La Paz and the Ride and River trip

We flew to La Paz from Santa Cruz to save some time: flights were cheap and the road dangerous and loooong at worst. La Paz is not safe either, especially in the dark so we shared a taxi from the airport with a Brazileno to the area with many hostels. It was a good plan, if the Earth Hour hadn't messed it up a bit: the streets were blocked from traffic and the center was completely pitch black dark. When we walked through the dark crowds with all our stuff I thought "Wow, this is probably the worst timing ever". Safety in form of a shabby hostel was found easily enough not too far.

Fasten seat belt while seated, life vest is your seat.

View from the hostel

The elevation of the city made it difficult to breathe. Every little uphill or staircase felt 10 x as exhausting as usual and the dry, polluted air made the throat sore. Luckily we didn't suffer from other symptoms, headaches or anything. Altitude difference or not, we still decided to check out the bouldering gym of La Paz: El Muro! It was the tiniest and cutest little cave I've seen: just one small room filled with holds from floor to roof. There were a couple of nice problems and we enjoyed the exhaustion after the lazy days in Samaipata.

El Muro

Tough work in those altitudes

Streets of La Paz

La Paz felt to me surprisingly nice, I had quite bad expectations but at least the "touristic area" felt safe and I really enjoyed the colors and the traditional clothes of the people. We only had two nights though, but we'd be back in a week or so: now it was time to leave for our 6-day Ride and River trip from Sorata to Rurrenabaque with Andean Epics! It meant 3 days of mountain/downhill biking and then hopping on a motorized dug out canoe and going down the jungle river and camping alongside it. I had never downhill biked before or even ridden a full-suspension bike but supposedly that wasn't a problem. Exciting!

Our great group consisted of a French family of four, who lived in La Paz and had two kids of 8 and 14; Ken (50) from Boston; Heath (42) from Canada; Jochem (27) from Belgium; Stav (22) from Israel; Hugues (27) from Canada and Marcos (52) our guide, from Australia! A very mixed group, I thought at first, but an excellent one indeed I learned!

Our trip started with a 3 hour busride to Sorata, and up the mountains during which we had plenty of time to introduce ourselves and get to know one another. And then at 3800 meters we geared up with helmets, jackets and pants and started off down a curvy asphalt road. The first day was 28 km and all on asphalt to get to know the bikes: the supereffective breaks, the right position on the bike, how to take the curves and all that jazz. I felt that I was going so fast all the time but still the guys rode far ahead :D The views were incredible, green mountains and valleys below us but there was not much time to look around, keeping an eye on the road was crucial. I still somehow managed to miss the upcoming speed bump and when I saw it, it was already too late. I was sure that that was it, and with a normal bike it certainly would've been but thanks to some instincts I didn't hit the breaks (was my first thought though) and the suspension caught the bump. I was fine!!! And still riding!! Pheww...

The speed bump wasn't the only obstacle: some school kids were trying to stop me with sticks and their bikes. No way, Jose, I was way too fast for them ;) At the very end there was a small uphill but afterwards I was really done. It took a lot of focusing and energy not to die on the way down so I think we were all happy to spend the afternoon visiting a huge cave with a lake inside and then resting in our pretty ecolodge near Sorata. The ecolodge had massive premises with camping grounds and gardens full of farm animals. Sadly the owner really ruined the place for us with his greediness but otherwise we enjoyed it, the dinner and the evening together with our group.

Happy downhill biking fans!

Cool stuff

Views!

The group

And more views

Bat cave?

Lake in a cave

Pool at the lodge

Waking up at 5.45 served no purpose since the driver was late but we didn't really mind, we had an exciting day ahead again. I didn't expect to get the first thrills on the way up already but indeed this terrifying journey up the mountain on the narrow, muddy and all kind of sketchy dirt roads with zero visibility did that. Fog and the clouds made it impossible to see 3 meters ahead and of course we were seated in the front. I made elaborate escape plans in case the car would tip over the edge though none of them were very likely to be of any use.

