La Paz

The first couple of days in La Paz we just strolled about locally, as we both wanted quick easy toilet access, although we've both been grand really (and no dodgey drugs for me either (one of Sarah's antibiotics turned out, after I Googled it, to be quite dodgey in fact!)). Luckily this is the first time I've had any kind of illness since Kenya over a year ago, and even then both cases have been extremely mild and haven't hampered me at all, so fingers crossed it continues that way.

Anyway, we checked out most of the cool museums and quite a few of the cool restaurants and cafes (I've been really impressed with the number and quality). The best meal so far I think was on the 15th floor of the Presidente Hotel whose dining room has great views of all the lights of the city sprawled all over the surrounding mountainsides. I ordered huge prawns in Champagne sauce, Sarah had a huge slab of Argentinian steak (both of us together could only manage 3/4 of it), the price included a lovely big help-yourself salad bar, four beers between us, and the whole lot came to a whopping total of 20Euro!

A couple of days later we returned to the Presidente to take advantage of their pool, steam room and sauna (non-residents can use them when paying a fee). We spent the entire afternoon there just relaxing and alternating between the heated pool and the steam/sauna rooms and reading our books.

It's been a bit weird being back in La Paz, as I'd spent a few days here with Hanno on the last round-the-world trip 8 years ago. I checked out the hostel we stayed in then (it's a bit cleaner now, but basically the same), and also the main lookout point in the city, which made much of my previous time here come back to me. The city doesn't seem as physically spectacular a place as I remember it being though, even though the weather is better this time and we've had perfectly clear views of the beautiful triple-peaked, snow-capped Illimani mountain. It is, of course, still an amazing place, but the surrounding canyons and mountains just don't seem as shear or as high as I remember - all very strange really. There do seem to be a lot more women wearing the traditional dress and bowler hats though, which is all very cool, and the city does seem cleaner and more affluent (possibly due to bicentennial independence celebrations due for 2009), but then again I just think I didn't explore the city properly at all last time.

So of course we did the current 'must-do' La Paz activity of cycling the 'Death Road' (sigh!). This is a totally hyped up, pure tourist-trap thing that everyone goes on about here (but it is still worth doing of course!). Basically it involves riding down a mountain road that up until 2 years ago was regarded as the most dangerous road in the world. But 2 years ago they finished a new, safer road for all the traffic and now the only people using the original 'Death Road' are tourists on bicycles (there is an article here about the road that is typically paranoid (I'm referring to his attitude to paying more for 'safety'), but otherwise it's fair and accurate).

Anyway, being well used to over-hyped tourist activities, especially 'mad dangerous' ones, I took all the 'danger' references with quite a large pinch of salt, which was vindicated when we visited the biggest dedicated cycling operator (all the tour operators here offer the Death Road along with lots and lots of other trips, but this operator specialises in only cycling trips, and therefore charges more of course!). They explained that they offered bike trips ranging from Level 1 (Easy) to Level 5 (Extreme downhill with lots of climbing), and that the 'Death Road' was only Level 1! Hearing that I decided to book with the agent from our hostel, who had offered the cheapest price (we only checked a few places, all much the same), and to get a fairly basic bike (only front suspension not full, but with hydraulic bikes).

So we got up at 6:45 to meet for breakfast in our hostel at 7am, meeting the only 2 other tourists in our group, Adela and Nicoli from Switzerland (another advantage of avoiding the overpriced major operators is much smaller groups - meaning far less waiting around on the road for people to catch up - our guide even claimed he switched the operator he worked for because he was so fed up with large groups!). After getting all kitted up (helmets, gloves, raingear, etc.) we all got into the van and drove to the start point about 2 hours drive into the mountains. After a quick, but good, briefing from Victor our guide we set off in the freezing cold (luckily Nicoli had spare thermal gloves he lent me at our first stop, and they made the cold much more bearable for me).

