Andean mountain bikers (by Joe)

One of the discoveries of our trip is how much we enjoy mountain biking.

We did some great courses in north Thailand, in New Zealand, and in the Chilean and Argentinian Lake Districts. However, the best place for mountain-biking (certainly on our trip and possibly in the world) has to be Bolivia, especially around the city of La Paz, which stands some 4000m above sea-level.

The big thing here is what they call (a bit naffly) `gravity assisted` mountain-biking. This involves - as you might imagine - a tour company taking you and a guide by bus to the top of a mountain, handing you a bike and letting gravity take charge. It`s very much like downhill vs. cross-country skiing, where you get to enjoy the fun bit without too much hard work.

We found an excellent agency here in La Paz (www.bside-adventures.com) and did two terrific courses with them - both of which involved descents of over 3000 metres.

The first was the La Paz to Coroico `Death Road` (as described in Laura`s blog below). The stats for this were impressive with the course taking you on a descent from 4700m down to 1700m over some 65km (89% of which was downhill). And there were some incredible cliff drops along the way (see the top pic in Laura`s blog below).

Yet, amazing though it is, the Death Road paled in comparison to our second ride - the incredible Chacaltaya to Zongo run, which must surely be one of the longest - and highest - downhill rides in the world.

It took us from an incredible 5300 metres high up on the Andean altiplano all the way down to the tropical climate of Zongo valley at 1400 metres, so a drop of 3.9km on a course of 52km.

It was an utterly amazing ride for the awesome ´roof of the world` views at the top, as well as the sheer exhilaration and speed of the descent. (See me overexcited at the top - above/left)

And just to liven things up a little further, I even managed a little 30km/hr tumble over my handlebars. In truth, I was probably fortunate not to go over a cliff and to complete the course with just a few grazes, bumps and bruises.

Laura saw the crash in full technicolour from 20 metres behind - and the remarkable thing (it seemed to me as I lay on the rocky gravel road considering whether I was able to move my neck or not) was how quickly she was on the scene, camera in hand, to snap a couple of pics for the blog (see right/ above).

We take this blog seriously, you know ...

Anyway, here´s some pics of our amazing Chacaltaya to Zonga ride, from us at the very top with the track behind and below, through the ride, to Laura being awarded her B-side Adventures ´Zongo Valley Hero´ t-shirt at the bottom.

It was a wonderful, wonderful day.

Joe

The new Death Road (by Laura)

One of the biggest tourist draws in La Paz is to cycle down 'The Death Road', a ride which takes you from 4,700m at La Cumbre to the sub-tropical Yungas at 1,700m: You ride 65km in about 5 hours along single track road, with a sheer drop on one side. It has been dubbed 'The World's Most Dangerous Road' and is a truly spectacular ride (see top).

Four years ago when I was in La Paz, lorries and traffic still used the road as it was the only means of reaching La Paz from Las Yungas, meaning that no sooner had you cycled down the road, you had to jump in a van and enjoy the whole experience the other way around.

Now, a new road has opened, having the luxury of two lanes, asphalt, road barriers and speed limits. Both roads are incredible feats of engineering and provide extraordinary and beautiful views across the neighbouring valleys.

We have travelled up the new road on two occasions now, the last in thick fog with a very cheery driver who was a veteran of the route and took all the hairpin bends with a wonderful laziness. And both these journeys left me wondering whether the new road can lay any claim to improving the safety of the journey (left).

The road itself is not finished - there are still large sections which are either cobbled or dirt road and have no road markings (pretty essential we thought when you have only these to follow in the fog).

Large parts of the hillside have been blasted away to build the road, but these have become unstable with rain and have been patched up merely by pasting them with concrete. You can see them bulging as you drive by.

People travel the new road at far greater speed than before. Even the fog (with worse visibility than you might expect on a bad day on Dartmoor - see right) did not slow people down.

And the two lanes may seem like a good idea, but in fact just give drivers the opportunity to overtake: on corners, in tunnels, at speed, in rain, all the way up to La Paz....

The whole journey is moderately harrowing.

The old death road achieved its status unsurprisingly because of the level of fatalities that used to occur on it each year. The new road may well be vying for the top spot in no time.


Laura

A funny creature (by Laura)

We encountered this marvellous creature at a recent visit to the zoo in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

I had never seen one before and was bowled over by it. I just stared and stared. Surely it only still exists as a species because it moves so slowly that nothing can spot it, or if it tastes so monumentally disgusting that nothing wants to go near it.

I'm not sure even the cheesy grin can redeem it.

Laura

Inca trails (by Joe)

Mention `the Inca Trail` to keen walkers and most will think of the trail leading up to the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Pichu, near Cusco in Peru. But of course this is just the most famous of the many Inca trails which run for thousands of kilometres through the Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Bolivian Andes.

