Bolivian Wildfire

LaPaz went by in a blaze. On my and Will's first night we had a reunion with the fabled and mythic Brits brothers and their Australian counterparts. We had a very heartfelt and toasty reunion at 'The English' pub in LaPaz. They had also booked us in with them on the infamous 'Death Road' - Which anyone who has whatched Top Gear, will know what I am referring to! A staggering 64km downhill mountain biking blitz from a height of 4600m down to 900m. Our tourguides were very good and made sure we all had the proper kit and protective gear. The first 10km was down a very steep, but properly paved road. The next 54km was on a proper unpaved, gravel, deathish road... But none of this mattered, because as soon as 7 MEN come together, they tend to forget all about grievous bodily harm and imminent death and instead tend to focus on who can go fastest around the next bend. This proved true, true and true angain as we hurtled down the world's most dangerous road at speeds of 35-40km/h always pushing they guy right in front of you and being harried by the guy behind you. About halfway down I hit a loose rock and fell side ways over my bike at breaking speed. I was unhurt luckily and about 5mins later the younger BritBrother, Harry, followed in my example and tumbled head over heels onto the gravel. He was scraped badly but also without major injury. At the end of the track we were greeted with a swimming pool and a buffet lunch.

The next day was spent recovering from the previous day and indeed night's tom-foolery. I also coincidentally was in the right place to help move an organ in the nearby church/cathedral! The day after that I abseiled down a 17storey building in a spiderman outfit. Will, Freddie Newton (the britsbrother who had that day ascended a 6000m mountain), Ad and I went out for mexican food and then once more to the 'English pub' for a couple of rounds. Afterwards we went back to the Wild Rover bar and hostel where we continued our shenanigans.

Thursday we went to Copacabana. The gateway town to the most revered and sacred Incan Religious site. The island itself was beautiful and should be a stopover for any Bolivian traveler. We spent the night in a hostel at R60 per person per night. The town is on a steep hill overlooking the 'harbour' which at waterlevel is already 3800m above sealevel. A 200m ascent with backpacks on is no small accomplishment. The whole of the island is terraformed into ancient Incan terraces, which are still farmed to this day by the local people. We navigated our way down these vertical farms down to the lake shore where we had a swim in the crystal clear waters of Lake Titicaca.