5.45. Christoph

Visibilty?

Llamas!

We survived the first part and now it was time for 65 km downhill (mostly, some ups and some flat too) descending from 4800 meters all the way to 1200 m. Full-face helmets, knee pads...I took all the safety gear available. We were just about ready to start and then it started snowing! Never mind, down we went anyway. Massive, loose stones, pot holes, washed away road and the steep downhills made the first parts scary and exhausting. Ken took the first fall but gladly didn't hurt himself too bad.

We took many short breaks on the way down to gather the group again and to rest the legs, arms and head. I never thought going downhill on a bike would be so strenuous but my god was I wrong!! It's far more exhausting than riding on the flat I tell you. The amount of focus it takes to read the path, the exhausting position of leaning back and standing in a half-crouch on the pedals and gripping the handlebars and the breaks is incredibly tough. The bumpy terrain made it so difficult to stay on the bike that I felt like I used up all the energy just no to fly off. Getting ready at 4800 meters

Geared up!

It's me!

Snow!

Me AGAIN!

And the whole crew

But after a somewhat clumsy and uncertain beginning I started feeling more confident and enjoying the ride. Although for the last bit, when my arms, back and legs were in such pain and my head so exhausted that I was afraid I'd loose control of the bike, the enjoyment was gone. It was a bit too long of a day, but otherwise superb.

On the way down we had a lunch break in a small village, in a plaza where our guides prepared the most delicious salad and sandwiches. The whole day was filled again with great views and some obstacles too: instead of school kids, it was the animal kind this time. Some sheep were crossing the path when we came behind a curve and the last little lamb got all confused in the hassle of sheep and bikes and started running as fast as it could after Christine (the mother from the French family) thinking it was its mother. Our guide had to guide the little lamb back to to the right place afterwards, it got so far from its group.

Dogs were also running after all the bikes around the villages but the scariest part were the bulls. I came behind a curve with a full speed just to find a huge bull with some pretty creepy looking horns right there in the middle of the path. Will it attack me if I ride in front of it!? I practically closed my eyes, went as fast as I could and hoped that it wouldn't feel any urge to use those pointy daggers on me. It was a mellow fellow, luckily, and didn't care too much (even about the red jacket ;) ).

On the way down

And more way down

Finally we were down and done. That day there were some uphills that also added to the exhaustion but we were warned: the next day we'd be riding in lower altitudes (aka hot, humid tropical air) and there would be a lot more of going up. My whole body ached and I wondered if I'd be able to ride the day after...But a little swim in a waterfall after the ride did recover some of the strength and after dinner everyone was happy and feeling great! Our hostel was hmmm rustic...to put it nicely :D We slept in a room that seemed more like a warehouse: it was filled with old loudspeakers (?). I'll leave out the description of the toilet or the shower :) Lunch break at a plaza

Swim at a waterfall



Last day of riding started again with an amazing breakfast that featured Marcos' delicious chocolate sauce and afterwards another 1,5 h of riding in the jeeps. This time it was too hot for jackets and pants but I still opted for the full-face helmet and the pads, just in case. I felt great! I really felt so confident on the bike, turning on the curves with speed was no trouble at all and taking the big rocks and pot holes was a piece of cake, I was fast! Of course Chris was far ahead, jumping over ditches and stones like a pro but with especially the flat parts and the uphills I was faster than the many of the guys who had overtaken me in the downhills the day before. I passed Stav in a steep downhill with a warning shout ("Passing from the left!!") when suddenly I heard I load noise behind me: Hugues and Stav crashed, Hugues was passing Stav but didn't shout and Stav rode in front of him! Luckily again everyone got off with just tiny bruises!

The words of the day were mud and uphills. The roads were in horrible condition, with huge landslides and ditches and holes, and every now and then there were muddy rivers crossing the path: one just had to ride through and hope that they weren't too deep! The uphills were killing everyone. It was hard to breathe, the air was hot, heavy and humid and with the full-face helmet I got claustrophobic sometimes. Still, everyone pushed on and the last part before lunch was an amazing long downhill where I had my best run, even with a scary skid that I managed to control in the last second. I felt invincible ;)!

