May 10 - Death Road

The "Death Road" is La Paz's most recomended attraction by fellow travellers. You can't walk down the street without seeing at least 20 travel agencies selling trips on the Death Road(only two have a good reputation to travel with, going with one of the cheaper ones could mean death). The real question is why is this attraction so popular with tourists.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Death Road was built by military prisoners from Paraguay to create a link between La Paz and the Jungle. Rising 3,600m in 64km, this road is only 3.2m wide at some points (just wide enough for a truck) and was the only route to the jungle until 2006. The road gets it's well deserved name from the 200-300 people who died on it and the over 26 vehicles lost over the edge, every year the road has been open ... more than died in the war between Paraguay and Bolivia. The reason for these deaths, aside from the narrow road, is that at some points, there is a 600m drop over the edge, straight down. The only bright side to biking it these days is that the road is closed to public transport (due to construction work on the new road, it will be open to public transport for a month in the upcoming weeks).

Because of the reputation of this road, we opted to travel with one of the more reputable companies, Downhill Madness. This company supplied us with dual suspension bikes, full face helmets and a guide who worked as a paramedic in Germany and is well versed in high mountain rescues. Since there is a 3,600m vertical drop over the 64km of road, peddling was not that important as you were able to reach breakneck speeds thanks to gravity. The first half of the trip is on a wide paved road that serves as the alternative for public transport. It isn't until you get on the gravel road that the trip gets scary ... and I mean scary. This road had a lot of loose gravel and the guide stopped every 5-10 minutes to do a head count to make sure no one went off the edge (one of our guys did, but luckily it wasn't a dangerous section of the road and he got back on the bike unharmed). At each stop, in case we weren't scared enough, our guide would tell the story of the person for whom the corner is named.

It seemed every corner had a story about someone dying, and to be honest, most of the accidents are preventable. One such story tells about two guys who were joking around on the trail, bumping into each other and punching each other as they rode, that is until they hit too hard and one went into the wall and the other went off the cliff. Another is about a woman who was backing her bike up to make room for a truck going by, only to find she was too close to the cliff and over she went. We saw a car over the edge of the cliff that went there because the driver was drunk (the trip used to take up to 5 days for heavy trucks, so the drivers would chew coco leaves, drink alcohol and smoke to stay awake). We saw the site of the worst accident (100 people died on a bus that went over the edge), the last death (they think it was due to a heart attack ... no wonder given the height of the cliff). Our driver's only accident on the road was when he was hit off the side ... the car is still there. Neediess to say, these stories definitely made sure our adrenalin was pumping.

Now if the stories of the deaths and the height of the cliffs and the narrow road wasn't enough to scare you, there was even more to frighten you. First of all, because the road was so narrow, they changed the rules of the road so you are driving on the left side. This makes perfect sense, especially since the driver sits on the left and can look out his window to make sure he is still on the road when a truck passes. The problem is that when you are biking, the cliff is on the left side and the safe rock wall is on the right .... which side do you want to bike on? Next you have nice loose gravel and lots of rocks. When you turn left, you're scared of over-steering and going off the edge. When you turn right, you're scared the gravel will be too loose and you will go over the side. When there are no turns, you have to keep avoiding the rocks in the middle of the road to make sure you don't loose control of your bike (I hit a few of them on the way down, and let me tell you, you know you're alive when you hit them). Personally, I had my own unique issue to worry about, a guy who was showing off his mountain biking skills to his girlfriend, going very close to the edge, travelling fast, jumping and skidding his tires ... and he didn't feel he needed to give the person in front (me) 5m of space incase something happened. I seriously thought he was goign to hit my back wheel a few times and send me over the edge.

Now it isn't all doom and gloom on this road. Because you are on the edge of the Andes and the jungle, the view is remarkable. We started out with a beautiful, but cold day at the top (over 4,500m) then drifted into some cloud cover and then exited in the jungle. Rather breathtaking scenery all around us. We even got to cross two rivers (at the bottom where it was flat) by riding through them. At the end we had a nice lunch at a hotel in the jungle (even if the hotel was at the top of the hill in the town, and the road was so steep that the support vehicle couldn't get up it with us inside). Then we got to finish the day off by squeezing in a 15 passenger van (all 12 of us) and going on our lovely 4 hour drive back to La Paz for the night.

May 9 - Tiwanaku

Today was our last day of the GAP tour, but sadly most people didn't show up for the trip and instead opted to stay in La Paz and partake in a city tour. It was unfortunate that the group felt this excursion was unnecessary as they missed an interesting day, especially since most of them still had another two days in La Paz.

