Santa Cruz to La Paz

It´s been a while so I´d recommend getting a cup of tea.

So then, the best thing about Santa Cruz. Definitely Andy and Linda, superb hosts, and a lovely place to stay, we probably won´t feel clean again till we get home. Although, only dirty people wash! (Engle Sr TM).

We spent much of our time resting, learning Spanish and tying up loose ends at home. (such as getting a free mobile phone contract from the Carphone Warehouse, with 75mins and 100 texts, which we obviously can't use but still a pretty good deal considering we called to end our contracts).

Practising our Spanish was helped by having spent time with Linda's family some of whom only speak Spanish. We will always be indebted to Linda's closest family who very generously took us out for, very tasty, meals (Including, another per kilo place :). I even know a few football one liners, having joined a family game.

On the Saturday night, we were taken to a central club, arriving in a Getto Bling Bling Jeep (definitely the safest way to travel, seeing as everyone drink drives, there´s no requirement for an MOT, and the roads are very questionable). Andy, aka Senor Whisky, was keen to get us there before the free whisky ran out, served by the bottle and once we´d had a few we hit the dance floor and apparently made it on to national TV, when having our photos taken for the local press Hannah and I forgot to add that we were the latest celebrity couple i.e. JT and Keira.

Bumped in to Tommy and Sofie in the Irish Bar, apparently, having complained about their treatment in the bush they got 3 days on a normal tour. Later being a public holiday we went out for massive 1GBP cocktails and back to the club.

We visited a market, absolutely huge maybe 4 times the size of The Dell (not St Marys. Saints managed to hold on I see, more clashes with Plymouth to come), not really sure how the Bolivian business model works as everyone basically sells the same thing for the same price. But my wheeler dealing bought a phone charger for 1.50GBP, and sold Karl's old Nokia phone for 6.30GBP

During our stay with A&L we headed down to Samipata, a quiet spot in the mountains on the edge of the Amboro national park and home to the most easterly Inca ruin (and the first we´ve seen).On our way there we stopped at some water falls, and braved the freezing water for a uberpower shower, whilst waking up to some more waterfalls we were greeted by a squealing running pink blob (naked girl).

We stayed at La Vispera, organic farm, in a Cabaña with a Chimenia which helped us to over come the cold nights, and relax after all the walking we did.

As this was the weekend of voting for local autonomy (see BBC news for info) the local Inca ruins El Fuerte (the strong one) were closed, presumably so the workers could vote. Andy suggested that we should probably try and get in anyway as the entrance was merely a gate house. So off we went, and right Andy was, in fact we were joined by 4 local school kids whose dad had dropped them off for the day. We did actually have to scramble under a fence at the entrance, assisting the kids, and going past a sign that basically read ¨touch the stone and get a free trip to prison¨. So we enjoyed the place to ourselves whilst keeping an eye on the nippers, however, when we stopped for a picnic we let the kids go ahead out of sight, and when we did eventually catch up with them we were greeted with the sight of them screaming and running across the huge stone. I´m only annoyed I didn´t get a picture of them sitting on the thrones. Our saving grace was that the exit gate was unlocked.

The following day was spent in the Amboro national park with Don Giberlto a local guide. It was an absolutely stunning place, amazing views and walking through giant fern forests, including a quick visit to an unexcavated pre inca site.

For our journey to La Paz, Hannah and I selected the cheapest semi cama bus available, saving us 3GBP from the most expensive fare, having paid we started to worry as we would have to spend 16hrs on a bus with no toilet. All turned out good though and as it turned out it was the best coach in the bus station, movies in English, and lack of toilet meant no stinkers wofting about. Getting a bus for so long at a time eventually becomes an art, and you get used to essentially dehydrating, and starving, yourself so you can sleep through and not have to face squeezing ´one´ out on a moving bus or in v.unsantitary bus stops.

Got to La Paz with a very light head enjoying the fumes (exaggerated by the lack of oxygen and other elements found in the air at normal ground level). Talking of squeezing, I had the displeasure of emptying my whole digestive system, which now seems to be a theme with me and altitude, having had a similar experience 2 years ago (play simultaneous sound of Trumpet and Fog Horn (Thanks Jay (How´s JoBerg?))).

My escape from my personal altitude hell was planned as cycling down the world's most dangerous world. Always good for someone with alluded sickness, but I luckily woke up feeling much better. So after checking over my full suspension downhill beast for safety, putting my bike mechanic skills to work from my London bike shop management days, and I would definitely say it was in better nick than Rob´s (buddy from Scott Wilson) Mudlube TM and Sidewinder TM componented machine (although I have had to disband the Merry Fork Naggers on written confirmation of upgrades, however, photo evidence required, please).

Right then the worlds most dangerous road...we obviously picked the company with the best reputation (we´re learning) and were lucky to get Rob , complete legend, as our guide.

And as if more evidence was needed on how narrow this gringo trail is, Dan is from Rob´s (buddy from Scott Wilson) neck of the woods living close to the Quantocks, and also knows someone from, the eighth wonder of the world, Colden Common.

So the ride, ace, many of the drops of 600m or more were cloaked in cloud (we were in a cloud forest) which helped with the fear factor. Dan, and the other guides, were thoroughly professional and whilst assisting people with their techniques added lots of horror stories to ensure that they kept the reins in during the 4700 to 1100m decent.

I´m currently hoping to go on another, more technical, ride; but this may have to wait till Peru/Ecuador.

After the ride we stayed in Coroico a laid back town, where our hostel room had amazing views over the surrounding cloud forest; the way the clouds came and went changed the view in quite a mystical way . During our stay Hannah and I cut each others hair, going for the local mullet styling.

Our onwards journey was into the jungle, to Rurrenabaque. Our guide book stated the journey was a bumpy 15hr ride which could be extended by any number of days depending on the rain conditions. What it didn´t say was that the it used the worlds most scariest road, a road very similar to the worlds most dangerous road, but with more traffic. To improve safety the traffic drives on the left, due to the fact that the cliff is on the left and as the driver is on the left he can stick his head out of the window to see how close to the edge of the cliff he is. The road is generally only 3m wide, and as we were going down hill we had the pleasure of giving way to oncoming traffic, which at its scariest point meant reversing back to a previous corner with the driver squeezing every spare millimetre from the cliff edge on our left and with the back end going over the cliff corner until the people sitting at the back (the back seats were further back than the back wheels) had the pleasure of looking over said cliff edge and screaming their displeasure to the driver.

At least on the bikes we were in control, and having feared for our lives we really felt let down by the guide books which should say get the plane if you can afford it!

At least Rurrenbaque was worth the journey, hot and sunny and surrounded by lush green jungle...and Mosquitos:( After a trip to the tourist office and getting some recommendations for a tour into the Pampas (a bit like the Pantanal) where we would cruise around in a boat for 3 days looking at wildlife, including turtles and amazonian pink dolphins .

The tour was brilliant, great guide Ovidio genuinely knowledgeable, made even more entertaining by Tom the Ozzie and his speedo wearing antics. The highlight of the tour was swimming with the Dolphins, which after getting bored by us, persuaded us to leave the water by catapulting water at us with their tail fins (the photos of the dolphins are pretty poor, but see video footage below (there is lots more but slow upload so youll have to wait for our return).

As you can image we decided to fly back to La Paz , and that´s were we´ll spend the next couple of days acclimatising.

Well done if you got this far. How´s tings back home?

Peace, T