Travel Blog: Day 33

Update: I found the picture CD from the Death Road trip and added some pictures to the second gallery (click on the second picture).

Sorry, but this post is goint to be a long one. So many things have happened since last time...

My little trip to Uyuni was stressful but worthwile. I couldn't really sleep on the nightbus on our way there because the last 3 hours of the ride were on a very rough, unpaved road. We got out in the city of Uyuni at about 7 in the morning and at first I was shocked by the desolateness of the place. It reminded me of Mos Eisley....just without the people and the action. The town was a dead place surrounded by barren lands. It got a little better later on when there were actually some people in the streets. But enough of that. We (Oli, the English guy, and I) booked a tour starting at 10:30 and somehow managed to pass the time until then. When the time arrived we got into a Toyota Landcruiser (Bolivia is totally "Toyota land") together with 4 other tourists and the guide. First we went to the "train cemetery" where you can climb the old train wrecks. After that we headed out into the Salt Flat which is the world's largest with covering more than 10.500 square kilometers. It was quite impressive to be totally surrounded by white...only the mountains at the horizon hinted that it does not go on forever. Basically in the middle of the desert is the "Incahuasi island" - a small mountain covered with lots of really tall cactuses. This was when the battery in my camera went dead. I will try to get my hands on some of the "funny pictures" we took and show them to you later.
On our way back we experienced another highlight. A tire of the Landcruiser blew at about 100 km/h. The driver handled it expertly but the replacement of the tire took a loProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

time since the car jack did not work properly.
Since I definately did not want to spend the night in Uyuni I took another night bus back to La Paz. This time I did succeed in catching some sleep even though it got really cold during the last 3 hours or so.
So I was back in La Paz for Halloween. I actually got a "costume". OK, it was only a wig but I did not feel like spending a lot of money on a costume. I went to a Halloween party at Loki Hostel with 2 guys I had formerly met in Cusco. The party was OK but the downer was that I lost my cell phone. Or got it stolen. Who knows? Tried everything to get it back - in vain. Shit. But cannot help it now.

I tried to set my mind to more pleasant things by going to a Bolivian football game. I paid about 2€ to get a ticket for the game of the year - the local derby between "Bolivar" and "The Strongest". It was quite a good game and Bolivar won it 3:0. The only downside was that they do not sell beer in the stadium :-(

I was wrong when I wrote last time that the "Death Road" descends almost 3000 m...actually it is more like 3600 m. But let's start at the beginning. I really wanted to do the trip with a company called "Pro Downhill" which was recommended to me by several people. I couldn't book the tour with them though, because they were closed on Sunday and on Monday - the Bolivians conveniently shift a bank holiday to Monday if it falls on a Sunday. So I had to book with one of the companies whose office was open on Monday since Tuesday was my last full day in Bolivia. I ended up booking at an agency called "Aka Pacha Travel" which I really cannot recommend. The bikes were basically crap. Worst thing was that the brakes were not as good as you would need on a dangerous road like this. When the road was really steep the bike hardly slowed down if I pulled the rear brake as hard as I could. Also the suspension didn't really work and neither did the gearshift. Well I am glad I survived. The trip was more exhausting than I thought and I can totally understand why some people fall off their bikes - the road is full of rubble and boulders. I came close to falling a couple times, too.
Somehow I cannot find the picture CD fro the trip so you have to be content with the pictures I took. I will try to recover the lost pictures from one of the outher guys on the tour.

Today I flew from La Paz to Santiago where I will spend the night before I head on to Rio tomorrow morning. I will get picked up from the hostel at 4:50 am. Yeah! I did manage to take a short walk though and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

PS: I have finished 4 books so far

• Der Schatz im Silbersee by Karl May
  
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (thanks to Olaf)
• Airframe by Michael Crichton
  
• "The Appeal" by John Grisham

It's just not easy to find really good books at the book exchanges in the hostels...