Originally we rode in overcast skies, but very quickly we were actually in the clouds themselves (we started at 4750m, riding down to 1200m, over 3.5km vertical descent), and had to ride for a short time in light rain. The clouds continued for most of the ride, only getting the occasional clear views of the mountains all around us, which was a real shame. Anyway, we rode on asphalt for about 1 hour and on dirt track for about another hour with a few short stops along the way for photos, snacks and to warm up. Of course as we got lower the weather improved and it got quite warm, and towards the end Victor the guide really picked up the pace and myself and Nicoli got to have some great craic trying to keep up with him (the girls obviously being above our childishly boyish competitiveness).

So all in all it was a great day out, even if the clouds spoilt the views for much of it. It was a long day though, involving almost 6 hours driving in the van for only about 2 hours or so of cycling. As for all the hype, it really is quite annoying really, as the road is in great condition (for mountain biking), has very little or no traffic (we did pass two lads on huge BMW motorbikes who were obviously touring South America), and it's really wide - you'd have to be some kind of complete idiot to hurt yourself on it. Of course there will always be that complete idiot, some college kid with a hangover from the night before trying to out-impress his mates, but so long as that's not you you have nothing to worry about (although ironically enough, I reckon with the major overpriced 'we-are-the-safest' operators, you have a much higher chance of a collision with a nervous, inexperienced Epsilon when going with their large groups, but there you go!). But all the 'danger' hype just feeds the already overwhelming fear and paranoia that poor young kids have to cope with these days - all very sad I reckon (of course, all that paranoia also leads naive tourists to pay a lot more for very over-specified bikes and unnecessary extra equipment, like googles, knee-pads, full-face helmets, all of which I saw today - poor fools, you have to feel sorry for them really as most of them are on very tight budgets, and so shouldn't be throwing their money away so unnessecarily (I now reckon that our bikes didn't even need hydraulic brakes, so we could have gotten our trip even cheaper)!).

So after an early night and no fancy-dancy restaurant for dinner (unfortunately all these tour trips give you far too much food!), the next day we took local transport out to the Valley of the Moon. Since we had no idea where exactly to get out of the minivan, we actually ended up passing it completely. But luckily the guidebook had said that the same minivans also continue on to the zoo, and this was easy to spot as we approached it. So we strolled around the zoo for a few hours, the large number of jaguars being the highlight of course. The book said the zoo was a depressing place, in bad condition, but they've been renovating it recently and it's really nice now, clean and modern (although of course, it is still a zoo, with all the attendant moral issues that brings up).

So after a relaxed local lunch outside the zoo we caught a cheap taxi back to the Valley of the Moon, which was only a couple of kilometers back up the road. This is a series of natural rock formations that have eroded into towering columns and crevasses. It's nice for a stroll around for an hour or so. Then we caught another minivan back to the city and tried to book dinner in another of the city's fancy restaurants, Vienna, but they were closed Saturdays. So after checking out the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art (one of the best art museums I've been to on this trip so far), we had a great dinner in the restaurant of the 5-star Plaza Hotel (we just strolled in to check it out and it looked great). Again this was on the top floor, and this time offered great views down the main street (reminded me of the executive lounge in our hotel in Saigon years ago in fact).

The next day was Sunday, and we probably would have left La Paz but it was a religious holiday, and so transport might have been a problem (really I was probably just looking for an excuse to stay longer in La Paz, as I really like it). Anyway, it was nice to stroll down the main street and see all the various stalls and a few bands playing (including one interesting looking Heavy Mental band). We finally got to eat at the Vienna restaurant, and it had a lovely Sunday afternoon feel to it, being very popular with wealthy local familys. Later that evening we just went to the cinema, after getting well and truly stuffed at lunch, so we saw the latest Batman movie in a really impressive cinema.

So we finally leave La Paz later today. I´m just updating this blog while waiting for a local Indian restaurant to open for lunch, then after lunch we´ll try and get a bus to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca (as usual we don´t have anything booked or organised, we´ll just make our way to the bus station and hop on the next one going our way, it´s that freedom that this trip is all about really).