La Paz and Death Road

La Paz is a really interesting city built in basically a huge crater. As you come into the city you get expansive views down into the centre with an incredible background of the Cordillera Real mountain Range and Mt Illamani looming to one side.

About a 1&1/2hrs drive outside the city is the start of the Yungas Road, also known as Death Road! It should be fair to say that most of us have seen the Top Gear episode where Jeremy and co drive down "the worlds most dangerous road". 

It's true that the road has got some crazy drop offs and not loads of safety barriers. But it hasn't been the worlds most dangerous road for way over a decade. There's infact a new road that bypass's the Yungas road and has done since before the Top Gear crew arrived. So in actual fact there's very little traffic mountain bikes aside. Good fun day out though never the less.

The day after back in La Paz I did the free city walking tour (highly recommended) and learnt about the La Paz prison lifestyle (made famous in the excellent book "Marching Powder"), Cholita culture, live human sacrifices to Pachamama (that some claim are still happening today) and tricks used by missionairies in colonial times to convert indigenous people to christianity.

Really enjoyed our short spell in Bolivia, wish we had more time to spend there as there were still lots of other things we wanted to do. Hope to go back one day.

  

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is half in Peru and half in Bolivia. It seems Bolivians are getting a bit sick of they're Peruvian neighbours saying "Titi (meaning strong cat or Puma) is in Peru and caca (meaning poo) is in Bolivia!". So our guide David, with a slightly disgruntled expression, told us "the pronunciation has in fact now changed from Titicaca to Titicarrrrrrrrca". Hmm, yeah good luck with that one Dave!!

We were really surprised by how nice Lake Titicaca is. The highest navigable lake in the world, it's huge, fringed with pituresque fishing villages and crystal clear water. There's certain spots where you feel like you're in the Mediterranean.

We were only there for a day and was a bit of a drive from La Paz, but was definitely worth it. We took a nice boat ride to the South of Isla del Sol where we had probably the best (for me) meal so far in South America. Two types of fish caught fresh from the lake, gallina (Bolivian free range chicken), 3 different types of potato and broad beans all locally grown, accompanied by some hash browns Bolivian style. All this dining outside in a pretty garden over looking the lake with not another person in sight.

Madidi National Park, Bolivia

While we were waiting for our car to be fixed in Iquique, we decided to go to Bolivia for a week and what a great choice. Bolivia's an amazing diverse country where we've found the local people to be super friendly.

Our first activity after arriving in La Paz was to fly to Rurrenenabaque. This small town is situated on the river Beni within the Amazon Basin. It's incredible how a 40min flight sees you going from 15deg weather to 34deg.We took a jungle tour for 3 days staying one night in an Ecolodge and the other camping in the jungle.

We saw lots of different animals including a tortoise, many different birds, packs of hundreds of wild pigs, tarantulas and were even lucky to see 3 different species of monkeys (alas no photos of the monkeys, they're too quick!). We even saw some jaguar tracks, but no big cat unforunately.

We made our own sugar cane juice, trekked through the jungle in the day and at night, swam in the river (no pirahna bites!) and on the final day we built our own log raft and set sail downstream. Really amazing experience. The only downside were the sandfly bites, we're still itching now!

Stuck in Iquique

For the second time now we're stuck in Iquique, a city in the North of Chile. The first time was because we were waiting for our car to be fixed (which it was...well...sort of but not really?!) and for the past few days unfortunately Mai has been sick (don't worry, she's on the mend now).

Iquique is certainly not the Galapagos Islands, but we could be stuck in a worse place that's for sure. We're by the beach, the surf's not bad and we found a pretty nice Argentinian grill house to treat ourselves at (thanks for the photo catching me out drooling over the parilla Yen!).

It's always nice to relax by the beach, but we're looking forward to heading South now towards the colder waters of Chile's central coast, the towering spires of Torres del Paine and the rugged landscapes of Patagonia.

Galapagos Sealife

Errr, so it's been a while since we were in the Galapagos Islands. But a good computer in South America can be hard to find! (Thanks Yen for letting us borrow your mini laptop).

All the images below are from the GoPro, whether they're a still taken from a video or an actual photo, so took a while to process but definitely worth it.

As you can see, the Galapagos Islands are a pretty special place. We've been to some incredible places and seen some amazing things on our trip so far, but the Galapagos are going to be pretty hard to top!

For me, swimming with dolphins was one of the biggest highlights of our trip (and possibly my life!!), for Mai it was swimming with the biggest green sea turtles you're ever likely to see. However, I don't want to take anything away from swimming with sea lions, they're so friendly and playful. Amazing place!