The Tiwanaku site is located about 1.5 hours outside of La Paz (main reason for most people not coming) and was the spiritual and political centre of the Tiwanaku culture, a pre Inca civilization that dated from 600BC to 700AD. With things still being discovered at this site, it was granted UNESCO world heritage status only a few years ago.

Our tour started with two different museums at the Tiwanaku site. The first of these museums housed only a statue and reed boat. The statue was the Megalito Bennetto Pachamama, the source of most of our knowledge of the Tiwanaku culture. This massive statue was carved in the resemblance of Pachamama (Quechwa for mother earth) and is covered with different symbols that have been interpreted to show the 4 seasons, 365 days of the year and symbols for the solstice and equinox. As we soon learned, this is all speculative and most of the information just gets sketchy. There was also a reed boat that was constructed to help show how the rocks had been moved across Lake Titicaca to this site. The plan is to move all the main statues and sun gate to this museum, away from the archeological site, so as to better preserve them.

The second museum was a little better, but was more like a grade 5 science project than a serious archeological museum. This museum’s focus was on the pottery found in and around the archeological site. The guide did her best to explain the findings, making some very bold claims including how some of the pottery represents Spaniards (even though they didn’t arrive for another 1,000 years after the fall of the culture) and Mongolians. As we had seen better museums of indigenous artifacts, this didn’t interest us much, and the bold claims just started to annoy us after a while.

The reason for these bold, unsubstantiated claims is that only 1% of the site has been excavated. The Bolivian government only needs about $10 million to fully excavate the site, but as of now have only received $1 million in funding. As such, our next stop on the tour, the actual archeological site, was an active site where discoveries were being made and excavated while we were there. While walking around you could see the remains of the religious pyramid that quickly faded into the dirt of the hill from which it is being excavated (they told us the culture built it and then buried it before abandoning the site ... yet again, a little far fetched, especially since Machu Picchu was naturally buried under dirt after only 300 years). There were also some bones being carefully excavated from the base of the pyramid.

The site is rather unimpressive at this time, but part of that has to do with having already visited the Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Even though it wsa fascinating to watch them actually excavate a new archeological site, it was more interesting to hear the guide’s interpretations of the ruins and how she presented them as fact (keep in mind only 1% has been uncovered so you can’t make assumptions ... it’s kind of like visiting only the subway of New York and determining that the entire United States is built underground). Some of her assumptions were based on the Sun Gate where she concluded the Tiwanaku culture had determined there were 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 12 months in a year, and 365 days in a year. Very interesting that they had invented the exact same calendar as the Europeans, especially since the closest culture to have developed a calendar were the Mayans, and they determined there were 20 months in a year (She did say that maybe their culture believed in 20 months, as behind the sun gate there was a wall with 10 large stones in it. She said they moved an idol from one stone to another to mark each passing month).

Her assumptions didn’t end there. The last site we visited, a sunken temple, she claimed was a place to worship the afterlife. She believed that the pyramid was to worship the sun and that above us, the sun temple (at ground level) was to worship the earth and the life we currently are living (forget that she also told us this was the astronomical observatory) and the sunken temple was for worshiping the afterlife (as you can see, they need to do some more excavation). The sunken temple though was incredibly interesting as its walls were adorned with over 100 carved heads sticking out of the wall. All in all this made for the most interesting part of the whole archeological site.

After lunch, we headed back to La Paz for some shopping around the hotel in the artisan markets, and a final dinner with the rest of our group at a lovely French restaurant. Looking back, this was a great group to travel with and the trip offered a wonderful overview of the Inca Empire.

May 5-8 - "This lake's called Titicaca. ...

The bus ride from Cusco to Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, took about six hours through some unbelievable scenery. The road followed a wide fertile valley that formed the perfect example of the Andean plateau. Small, adobe villages dotted the landscape, broken by glacial rivers and dried river beds with their exposed gravel basins. There was one stop along the way at the highest point on the pass where remarkably there were, yet again, stands selling various crafts and other items. It also, for some strange reason, had the cleanest public bathrooms in all of South America. I mean you could have eaten off the toilet.

We arrived in Puno quite late in the day with only enough time to have lunch at 4:30 and dinner at 8. So needless to say the only thing we did in Puno was eat.

The next morning we started our trip out to the islands around Puno. As we were spending the night on these islands, we stoped at the shops near the dock to pick up some gifts for the people we would be staying with. Most of the shops at bus stations only stock snacks, but these people have gotten used to gringo's buying gifts and they stocked their stands with fruit, rice, sugar and colouring books, along with the usual chips and pop.

