La Paz

We arrived in La Paz which would be our last destination and final day with Kike as our guide. The following night we would meet our new guide who would be our Peru Guru. We got to reception and got our rooms, and looked at our note from our new guide. 'Henry' introduced himself in the note and said to meet in the hotel restaurant, and we also noticed another 10 people would be joining our group! This was an exciting yet daunting idea as we had been such a small group for so long, however we would be losing Sun and Christina from our original group.  Susan and Melisa were also nervous as they would be joined by another Melisa in their room for the duration of our stay in La Paz

We had 4 days in La Paz, so it was one of the stops we could relax in and actually unpack our bags, as we had a few days to explore. The group went out for lunch to an English style pub and decided to have a look around the famous La Paz markets for some last minute Bolivian shopping. We also took a detour down the witches markets, which had incense, tiwanaku figurines and the gory llama phoetuses! 

We also caught another Bolivian parade in the street which was very noisy, and full of colouful clothes and dancing.

Awayo Textile Guitar Cases

We spent a good deal of money on presents and general tat. That night was our final meal with Kike as our guide, however he had a few days in La Paz and decided we were cool enough to stick around with afterwards. We went to his friends Thai restaurant, where he also invited his friend who would tell about the death road mountain biking we'd been tempted to do. The death road is a small thin trail that goes down a mountain side with a sheer drop for the majority of the way. Many cars have gone over the edge and also many cyclists if they haven't been paying attention! You can see why Kike needed a professional to sell it to us. We decided to bite the bullet and do it the following day, as it included all the safety gear and lunch. We carried on with dinner and ordered our Thai food. Steph went for a mild Thai green curry, whilst Tom went for a Pad Thai. Unfortunately it would be Tom to get ill that evening, and we don't know if was a late reaction to the malaria tablets or if it was the questionably fresh prawn curry! Kike said his thank yous and goodbye speech, and we headed home to fight over the toilet.

The following day was a big one for us. We had to survive the most dangerous road in the world, and then try and make a good first impression that evening with our new group. Kike officially went from guide to friend, as he was now off duty and wanted to join us on the Death Road even though he's done it many times before and lived to tell the tale. We got up and got picked up by the Altitude biking team. Sun and Swiss Thomas also came along for the scenery but didn't fancy the biking! They drove us out of La Paz which gave us an idea of how densely it was populated. We headed out of the city and we headed up into the mountains.

 They geared us up in protective clothes, and we started our cycle down a smooth road to get us used to the bikes and practice braking... A lot. 

We stopped for a snack then headed to the very top of death road where we hyped ourselves up and started the daunting cycle. It was really bumpy and very sore on the bum, plus it was slightly wet so braking to hard could result in a slide to far. The weather wasn't great so there was a fog clouding some of the views. This was probably a blessing disguise as the sheer drop could have spooked us but we cycled along blissfully unaware. The weather was really temperamental and we stopped at the most famous drop to take pictures and in each one the weather was different. 

At that altitude, a lot I people say you get all four seasons in one day. The guide took our pictures as personal cameras are not allowed on the trail as people have died from focusing on their selfies!! We also had our own personal paparazzi, as Thomas and Sun would zoom last us in the van taking pictures. We got to the end with no injuries (apart from Susan zooming round a corner and landing in a bush), and we got given a t shirt as well as had victory photos taken.

We stopped at a hotel for lunch and then went back to La Paz. The girls were told new Melissa was in their room, and we got showered and ready to greet the group.We knocked on the girls onto the way up to the room and met new Melissa who was a friendly Australian lady. The 5 of us headed upstairs to the restraunt and saw a few new faces sitting there. Unfortunately some of the groups flights were delayed so we would meet them the next day. We met Scottish Andrew, Polish American retired couple Andrés and Bossana, and Australian cousins Elanna and Kate. We also met our new guide Henry who seemed a bit more serious than our other guides (or so we thought). Henry was a Peruvian local, and lived in Cusco. He had previously been an inca trail guide, and had done the trek over 500 times! He briefed us about what our Peru journey would involve and what we should expect. He also told us the following day we would visit a Tiwanaku ancient site so to be up early for a bus. 

