Death Road MTB, La Paz, Bolivia

Well, this was one activity I swore that I was not going to do. Anyone who knows me, knows that I´m the worlds biggest wus when it comes to sketchy roads and drivers I don´t trust.

The idea of biking down the worlds most dangerous road wasn´t too bad. I just had to take it at my own pace and try not to let my brake fingers cramp up. But having to endure the ride back up in the hands of the standard maniacal Bolivian driver was what really scared me.

The ride down began on the new road, which was generally well sealed and had guard rails. The most dangerous bit was the erratic traffic! Once we got onto the Death Road proper, the road was gravel, very narrow (only 3m at one point) and with sheer drops of more than 100m followed by very steep terrain a further 600m to the valley below.

We dropped more than 3.5km, from the summit at 4700m to the town of Corioco at 1200m. The ride back up hill was terrifying (for me) but contrary to all expectation, we arrived safely back at the hostel after an "interesting" day out.

At "La Cumbre" the summit of the North Yungas Road.

Good times on the "new road"..

Nice drop offs on the Original Death Road..
(I´m the one right at the back..)

Peering over the edge

Isla del Sol, Bolivia

Fresh to Bolivia, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch in Copacobana at a wonderfully cheap price. A lazy afternoon was had and preperations for the overnight to Isla del Sol were made.

The morning ferry was definately the slow boat, perhaps 5 knots at best. On the way over we spotted a Hydrofoil zipping accross the lake. Toby and Steph gave me looks that said "Why didn´t we take that ferry?"

Isla del Sol is one of the bigger islands on Lake Titicata. The lake level sits at 3810m and is shared between Peru and Bolivia. From Isla del Sol, you could make out all the major glaciated peaks of the Royal Range to the North East, whilst back towards Peru you could barely make out the foothills surrounding the far shore.

The walk around Isla del Sol was pretty low key. There was one main tourist path, that avoided the agriculture on the island, but took you to some interesting bays, lookouts and cultural sites. All along the way there were "Boleterias" or Ticket offices that would charge you 5 to 15 Bolivianos (1 to 3 NZD) to pass through.

Near the end of our first day, I suggested that we stop at a restuarant that had nice views and served cold beers. Just as we began on our second beer, we collectively figured out that the restaurant was infact the hotel that we´d booked for the night! (at 80 Bs. it was a high end spot, but still very cheap at 16 NZD).

The slow boat to Isla Del Sol

Breakfast time

Challapampa Bay

Sunset from our hill top hotel

Heading down into Yamani for the ferry ride back to Copacabana

Manu National Park, Amazon Basin, Peru

Manu National Park is regarded as one of the worlds hot spots for biodiversity. Which apparently means that if you visit the Amazon in Manu, youre probably going to see some cool stuff.

Getting to Manu is a bit of a mission. From Cusco, you wind your way up over a 4000m pass, peering intently at the single carrige dirt road and hoping for the best. Then its an urelenting descent to from the Puna (high grass lands) through the Cloud Forest to the Jungles start at about 500m above sea level. 9 hours of sheer drop offs and having to play ´biggest car wins´on the frequent sections of road not wide enough to pass on coming traffic. Essentially the little car has to reverse to the next available bit of slightly wider road, and hope that there´s enough space to pass. Paint usually gets scraped off. Its pretty close…

From the sleepy town of Atalya, you board a motorised canoe (about 15m long..) and make your way for 5 hours down the fast white water of the Rio Madre de Dios (Mother of Gods River). Along the way there are plenty of birds to spot, but the real sightings begin on the journey up the Rio Manu´s more relaxed brown meanders into the reserved zone. Takes 3 days at a moderate pace to make it up there, but once there you´re in a wild life bonanza.

Daily activities included walks through the flat terrain, trips on paddle catamarans on oxbow lakes, ascents of viewing platforms and observing birds in camoflagued hides. Often we´d take a night walk, seeing all manner of insect plus plenty of frogs.

Our guide was named Darwin (excellent name for a nature guide) and he was extremely knowledgeable, spoke good english and was the source of much amusement through the trip. His favourite saying was “ Es un Disastre!” (its a disaster) when remarking on a bad photo you took, your failed pass when playing soccer or when the engine on our boat chose to stop working..

We had a good bunch of people on our group, which was handy as there was lots of down time getting between the places on the motor canoe and the bus.

It was pretty hot during the day, mid 30´s, but the humidity was the real killer. You´d just sweat standing there, so the cold showers at the lodge got plenty of use (up to 3 times a day). The photos i managed to get really didn´t do our sightings justice. A little compact camera is no good for monkeys in a tree 30m high, so the ones shown were when we could get pretty close to the wild life, which was generally pretty un fased by our presence.

