mccullochblog

Why it´s called Adventure Travel

The road from La Paz to Coroico proudly bears the twin monikers ¨The most dangerous road in the world¨ and ¨The Road of Death¨. Understandably then, Emma and I decided to spend today taking part in a 38 mile mountain bike ride on that self-same road.

In case you´re wondering, no, we´re not completely insane. Aside from being the Bolivian motorists favorite highway from which to plunge themselves and their vehicles down vertical escarpments hundreds of meters deep, the Road of Death also boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in Bolivia, combining, as it does, the incredible mountains of the Cordillera Real with the lush green hillsides of the lower mountain valleys.

Still, the Road did rather live up to its name. By the end of the six hour ride, one of our party was in hospital having his elbow sewn up, while three others were splattered in blood, having also taken high speed tumbles off their bikes - fortunately without also going headfirst down one of the aforementioned escarpments.

And the adventure didnt end there - in fact the most fearsome part was still to come - the three hour  return journey up the road of death - in the DARK!!! For the first ninety minutes I could remember nothing of our six hour downhill ride, all I could think was PLEASE dont drive off this cliff, PLEASE DONT DRIVE THIS MINIBUS OFF THAT CLIFF.

Anyway, the driver, despite being accompanied by a high-volume Bolivian thrash-punk soundtrack, managed to get us home. And it WAS a great day. I would simply recommend you take a parachute if you are thinking of trying it some time.

B O L I V I A !!!

By way of a quick visit to Miami Beach, Florida, Emma and I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia at 6am this Sunday morning. It was still dark, but somehow there was nothing frightening about our arrival in South America´s second poorest country - well, apart from the man sleeping in the middle of the main road that leads from the airport to the city. Fortunately, our driver did a nice job of not killing him, assuming he wasn´t already deceased.

Two hours sleep later and we opened our eyes and lungs to this fantastic bustling city and its high-altitude air. We´ve managed breakfast and a bit of a stroll so far. Naturally, we´re now having another rest courtesy of a Web cafe, but we have big plans for this evening and tomorrow once we get more accustomed to breathing and walking around VERY SLOWLY.

Tonight we´re off to find a Pena - a traditional Bolivian folk music venue - and then tomorrow we´re either off to Lake Titicaca or Tiwanaku (an ancient Inca city) - depending on whether we can book the tour we want this afternoon (being a catholic country, almost everything is closed today!!).

In any case we´ve got two days to stroll among the markets (dried Llama foetus anyone?) and see a few La Paz sights before we join the rest of our group and head off to Sucre. We´ve already bought good luck talismans each, and Emma has a splendid Alpaca hat that I'm sure she'll be wearing in the office when we get back.

Oh, and don´t anyone tell Emma´s dad that she´s been drinking Coca tea - it´s just medicinal - honest!!!