River crossings

Exhausted Jochem

Break!

Another break

Max riding

Sweaty Holopainen

And sweaty Gysin

We had lunch next to a river where we cooled down, washed our bikes and ate again the same excellent lunch as the day before! Somehow we had all been in the false hope that the last part of the ride was downhill. Yeah right, it was mostly uphill or flat at best in the scorching sun. Motivation of the group seemed a bit low at that point but hell, it was the last part! We rode mostly through small villages were people would stare and shout and whistle...and throw rocks!! After the ride Stav and Ken told that some kids were throwing stones at them. Also some kid tried to poke Chris with a massive stick. Crazy. Everyone made it alive and the ride was a lot shorted than I expected! And in the ended cold water, beer and cola was waiting for us, and showers and nice rooms and clean toilets.

Lunch at the river

Mariposa and Marcos

Everyone made it

Cold drinks

Last days gear

We had a great evening, dinner and beers first at the hostel, everyone was in a great mood telling stories and relaxing. Afterwards we headed to a karaoke place where some pretty intoxicated versions of Losing my religion, Lemon tree and Don't worry, be happy were sung :D Good fun with good people.

View from hostel roof

Mari-Lou and a local kid playing

Karaoke evening

More of that crazy singing

Sitting on the roof

Moth

Next day we hopped in a boat but that's a whole different story.

Unbelievably beautiful Bonito and Bolivia's Samaipata

I woke up at 4.20 in a bus from Cascavel to Dourados and was pretty sure we had missed our stop. But for my relief, we did arrive in Dourados (only) 1h 45 min late and hurried to find our continuing tickets to a bus to Bonito at 6.00. Unluckily for us, it was Sunday and no such bus existed. The next bus would leave at 15.00. Also, the time had changed, be it because of summer time or time zone difference, our 9 hour wait for the bus changed to a 10 hour wait. Fun!

Without a map or a clue of the city, we left for a walk towards something that could be a city center. Nothing was open of course but finally after a couple of hours a cafe opened and served us some highly welcomed breakfast. Deadtired we took a nap in a park and then went to waste time at a mall that had also finally opened. Weird thing happened in the supermarket of that mall. A lady came chatting to us something about how expensive this shop was and how the other one was a lot better. I asked her about some bananas, when she got all excited, grabbed a banana and snapped it open to offer us a taste. Uhm?! Probably not something one is supposed to do? We looked around us somewhat confused, embarrased and red-cheeked, tried the banana and thanked the lady and then vanished as quickly as possible from the crime scene. At the counter the lady found us and stormed off again to fetch something. Tired and hysterical we ran away to the mall to hide in a chocolate shop until we thought the coast was clear. Bonne chance, right... she found us again while we were enjoying some froyo and tried to give us a bag full of bananas! "I boughed this for you!" We thanked and no thanked gratefully and then she left, without a word. I'm still quite confused about this incident.

After the torturous waiting (and after the whole trip) we made it Bonito. It was late when we arrived so we got straight down to business: accommodation, booking a snorkeling tour for the next day and then dinner from a little local BBQ grill by the street, with plastic chairs and only one item on the menu. Perfect, just like in Asia!

On one of them long busrides

Our hostel Sao Jorge had a good breakfast and a great location but otherwise we didn't like it. The staff was unfriendly or actually, more just apathetic and it felt like they were only after money and commissions. We tried to asked a million times for information about continuing to Bolivia but since they didn't sell this trip, they weren't interested in helping us. And also with booking a snorkeling tour they failed to inform us about a cheaper transportation and suddenly the organized taxi was uncancellable etc. All kinds of small things that ended up with us being super annoyed. And then they dare to advertise themselves as being helpful and wanting to be fair for travellers and so forth. Right.

