Day 18 - homestay
We got up pretty early for our boat trip round lake titikaka. We all piled in the boat and a man came appeared from the cabin and started playing the guitar and singing. What a nice welcome we thought. How wrong we were, as soon as he´d finished he came round asking for tips, not wanting to apear rude to our driver as soon as we met we all put a little in. He then exited the boat and went and lay in waitn on the next boat along for another group. What a scam!
After that agrivating start we headed off round the lake. It was beautiful, it was surrounded by mountains and dotted with tiny islands. A couple of us decided to sit up on the top of the boat which was a good idea at first (nice bit of sunbathing) but the lake soon became really rough and we were thrown all over the place. Very nearly being thrown off multiple times.
We evenhtually made it to one of the islands where we were set to have lunch. After a gruelling 600 step uphill climb we finally made it. It was a taste of what was to come as the resturant was just someones kitchen, apparently the comunity took turns to open their resturant so there was never any competition. We had some delicous freshly caught fish with amazing views of the lake.
After lunch we headed all the way back down and got on the boat again. It then transported us to the island where we would be staying that night. It was a relatively large island with almost 2000 inhabitants. When we got off it was a little like being stuck in a time warp. Some houses had generators for electricity and some even had indoor toilets but for the most part it was pretty backwards. We were taken to the school where we had a game of football against the locals (destroying them despite the alltitude making us exhausted after 2 mins). We then played a different gap group who were just leaving the island. We were exhuasted but the far more skill full team, unfortuantely we were cheated out of a win. They had a shot which rolled along the goal line but never fully crossed it which a friend of theirs on the sidelines declared a goal and subsenquently the last goal of the match, what an outrage!
After the football we were shown a traditional dance and given all the local dress and performed it on the playground. How very Gap Yah. It was really fun and probably hilarious for the locals. It got dark around 6 and with no lighting everyone returned to their respective homestay.
Ours was apparently one of the better ones with an indoor toilet (no flushing water) and electricity. It reminded me a lot of the house in cyprus. For dinner we had rice and vegatables and after saying goodnight went to bed around 7:30.
Day 19 - Birthday!
After an extremely poor nights sleep curtousy of the freezing temperatures i awoke around 5:30 just as it was getting light. I got dressed and went back to bed still shivering and waited until the wake up call at 7.
We had breakfast of egg and rice before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the boat.
It seemed everyone had an equally poor nights sleep and were pretty tired. The lake was a lot calmer today and so we could actually sunbathe on the deck without being throw off. Despite it being really sunny it was still freezing cold so the sun bathing didin{t last too long. After 30 mins we stopped and the tour guide challenged us to go swimming. He said he´d give us a beer if we could stay in longer than 1min. How hard could it be? Me,matt,sam, rob and tom accepted the challenge but after changing into our swimming costume we were absolutely freezing let alone going swimming in the lake which was apparently 4degrees. It being my birthday i had to man up and go first. I dived off the top deck into the water and soon realised why the tour guide had bet us we couldn´t stay in longer than a minute. It was so cold that as you hit the water it knocked all the breath out of you, you couldn´t breathe and were panting for breath. After the initial shock it wasn´t too bad and i stayed in for over the minute to get my free beer and encourgaed the others to come in. Eventually everyone jumped in but got out pretty sharpish. Being a man i had to show everyone how tough i was by jumping in again and telling everyone it was like a jacuzzi. Man points gained i quickly exited the water and spent the next half hour trying to regain feeling in my legs.
We then visited a floating island (made out of reeds) in which some people lived. They gave us a demonstaration on how they built the island by lashing reeds together and then gave us lunch. After lunch i was given a suprise by the locals in which bthey sang me happy birthday in ketuwan and presented me with a necklace.
We then headed back to the main land and checked into the hotel. I spent the next couple of hours catching up on some sleep as i assumed i would get very little in the evening. At about 5 a few of the guys burst into my room with arms full of beers and the festivities started. They also gave me a hat that i had to wear for the entire evening but wasnt allowed to know what it was (turns out it was a massive top hat with a vagina on the front, which would explain all the funny looks i got throughout the evening). We then went out for my birthday meal as a whole groupe and our tour leader organised loads of baloons etc and a massive cake. He even arranged for us to be able to drink our own alcohol in the resturant which seemed like a good idea at the time but when your friends can buy a litre of rum for 2.50 and its your birthday it rarely ends well. We then went to kareokee before ending up in a club. Details of the night are a little hazy and there aren{t many photos, which is probably a good thing.
Day 20 - La Paz
Theres not much to write for this day as it was pretty much all travel. We got the bus at 8 and i was still drunk, never a good start. I soon sobered up and in set the hangover. Spending the next 10 hours switching between public buses, boats, security checks etc was some of the worst hours of my life. Probaly should have been slightly more sensible the night before...
We arrived in La Paz around 7 and after checking in went out for a last meal with our tour leader. He took us to a really nice thai place and we had a great meal. We headed up to the upstairs bar to say our alst goodbyes to him (he was an absolute legend) and have a couple of cocktails. After an emotional farewell he tried to convince us to come out for ones last wild night out but feeling the effects of the night before and aving to get up and do the death road at 7:30 the next day we unfortunately had to decline and went to bed.
Day 21 - Death Road
Today was supposed to be a free day but we decided instead to mountain bike the famous death road.
We were collected from our hotel at 7:30 and driven up to 4500m. We were then given our bikes and gear etc and set off. The first hour was on tarmac down to a level of 3000m. It was all downhill and we barely even had to pedal. It was pretty scary though, overtaking lorries on mountain roads with shear drops to the side. The road was lined with crosses marking where people had died, it was really instilling confidence in us.
After the tarmac section we got back on the bus which took us back up to 4000m and the start of the death road. Unfortunately (or luckily) it was very misty so we couldn{t really see the shear 900m drops to our left. Im not sure if that made it better or worse but it was pretty scary. The road was all gravel and it felt like one little slip and you´d be off. Our guide reassured us that 1 girl had already died this month so it was pretty unlikely any of us would die, thanks...
Over the course of the enxt hour we decended to arround 2500m with some absolutely spectacular views when the mist cleared. We rode through a waterfall, saw the section where jeremy clarkson almost went over the edge in Top Gear Bolivia and sped on a really steep down hill section.
We then stopped for lunch before continuing to the end off the death road. Although our guide told us we´d finished the death road not much changed. There was still a pretty shear drop to the left and the veiws were still spectacular. We finished the ride after a really fast and technical downhill section at around 1000m above sea level adn had a celabratory beer. We then headed for a buffet dinner and a swim in a pool before starting the long journey home. The bus took 45 mins to get from La Paz to the top of the mountain but took 3.5 hours getting back. When we returned to the hotel we were given our t-shirts saying we´d completed the death road and a cd full of photos.
We were pretty exhausted so we went straight to bed ready for the new tour guide tomorrow.
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