Saffa´s bringing sexy back in Peru.

After a hike to watch the sunset and an attempt by the gringos to take on the local s at a football match at 4000 feet altitude, (4 - 0 ) locals, we had dinner ( see previous post) and then got dressed in our local traditional costumes for the disco being held at the local discoteque.

The local band started hitting the bass aroung 8pm and we were called by our moms to get it down on the dance floor. ..... This video was going to be edited for various reasons but Mike and myself decided to put it on the blog nontheless.

My partner was our adopted mother ( Rosa)... it can be seen that she was abit stiff in her movement so I tried to mix it up with a little 360 deg turn. Thought it was appropriate at the time.!!!!

Group photo above named: Amanatani Alumni 2009

The Adoption

Itinery for the following 2 days consisted of making our way through to the Peruvian border to a small town on the lake called Puno. The bus ride was about 3.5 hours and once again I got the 4 way inspection of the passport by border control as I am South African. Once we exited the bus we were approached by a tour salesman named Oscar who scaringly manged to close the deal quite easily. The package included hotel accomodation for one night, hotel pickup, boat transfers to the 3 islands on the Lake and all meals included. After an early start the next day our ferry left the Port of Puno and made its way to the first island of Uros. Uros was an island made completely of reeds and inhabited by a few hundred people. Our guide Bruno gave us an introduction on the boat before making our stop. We were welcomed by the locals who gave us a short introduction of the island and then we preeeded to take photos , buy goods etc. On our departure we were serenaded with local songs as well as the phrase Asta La Vist Babe.... making it a little commercial.


The next island 3 hours away was called Amantani and this was where all our fun was too begin. On our arrival we were allocated to a local family of whom we were to stay that night with. You can get an idea of what the accomodation was like from the video below. Meals were extremely fun as we sat in the small hut in the right of the video. Converstaion was pretty stale as Mike and myself were terrible with the local language, Spanish, and we were expecting a bit much from a family who inhabited an island for 70 years of their life to know any English. Most of the time around the dinner table was spent looking up single words in the dictionary to try make basic conversation. Mikes phrase books which consisted of ´´ Can you call me a cab´´ and ¨please can I have the bill¨ were obviously not going to cut it....see video. Repitition of the words Gracia´s and Ahhhh Mooi Bien came from our corner most of the night.

Lake Titicaca and Isle De Sol

After making the most of my last night in La Paz, I left Mike who decided to stay on for the 6 nations test, and headed through to Isle Del Sol which is an island on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. The lake is known as one of the highest fresh water lakes in the world and is surrounded by various islands inhabited by local Bolivians. The trip took about 4 hours in total and included a ferry ride across to the small town of Cocacabana. Not the greatest coastal town I have ever seen but it catered for all our basic needs before we caught another 1.5 hour ferry through to the south end of Isle De Sol. On our arrival we were requested to pay the usual landing tax of 5Bs and had to climb 210 steps to our hostel Las Islas. We manged to pick up a 3 bed hostel ( myself, Dorris (Austrian) and Adam (South African), for 25bs each which was our cheapest accommodation to date. Dinner was a simple set menu consisting of soup, fish and banana with chocolate sauce. The next days itinery consisted of catching a ferry to the north of the island, finding various Inca ruins and then doing a 20km walk back to the south side of the island. The walk was quite strenuous but i manged to get some amazing scenery shots and it was good to walk off the previous 3 night binges of La Paz. Mike joined late in the afternoon and then we all headed off the island to catch our bus to our next destination the following day.

The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

Explanaition: The North Yungas Road (also Grove's Road, Coroico Road, Camino de las Yungas, El Camino de la Muerte, Road of Death, and Death Road) is a 61 to 69 km road (depending on source) leading from La Paz to Coroico, 56 km (35 miles) northeast of La Paz in the Yungas region of Bolivia. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the "world's most dangerous road".^[1] One estimate is that 200-300 travelers were killed yearly along the road.^[1] The road includes crosses marking many of the spots where such vehicles have fallen.

A South Yungas Road (also Chulumani Road) exists that connects La Paz to Chulumani, 64 km (40 miles) east of La Paz, and is considered to be nearly as dangerous as the north road.