After this we headed out to dinner. On the way out we saw Kike looking lonely in the foyer so invited him along too. Henry was unaware he was another G adventures guide, so Kike was on a mission to be a bit meddlesome and to pretended to be an annoying tourist and test Henry .We went back to the English pub and ordered burgers bigger than our heads while we got to know our new group. We told Elanna and Kate about our day at death road, and they decided to miss the Tiwanaku site and do the death road the following day instead. This meant there were 2 spaces on our trip, and as Sun and Kike were still in the area, they came along instead. The night started to get a little boozy, with Henry realising Kikes game and thankfully seeing the funny side. The two bonded and started buying rounds but once again our tummies had other ideas than a boozy night out in La Paz. Getting reputations of losers, we returned to our hotel with our tails between our legs.

The next day was the Tiwanaku site, and Kike appeared smelling still of booze, and acting like he hadn't slept much of it off. Henry however, was nowhere to be seen, and we received a message saying he'd had a hotel mess up and had to stay behind. He later admitted he too was feeling slightly worse for wear! We did however get to meet the late arrivals to our new group, another pair of Australian friends, Maryanne and Ryan, and Irena and Elana, an older pair of ladies who had been friends for a long time. 

(pictures of the new group will follow soon so you can put names to faces)

We boarded our coach and met our new female guide for the day who gave us some interesting facts about Bolivia whilst we drove through La Paz. 10% of Bolivia's market is legitimate leaving a staggering 90% black market. This explains why Bolivias economy is in such bad condition and why it is the poorest country in South America. She also told us the history behind why the bolivian style of dress is so unusual. They initially wore such large hats to make fun of the Spanish women when they invaded the country, and the woman wear such heavy beads at the ends of their braids to make their hair grow faster.

We had to head upwards for the Tiwanaku site, so Melisa suffered really badly with altitude sickness that day. The Incas are often the most well known ancient people in Peruvian/Bolivian history, but the Tiwanaku people actually existed far before and for a much longer period of time, roughly from around AD 300 to 1000. They also had a strong influence on the Incan traditions that are so historically prominent today. These people were also very clever and inexplicably good at accuracy when it came to building. The buildings we saw were all incredibly straight with perfect right angles, and it is still a mystery today as to what made them so straight, and how they measured them to be that way with such rudimentary tools available to them at that time. Our guide explained to us about the largest pool they made, in a shape to reflect the stars and how Pacha Mamma (mother earth) was their God and everything should be made to please her. Henry would often pour a drink on the floor as a gift to Pacha Mama before drinking it himself, so it is still a belief that is widely practiced today.

The Tiwanaku people also wore metal bands around their heads to deform their skulls and elongate them. This is often reflected in their sculptures and rock carvings as can be seen below. These same statues are often engraved and carved with patterns and imagery of various influential figures and animals in the Tiwanaku history one example being the puma.

There was also a sun gate, which would make the sun shine at both sun rise and sun set. This was an indication of how important mother earth was to the Tiwanaku people, and how they viewed both the days sun and the nights stars as a powerful influence and a strong connection to Pacha Mama.

After our tour we went to a small stall and bought some Tiwanaku souvenirs to send home. They were small keyrings, handmade with slate made by the women selling them. We bought one of each figurine to bring luck to our families. Steph bought the Pacha Mama, (mother earth) the three headed woman who brings good luck for her mum (and also because the three heads looked like her and her sisters) and her Dad the frog figurine, who brings luck in professionalism and money. Tom bought the traditional Tiwanaku sculpture, the shape to reflect the stars, and also the Turtle, who brings health and long life. For ourselves, we bought the Condor figure, who brings luck to travellers!

That evening we got back to the hotel to find out the best news. Guilia, our Brazil guide was in La Paz and had agreed to meet us along with Kike for dinner! We had missed Guilia so were so glad to hear from her. We decided on a steakhouse just down the road from our hotel, and Steph went for a Jack Daniels flambeed steak, and Tom a tasty looking burger. Tom was still really unwell from the night before so didn't eat much of his at all, but Steph having recovered from her sickness destroyed the whole large steak and chips, making up for the food she'd been missing out on.

It was a lovely way to say goodbye to Kike and Guilia, as both guides had been so different from each other, but both so passionate, insightful and entertaining. It also gave us a chance to also say goodbye to Sun who would be leaving our group the following day. He was a lovely member of the group, and an incredibly interesting man who took some lovely pictures of us all, and who loved a glass of red at any time of the day.

After our dinner we packed our bags and went to bed after a cuddle with everyone. The following morning we boarded Henry's bus to go cross the Peruvian border and head to Puno. Guilia had left at 6am but Kike came out to wave us goodbye. We pulled away from the hotel and we waved Kike off down the road until he was out of sight.