The ride out to the first island was on a lovely picnic boat with an engine that overheated all the time. In fact for the whole 3 hour journey, one of the people operating the boat was sitting beside the engine cooling it with water. While he was cooling the engine, we wound our way through some of the reeds that grow in the shallower regions of the lake (the lake also descends to over 400m). Once out of the reeds, we saw some of the most beautiful water scenery I had ever seen. The water, a deep blue colour that almost matched the sky, made it look like all the islands were floating in the sky. To add to it you had the snow covered Cordillera Real mountain range off in the distance showing the far side of the lake.

The first island that we stopped at was Isla Taquile. Like most of the islands on the lake, this one was covered by terraced farm lands which, from a distance, make it look like someone took a pencil and drew lines across the island every few centimeters. We disembarked from the boat at one end of the island and then proceeded to wind our way around the island until we reached the main village where we learned about the people on the island and had a chance to explore the local market. This isolated island has created an interesting culture among it's 2,000 residents. For starters, the men's hats designate their status in life. If you have a brightly coloured hat, you are a leader. If you have a full red hat (which looks like a nightcap which you see in every illustrated edition of "The Night Before Christmas" ... they just sit on the top of your head just enough to make sure it doesn't fall off) you are married. And if you have a half red and half white hat, you are a single man (you live with your girlfriend before getting married on this island usually for a few years to make sure it will work out .... there is no divorce on the island. But be careful, if you have a child, you're getting married, no if ands or buts). The most interesting thing is that the men are the ones who do the knitting on the island, and as such are the ones that make their hats (when you go to the market, there is a women's craft level that has only half the amount as the men's).

Another interesting fact about the island is that it was the home of an exiled former communist leaning president of Peru. Because of his influence on the island, they have developed a very socialist society that actually has it's own rules and laws different from that of the rest of Peru. They superficially abide by those rules (take the mayor .... he really has no power on the island ... it's more of a "I feel like calling myself the mayor" type of job). As such, they have a very cooperative society. All the food is pooled together and everyone takes what they need, if you need a house, the whole island comes and builds it with you (it takes only a day or two to build a three bedroom house), and if you don't abide by the rules, you are exiled from the island (and if you don't leave, no one will talk to you or help you - a fascinating micro-society in the middle of the country.

After lunch, and dscending over 500 steps (ouch to Sandy with her bad knee) we got back on the boat to head to Isla Amantaní, the indigenous island where we spent the night. The ride over there provided us, yet again another beautiful view of the lake. When we arrived, we were greeted by a large party of the women who lived on the islands .... our mamas for the night.

Our mama's name was Flora, but when we found out she was sixteen, we opted to call her our sister. Her house was quite a way up the hill (40 minute walk) but when we got there we were happy we had gone that far since the night's activities were next door at the comunity centre. After we got settled at Flora's place (only Sandy and I stayed with her) she gave us hats, which she knitted herself, for us to wear. The purpose of these hats were not only to keep us warm (it was cold, and I'm from Canada so I know what cold is). Since all the gringos look the same, she could just look for her hat to find us. Armed with our hats, we headed off to play some soccer against the local people, and were told the only way we could beat the locals would be to score many points in the first two minutes, because after that we would be tuckered out by the altitude and they would dominate for the rest of the game. Needless to say, we lost.

As we had a hour or so before dinner, I opted to join a group of people who were going to climb one of the mountains on the island - Pachatata (father earth ... the other mountain was Pachamama). From the top of the mountain I had a wonderful view of the sunset over Lake Titicaca and some old ruins from a pre-Inca culture, the Tiahuanaco culture. The hike down was rather difficult in the dark, but I was well rewarded with a great dinner that Flora and her sister cooked (Flora lives with her sister and sister's children. Her parents moved to Puno while her younger sister went to school. Her sister's husband now lives in Arequipa ... about 10 hours away ... to work. The rest of her family, 9 in total, are spread all around Peru in search of work).

After dinner we got ready for the Incatec .... a chance for us to dress up in the indigenous costume and learn how to perform one of their local dances to traditional pan flute music. As Sandy and I did not have the traditional costume, Flora provided it for us and came up to our room to help us put it on .... or rather she dressed us. Oh, I forgot to mention, the rooms were small....we couldn't stand up in them. This combined with the fact we stretched 2 feet over Flora, posed a problem with Flora dressing us. In the end, my poncho looked great (I need one), and Sandy's skirt, blouse, belt and hat looked comical. The dance was tons of fun, and thanks to Flora, we managed to learn how to do it. Everyone was quite entertained by how we looked and only one could pull it off - Nina who, thanks to her blond hair, looked more like Heidi than an Inca.

