Saturday, April 29, 2006
Back In La Paz
Graeme, Greg and Guide guy are finally back in Le Paz.
Thursday
The day dawned fine and hopes were high that we would be in Le Paz by lunchtime. Maybe a bit high as we put together a survival kit (complete with map) for those from the Pampas. Alas just as we were about to leave the Hotel we got a call saying there were problems with the plane. We cruised into town, not wanting to miss out on our setas and after a couple of hours and lots of hazy communication we were told that all the flights had been postponed till Tuesday as the plane had eaten a bird and one of the propellers was severely damaged. The Israelis down in Ruru went spare but what else could one do. The military started to charge 3 times the price for a seat on their Hercules and they weren´t even flying till tomorrow as they didn´t have signoff from their superiors for the plane....Luckily Guy was with us and a few clls later we had a jeep leaving in 20 minutes. Eventually that turned out to be about 16:20 but at least we had a way out. It was interesting to note how the news that we had a way out spread round Ruru like wildfire so we hid at Bala tours. Unfortunately our chocolate cake man didn´t show up before we left so we got sick of biscuits on the way up. The only other option out is one hell of a 22 plus hr ride in a bus... We helped out some other tourists that needed to catch a flight the next morning outy of Bolivia, so there were 7 of us in the van in total.
Friday.
It was a long night with a 15 hour jeep ride cluttering over rough roads, one puncture and freezing conditions going over the pass on light to get into Le Paz. Memorable points of the trip were watching the dude repairing out flat tire at 1 in the morning. He used a pick to get the rim off the tire and was only wearinbg jandals. Btw - Bryan Adams dubbed in Spanish at 11pm doesn´t really cut it either... It was also weird, smiling away at 4am in the morning thinking that we´re just going to go up the World´s Most dangerous Road in a jeep after the driver had been going pretty much solid for 12 hrs...People pay good money to keep away from it !!! I don´t think the Swiss miss in the couple we helped out was too keen as she swapped seats with her boyfriend so that she wasn´t on the edge with the massive dropoff. I do admit that it was a bit more exposed than the Rimutaka hill rd, was gravel and didn´t have any fence on the outside. One we got up the top Guy then advised us that a bus with 40 people on had plunged over the edge in Feb. It went so deep into the valley that they didn´t bother going down to retrieve the bodies. It really is the frontier here...Not that I´m trying to put off the 15 that have their trip tomorrow - I´m sure you´ll make it through. We did, one just has to be flexible here. After a few zzs Graeme put up with Greg doing his last shopping. We then caught up with Guy to sort out the rail trail ride tomorrow and theZongo on Sun. Off to the locals market in town to get some machetes, saws, rope etc to build some track on our way down tomorrow. Should be a real adventure.
That´s it from me - will probably be the last update from Me as the last two days mtb will be full on - a fitting climax to what has been a really adventurous time in Bolivia.
Thursday
The day dawned fine and hopes were high that we would be in Le Paz by lunchtime. Maybe a bit high as we put together a survival kit (complete with map) for those from the Pampas. Alas just as we were about to leave the Hotel we got a call saying there were problems with the plane. We cruised into town, not wanting to miss out on our setas and after a couple of hours and lots of hazy communication we were told that all the flights had been postponed till Tuesday as the plane had eaten a bird and one of the propellers was severely damaged. The Israelis down in Ruru went spare but what else could one do. The military started to charge 3 times the price for a seat on their Hercules and they weren´t even flying till tomorrow as they didn´t have signoff from their superiors for the plane....Luckily Guy was with us and a few clls later we had a jeep leaving in 20 minutes. Eventually that turned out to be about 16:20 but at least we had a way out. It was interesting to note how the news that we had a way out spread round Ruru like wildfire so we hid at Bala tours. Unfortunately our chocolate cake man didn´t show up before we left so we got sick of biscuits on the way up. The only other option out is one hell of a 22 plus hr ride in a bus... We helped out some other tourists that needed to catch a flight the next morning outy of Bolivia, so there were 7 of us in the van in total.
Friday.
It was a long night with a 15 hour jeep ride cluttering over rough roads, one puncture and freezing conditions going over the pass on light to get into Le Paz. Memorable points of the trip were watching the dude repairing out flat tire at 1 in the morning. He used a pick to get the rim off the tire and was only wearinbg jandals. Btw - Bryan Adams dubbed in Spanish at 11pm doesn´t really cut it either... It was also weird, smiling away at 4am in the morning thinking that we´re just going to go up the World´s Most dangerous Road in a jeep after the driver had been going pretty much solid for 12 hrs...People pay good money to keep away from it !!! I don´t think the Swiss miss in the couple we helped out was too keen as she swapped seats with her boyfriend so that she wasn´t on the edge with the massive dropoff. I do admit that it was a bit more exposed than the Rimutaka hill rd, was gravel and didn´t have any fence on the outside. One we got up the top Guy then advised us that a bus with 40 people on had plunged over the edge in Feb. It went so deep into the valley that they didn´t bother going down to retrieve the bodies. It really is the frontier here...Not that I´m trying to put off the 15 that have their trip tomorrow - I´m sure you´ll make it through. We did, one just has to be flexible here. After a few zzs Graeme put up with Greg doing his last shopping. We then caught up with Guy to sort out the rail trail ride tomorrow and theZongo on Sun. Off to the locals market in town to get some machetes, saws, rope etc to build some track on our way down tomorrow. Should be a real adventure.
That´s it from me - will probably be the last update from Me as the last two days mtb will be full on - a fitting climax to what has been a really adventurous time in Bolivia.
# posted by Greg @ 1:25 PM 