We decided to go to Rio da Prata on a snorkeling tour out of all the many many options. It was more expensive but the one "must-see" one so why not. The first part of the tour was walking in the jungle with the wetsuit on for an hour. It wasn't exactly ideal but then we came to the river and my god have I ever seen such a place!!! I've been to multiple snorkeling trips and scubadiving places, great ones too but this was truly unique! I hardly ever anymore get the feeling of awe amazement: places, waterfalls, mountains, lakes tend to start resembling one another but this time it was different. We entered the crystal clear river with a 30 meter visibility IN THE MIDDLE OF THE JUNGLE!? The jungle rivers I've seen before have not been too inviting, with mud and dirt and creatures I'm quite sure I'm better of without meeting. This clear blue water created an eyepleasing contrast with the vivid green leaves and trees and hanging branches of the jungle above and around.

The water was full of fish - one bigger than the other! Big, black pacu fish were eyeballing us with their huge platelike peepers while the massive dourados were staying still, looking comically angry and a bit like they might just attack you at any point. The stream was slowly taking us forward and we were just floating and watching the underwater life. Every now and then I lifted my head up and checked out the jungle and its birds and monkeys and butterflies. We snorkeled for some hours and in the end, despite the views, I was happy to get out, I was getting really cold.

Humming bird

Sheep with bird passengers

The following three pictures are NOT mine, they are borrowed from google;







End of the trip

Mariposa



In the evening we enjoyed a BBQ at the hostel with some supernice people like an Italian girl called Barbara. We cooked together some vegetarian friendly options next to all the meat and chatted about, well, our travels like always. Next day we still decided to change the hostel, for the last night, although we met some nice people at Sao Jorge. We had visited a hostel called Catarino's where we felt immediately more home. They organised us a ride for the next day to Miranda (to get to Bolivia eventually) and bragged that they served the best breakfast in town...we had to try it out.

BBQ

We rented bikes with Barbara and two hilarious Mallorcan boys from Sao Jorge to go to Balneario Municipal - a public pool, natural one by another clear river! We cycled in the heat to this pretty and fish rich river and hopped straight into its cool water. We spent the sunny day enjoying the company, the fresh water, restaurant's offerings and the surrounding wildlife! Two wild macaws were flying around the area and I was happy to see them, never had I seen wild ones before. The fish were entertaining too, they were jumping high from the water to catch fruits that some tourist were feeding them. We also spotted more monkeys.

Balneario Municipal

Inka and Barbara

Macaws

Excellent company

More fish

Higher!

In the evening we had a date with Barbara to go to a great icecream place! Self-service icecream shop with at least 20 different flavours and toppings: you take whatever you want and pay by weight. Excellent but dangerous ;) Later we had some beers with everyone from the days bikeride.

Catarino's breakfast was indeed superb and it was easy to continue to Miranda with the minivan. From there we hopped in a bus to Corumba where we took a bus to the border to cross to Bolivia. No problems whatsoever with the crossing, only the heavy rain made it a bit unpleasant. We made it to Quijarro on the Bolivian side and wow how things changed: everything was suddenly 10 times cheaper, dirtier, stranger and more exciting! The indigenous heritage of the folk was obvious not only from their beautiful colorfilled clothes but also the hair and the features of the faces. We bought tickets to a fancypantsy nightbus, had some lunch and then slept all the way to Santa Cruz.

Bordercrossing

Finally in Bolivia

We were in SC way too early in the morning, and only after sunrise we dared to get lost in the city with the decorated small buses= micros. In the end, after some more buses we got to where we wanted: to a small town of Samaipata (next to a village where Che Guevara was killed) in the middle of the mountains at 1650 meters. After travelling some 28 hours with maybe 8 different vehicles, we decided to have a break. We did absolutely nothing but sleep, eat, walk and enjoy in this tranquilo village. And we loved every moment of it!

Samaipata in pictures:

Dogs on the roof?

Mango plus pine at Samaipata's Posada del Sol

Jardin

Breakfast

Market place. All of those veggies and fruits, nam!

And more

Odd plants on the electric wires