The road was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners. It is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest region of northern Bolivia, or Yungas, to its capital city. Upon leaving La Paz, the road first ascends to around 5 km, before descending to 330 m (1079 ft), transiting quickly from cool altiplano terrain to rainforest as it winds through very steep hillsides and atop cliffs.

Because of the extreme dropoffs of at least 600 meters (1,969 ft), single-lane width — most of the road no wider than 3.2 meters (10.5 ft) — and lack of guard rails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain and fog can make visibility precarious, the road surface muddy, and loosen rocks from the hillsides above.^[2]

One of the local road rules specifies that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road. This forces fast vehicles to stop so that passing can be negotiated safely. Also, vehicles drive on the left, as opposed to the right like the rest of Bolivia. This gives the driver in a left-hand-drive vehicle a better view over their outside wheel, making passing safer.

On July 24, 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia's worst road accident

WTF was i thinking. Somehow in the midst of travelling I forget that I have one fear in life: Heights. This was not an issue for me when paying BS600 for my Gravity lead expedition down the worlds most dangerous road.

We all arrived early on the morning of the 18th and packed up our bus for our day trip. The weather was cold and when we reached the the starting point of our mountain bike tour it was pouring with rain. Our guide Mike ( Swedish) explained to us the general rules that needed to be followed and more or less how the tour was going to unfold. The total cycle was 60 kms basically downhill and consisted of both tar but mostly gravel. Our group consisted of around 10 people and we were followed by a support bus.

Once we completed the tar road of the tour we hit gravel. It was pretty terrifying. We road along cliff drops of up to 100m in parts and along roads 3m wide. The total cycle taking 6 hours in total. I cant really explain how i was feeling cause i was riding on adrenalin the whole way. Fatality stories were explained to us before we left which just added to my nausea. Apart from the above it was the most exciting adventure tour i have done to date and so well worth the experience.

See the link below for a full photo experience of the tour.

The Worlds Most dangerous road picture show

La Paz and St Patricks Day

La Paz (Full name : Nuestra Señora de La Paz) is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of La Paz Department. As of the 2001 census, the city of La Paz had a population of 789,585^[2], and together with the neighboring cities of El Alto and Viacha, make the biggest urban area of Bolivia, with a population of over 1.6 million inhabitants (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica). Located at an altitude of 3,660 metres (12,008 ft), it is the world's highest capital city.

As La Paz is the capital of Bolivia it is deffinately the most civilised. We booked into a reccomended hostel in the Lonely Planet Guide called Adventure Brew. The name created from its local brewery and adventure trails. We managed to book a double room the first night but had to move to a 12 and 8 bed dorm each night therefater. This breaking my maximum 6 bed room acceptability. Each night on the roof they would hold different functions including trival pursuit, pajama parties and St patricks day celebreations.

We spend the 1st day we arrived walking around the city soaking up the citys culture and pollution. Hawkers of every kind can be found on the street corners with taxis and busses covering the streets.

We met various Gringos the first night at the hostel bar and then were taken to the local bars and clubs. Our second night we celebrated St Patricks day as there was a large irish backpacker community at the local hostels. Unfortunately Mike took the celbration too far and I had to put him to bed by 1 am . Think the pictures you can tell why.

Our main reason for coming to lap paz was to mountain bike the worlds most dangerous road and visit an active prison called San Pedro Prison, an equivalent to the prison in Prison Break 3, just with real life "Tea Bags".

Bus From Hell

For every most dangerous road deserves the most dangerous bus. We left Uyuni at 7 pm and took our seat in a Bolivian semi carma. This would be equivalent to a South African Golden Arrow bus. Even though there were say 40 seats, there were 60 people. The bus had no suspension and lacked any 4 x 4 tyres for the ruggud terrrain we were travelling. People who did not have seats stood or fell a sleep in the isle. Mike had an old lady rest her head on his knee for most of the trip. A toilet stop seemed out of the question and when we finally made the stop, Bolivian woman squatted next to the bus. At 4 am we had to take change bus and drive another 3 hours to La Paz. Wish I had taken more photos but felt it was not adequate.

Fear and Loathing in Uyuni

Rubbish,gringo's,markets and pizzerias basically would be the words to describe Uyuni. Really not a place you want to spend a night but do to timings etc we did. After staying one night we caught a bus with Chris and Claire through to La Paz.