After a freezing cold night, we got up and headed back to the boat to make our way to the Islas Flotantes, a collection of floating islands just off from Puno. The people who live on the islands moved out there hundreds of years ago in search of safety from conquering tribes in the area, including the Incas. They are constructed from reeds found on the lake and in total house a couple of hundred people. The people on the island we visited provided us with a demonstration of how the islands were built and showed us in some of their houses.

In order to construct a floating island, you start with sod from the bottom of the lake, then laying reeds on top, tie it all together, until you have an island. As the reeds rot away, you lay more down to keep the island floating. One of the most important things is to make sure you anchor your island (which can have as many as 10 houses on it ... these houses only last a few years as they are also made out of reeds) because if a wind storm comes up, you'll float away. One of the guys told us a story about not checking his anchor lines and woke up 5km away from his village. Now when you step on the islands you can tell they are made of reeds as every step is squishy, and apparently it is quite entertaining to see the kids take their first steps on dry land as they aren't used to the earth not giving way.

After our visit we headed back to Puno for a free afternoon where I finally got to visit the Naval Museum. I was quite excited to visit it since, as a sailor, I had always been fascinated by the highest navigable lake in the world, and the site of the only land locked country with a navy (Bolivia, and I don't blame them since every country around them has attacked and taken more than half of their land away from them). This museum was probably the smallest museum in the world. With only one room, it had a few ship models and some information on the Yavari Project (two boats that were built in England, shipped to Peru, taken by llama over the mountains in 2,766 pieces and put back together to become the first steamships on the lake ... it only took six years). It was rather comical, but I was quite happy to have been there since it has fascinated me for so long.

The next morning we made our way to La Paz and crossed the border from Peru into Bolivia. The bus ride was magical, following Lake Titicaca almost the whole way. The entertaining part was at the border. Manuel, our GAP guide, doesn't have a visa to work in Bolivia, so we were forced to pretend we didn't know him, and thus got no help from him. We managed to get across the border without any issues, but after you pass Copacabana in Bolivia, you have to get off the bus and take a ferry across the lake to get to the other side (the bus goes on one ferry and you go on another .... after seeing the boat that carried the bus, we are lucky it made it across). Here there was another border guard who caught Manuel and questioned him quite a bit looking for money. Thankfully Manuel just quit his advertising job at BBDO and was able to convince the guard that he was in fact in advertising. As we found out the next day, the group before us had their guide arrested and deported. He was forced to take a taxi and go the long way around the lake to get back into Bolivia and meet up with his group.

May 3-4 - Cuscotopia - The Sequel

We arrived back in Cusco early in the evening from our 4 day hike and spent most of the evening unpacking and putting our stuff in the laundry. For dinner that night we headed to a great restaurant recommended by multiple people. Sadly dinner left a sour taste in my mouth as two things happened. First, Kathleen brought about her "high maintenance" side when she looked at her lasagna and made sure everyone knew it looked disgusting and she refused to even try it (it looked pretty good to me). Then at the end of dinner she made a huge fuss that the restaurant had over-charged us (the bill was $811, the average meal was $50 and there were 16 of us .... you do the math) and people refused to pay their share of the bill. Somewoud not pay more than they woed, leaving the slack for other people to manage. Needless to say this had quite the negative impact on my evening.

The next day Sandy and I decided to take it easy as her knee was bothering her quite a bit. After a late morning start we headed out on the town. The highlight of the day was a parade which was occurring in the Plaza d'Armas, just outside of our hotel. This mostly military parade was to celebrate the Festival of the Crosses, where there are overnight vigils on the hill tops around Cusco. The parade (where we joined it) started with indigenous dancers in traditional costumes followed by a march past of various military detachments from the area. The best group to march past would have to be the search and rescue battalion. They not only were dressed in their full rescue outfit (high alpine rescue clothes, life jackets, repelling equipment and to top it off, diving attire, complete with air tanks and holding their flippers like they were rifles) but they also carried their white water raft in the parade with them. I've never seen anything quite like it.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We managed to bump into fellow GAP travelers at lunch and again at the art gallery (not a very good one) ... that would have been the highlight of the day for us. We did spend some more time shopping around the town as the textiles are out of this world and very inexpensive.