An amazing experience indeed..

High quality bridge at Atalaya

The crew on the Motor Canoe

The Motor Canoe

Aeroplane Grasshopper

Some sort of tree snake

Out gunned by the professional wildlife photographer

Engine troubles...

Dozens of pirched birds on Rio Manu

Black Caiman

Darwin leads us through the Rain Forest

This tree developed 2cm long spines to protect it from the

ancient and now extinct 6m high giant sloth

Dan and friends on Lake Salvador

Cocha Salvador

Giant River Otter

Wooley Monkey

A column of Leaf Cutter Ants

Blue Pirana

Aint called the Rain Forest for nothing...

Tarantula at our Campsite

Red and Green Macaws at a Clay Lick

Long nose Bats in our accomodation

Photographing a column of Leaf cutter Ants

Upper Rio Madre de Dios

Macchu Picchu

Our overnight excursion to Macchu Picchu began at 6.30am, where we were picked up and delivered to the bus station. Our crazy driver made the 2 hour drive to Ollantaytambo in about 1.5 hours, arriving at the Train station nice and early.

Peru rail has a monopoly on transport and subsequently the prices are stiff… $40 USD for a 1.5hr train ride in a country where you can catch an 8 hour bus ride for about $10 USD.. Nether the less, the train ride was pleasant and quite spectacular.

Aguas Calientes (hot springs) town is the staging post for Macchu Picchu and is a total tourist trap, with countless restaurants, souvineer shops and hostals. The prices are twice or even three times Cusco, which is itself expensive by normal Peruvian standards..

Off the Train at Aguas Calientes

We spent our afternoon strolling the streets saying ´"No Gracias" countless times to all the restaurant touts and taking in the markets. Later on, we made a journey to the hot pools which were quite agreeable. Turns out Pisco Sours are quite tasty...

Next morning it was up at 4.40am to scoff breaky and meet our tour guide to catch one of the first busses up the hill. its an 8km 20minute ride up switchbacks to the entrance to the site. It felt a bit like Disney land, with recorded american voices telling us how to be careful and to enjoy our journey.. The crowds stalled at the entrance to the site taking photos by the dozen, but soon we found a little patch of grass to call our own and begin the tour.

Entering Macchu Picchu

No, its not photoshopped..

The tour lasted about 2 hours, and was rather interesting. Macchu Picchu is a pretty cool ruin, but the location is what really makes it. Perched precariously about 500m above the Rio Urubamba gorge, with steep Granite buttresses and pyramids in the valley and 5000m glaciated peaks behind.

The classic view of MP shows the Hill "Huaynapicchu" and we were lucky enough to get a ticket to climb to the top of the signature peak.

The track winds its way up the west face of the spire, occaisonally with exposure and often with cables in place. In one spot, you even have to crawl through a little cave! Other than the 700m or so of exposure in places, the most fascinating part is the houses, altars and terraces hanging precariously all around. This would not have been the place to go sleep walking....

Took about 35 minutes to climb the 230m to the summit, where we sat with the crowds, took photos and enjoyed the view. Flocks of butterflies wafted about the summit, making for a neat spectacle.

Crusing down after an hour or so, we stopped frequently to explore and to chill.

Through a wee cave on the climb


Resident on the Summit of Huayna Picchu

Looking back to Macchu Picchu and the Rio Urubamba

Yes, its steep, yes its exposed.. which made it all the more impressive.

Checking out one of the houses perched on the cliff

Alpaca roaming around Macchu Picchu...

Cusco

Having successfully booked our Amazon tour and trip to Macchu Picchu, we had a spare day to cruise round town and see a few sights.

Cuscos steep streets

Cusco has a beautiful center, with colonial Spanish churches alongside Inca walls and cobbled strees. There are several neat plazas, but all have the pox of a zillion tourist agencies complete with annoying touts. "Massage Amigo?" "Restaurant Friend? you want a drink, nice restaurant?"

Church in Plaza de Armas

We managed to escape from the city center to visit Sacsayhuaman archeological site. The site was 3 terraces of walls that streched for more than 100m. We bowed to touting and hired a guide for S/.30 (about $15 NZD) who gave us a pretty good tour of the site, showing symbologies, reciting histories and even trying to show us a Quechua healing hand...

Dinner was had at a very odd spot. For S/10 each, We found ourselves in a sit down restaurant, with table service, classical music and a view overlooking the street. The 10 Soles included a soup, starter, main and desert... Especially odd when you can wander down the street to gringo ground zero and pay $20 for a tiny pizza...

Steph dines in style (for $5 NZD)

Sacsayhuaman Archeological Site

See if you can spot the symbol of a Deer made by blocks in the wall...