars which wind up the hillside are a fun way to get around. There’s not a ton to do beyond exploring the streets of commerce, but it’s been a great base to explore the surroundings.
Another footnote: the kids of La Paz are adorable. They always seem to be kitted out in clothes with animal patterns, one hand connected to their parent, one hand holding a fun piece of paraphernalia: a flag, some corn to feed the pigeons, a toy digger. And they all swag around in bucket hats with bunny or bear ears. Adorable.
Our first trip out was out to Lake Titicaca. I got some weird Lake Windermere vibes when we first hopped off the bus to take a passenger ferry surrounded by little bobbing ducks. On arriving in Copacabana we checked into a treehouse with incredible views across the bay and out to the lake, and we just generally relaxed and enjoyed being by water again, taking a morning run and swim. It felt amazing swimming again after some weeks in dry deserts and dusty towns.
Our highlight of Titicaca had to be the day we took our bikes around the peninsula. It was gorgeous riding - empty roads, a good bunch of climbing and descending, some friendly villages and some beautiful views across the lake. It felt like a Greek island and the cycling was great fun now that we could leave our panniers in the hotel and go ‘bagless’. The only hitch was getting to the top of a climb and coming across a digger which was rebuilding the road. We had to walk over the terraces for a while, and then sketchily made a scramble up the bank where lorries were dumping truckloads of earth.
We also headed over to Isla del Sol, a sacred island for the Incas, and by happy coincidence timed our arrival with the winter solstice. The guidebook told us to expect a bunch of parties a la Druids at Stonehenge, but beyond a beach ceremony where some sort of floats were released into the lake we didn’t see much. But we completed a stunning 20km loop around the island one day, then treated ourselves to a cold Paceña and watched the sun light up the sky orange.
It was good to get some KMs into our legs as the next day we headed back to La Paz to start a three day acclimatisation and climb of Huayna Potosi, a 6,088m mountain just outside La Paz. I’m not one to number chase or do something because it’s the ‘longest this’ or ‘biggest that’. But frankly, I wanted to climb this simply because it is over 6,000m. It’s not like I’ll brag about it in the pub, but I did want to experience what it would feel like be at such an altitude and various people told me this was one of the easiest 6,000m+ mountains to climb.
It was one of the most exhausting things I've done. We'd spent two days pottering around base camp (4,700m) and high camp (5,200m) to acclimatise: ice climbing, napping, eating the montóns of food prepared by our guide Miguel. At 12.30am we left high camp, put our crampons on and stepped onto the glacier for a six hour ascent to the peak. We felt good beside mild headaches, but I had some uncertainty about how the body would react which only grew as we passed vomit and shit patches and a few ghostly-faced people retreating back to camp. We settled into a plodding rhythm behind a chain of other walkers, then Miguel lost patience and went for a triple overtake move.
His monstrous pace-setting meant we would reach the top before the other groups and even before the sunrise, and although climbing a mountain isn't a race, we definitely won so suck it weens. But this spent me, and Miguel's blasé talk of avalanche risks and the great massive crevasses we were tightrope walking seeped fear into my legs and already at 6,000m the rope which kept me connected to my two stronger companions was extending then tightening in an unspoken plea for a pausa; we would stop, then I'd collapse into a heap. My slightly oversized boots (think fat heavy ski boots) felt like concrete blocks on the final climb which skirted along a thin path hanging onto the edge of a preposterously steep side. But then it came into view, and here we were, a little dome of snow which appeared to be higher than the rest. The yellow lights of La Paz shone on as the sun arrived in the east, lighting up a vast carpet of low cloud which covered the Yungas and stretched all the way into the Amazon Jungle.
Then I ate some Pringles and we started the long walk down.
After weeks in the Alitplano the lure of the green Amazon jungle was strong. On the way we fancied tackling ‘Death Road’. It took its moniker from a UN report in the 90’s which claimed it was the most dangerous road in the world. Now it’s mainly for tourists on bikes, but there have still been 26 cyclist deaths since it opened to bike tours, so we approached with some hesitancy. After strapping our bikes onto the roof of a taxi and getting a lift to the 4,800m start point, did a last check of our brakes, then sent it.
Over the day we descended 3,800m, pretty much never needing to pedal. In reality we felt pretty much safe. Doing it without a guide and group probably helped us, and we were able to take it at a fun speed without worrying about obstacles and getting in each others ways. We stopped frequently. The rainforest was stunning, with waterfalls emerging from hidden spots, and vistas right across the steep sided valleys. As we descended it got noticeably warmer and more humid, a welcome change from the cold we’d had in La Paz.
In the last 10km our destination of Coroico came into view, but I gradually realised that my intel may be wrong that that road ‘ended’ at Coroico. It sat opposite us at the same height, but we still had a bunch of descending left. In the end, we finished the last 7km and 500m climbing in the dark. It was pretty disgusting. The light left as we started the first 1km on cobblestones. I didn’t have bike lights so put my headtorch on which dug into my ears under my helmet. We sweated, oh we sweated. We saw dogs eyes up the road, luminous in the darkness, then the barking started. This happened every few hundred metres. We sprayed them with water bottles to keep them away then dug in. I arrived shattered, we ordered room service and slept so well that night, then more room service and Jude’s overhead kick on the TV.
The last two weeks we’ve been in the Amazon jungle. I spent one week working with as a monkey dad at an animal rehabilitation centre. It’s really special what they’re doing, rescuing injured monkeys (some are mistreated as pets, some are injured in forest fires), then working to introduce them to the wild. I fell in love with Romeo a little howler monkey, and was mainly feeding him milk and fruits, and letting him use me as a ladder to get up into the trees.
The work was hard though. We couldn’t wear mosquito repellant (the monkeys lick you), and so I got bitten to death, plus it was hot, sticky and damp. I abandoned Izzy for the second week who is made of tougher stuff to retire to the town of Rurrenbaque where I could watch a ton of sport - that Watkins goal, the Cav win, Jimmy’s retirement - and enjoy electricity and a hot shower.
We’re back in La Paz now, about to start a cycle to Arequipa and enter a new country: Peru.
Lots of love,
George