Many of the trails are being restored and are increasingly popular with tourists keen to hike in remote areas of the Andes. The restoration work seems a good initiative - not good solely for the heritage aspects, but because the trails bring tourists and a few bucks to otherwise remote and unvisited communities miles from the road network.

Happy to give our support and feeling the need for some significant activity, we took a three-day guided hike from near La Paz (4km high in the Bolivian Andes) down to the village of Coroico, some 80km away (and 2.5km below).

The weather may have been far from perfect for the views (top), but there was still much to appreciate.

We enjoyed the company of our excellent guide, Pascual (above left, with family which lives in a village on the trail); the rough living and camping on the trail; the locals we met along the way (right - the lady claims she is 108 ... and who is to argue?!); the way the environment and plants turned from temperate to sub-tropical as we descended; and the wildlife, which included condor sightings and evidence of bears actually on the trail (... which gives an interesting twist to the rhetorical question, `do bears shit in the woods?` - as clearly, given a choice, they prefer to shit on paths).

Anyway, we felt good for the high-altitude activity and were awed throughout by the sheer scale of the dense jungle-valley and rainforest which lay all around us.

Here are some pics:

... and finally, the view back up the valley from the comfort of our hotel at the bottom:

Joe

Hostel pets (by Joe)

We´ve had some wonderful ´pets´ in some of the hostels and other accommodation we´ve stayed in. There have been dogs of every breed, size and character; lots of cats; a few rabbits; and occasionally pigs and chickens.

In the bathroom of one of our beach shacks in Thailand, there were unnervingly over-sized Gekkos which would watch you through one eye when you took a shower.

In another, there was a large frog that croaked night and day and lived under the toilet seat. When we mentioned this to the owner he responded (a bit incredulously) that "... well, frogs like the damp, don´t they?!".

Anyway, we recently encountered the best hostel pets so far: a beautiful pair of clipped toucans in the lovely verdant courtyard of our hostel in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

They are a fantastic pair - very inquisitive, totally fearless and rather cheeky. They took a particular shine to Laura and liked to follow her flip-flopped feet to the shower (left).

Joe

Brazil summary (by Joe)

We´ve had a fantastic time in Brazil, finding it as exciting a country as we have visited. We reckon it´s second only to India as our favourite of the entire trip.

Above all, we´ve loved the people who have buoyed us time and again by their energy, wholehearted warmth and communicativeness. This all comes through loud and clear despite the language barrier - more often than not through big smiles and the broad Brazilian Thumbs-Up!

We spent a lovely few days with Laura´s uncle, Richard, in Sao Paulo. We were given a fun tour of the city and a very informative ´intro to Brazil´. We were well-fed in some of the finest ´all you can eat´ restaurants the city has to offer, and I, unlike Laura, continued to develop an authentic Brazilian buffet-belly throughout the trip.

As for sights, we were awed by the Iguassu falls in the south, as well as by the nearby Itaipu dam, which houses the world´s biggest hydro-electric power station.

Though it´s not the greatest of cities at street level, the sights of Rio are striking, and we enjoyed a wonderful moment watching sunset over the city from the top of Sugar Loaf mountain.

Other great sights included the fantastic Portuguese colonial towns, both in the hills and on the coast. They were great for their cobbled streets, grand market squares, old churches and painted houses. Importantly they remain ´real´ towns - lived and worked in, not just tourist facades.

Best of all these was the ´old town´ centre of the city of Salvador, half-way up the coast. This remains part smartly-restored, part still-crumbling, giving it tremendous character. Salvador also lived up to its reputation as Brazil´s ´hottest´ party city. It´s carnival in February each year is the biggest in Brazil. It must be awesome.

Although the weather was far from perfect we enjoyed some beach life. Brazilian beaches have their own unique character, and the beach bars - where they dance the Lambada on a Sunday afternoon - are wonderfully lively.

Finally, we had a great trip to the Pantanal, the vast wetland wilderness to the south of the Amazon. We saw much wildlife and at night we slept in a tent by a campfire under amazingly clear stars.

Brazil has been an authentic experience. Unlike some other places we´ve been, where the trend can effectively be to ´segregate´ tourists from locals, in Brazil, you are far more likely to share a bar, beach or bus, with a local than a tourist. That makes it all `for real´ ... it is a great place to travel.

Joe

Ten Brazil photos (by Joe)

Brazil was great. Here are ten of our favourite photos ...

1) Laura at Iguassu - 2) Sao Paulo skyline - 3) Boat rigging at Paraty - 4) Colonial churches at Ouro Preto - 5) Graffiti beneath Sugar Loaf, Rio - 6) Helicopter over Rio - 7) Salvador old town - 8) Palm in the blues, Salvador promenade - 9) Thumbs-up! to Salvador - 10) Sunset, Pantanal.


Joe

Pantanal (by Laura)

Our trip to the Pantanal didn't start well. After delays to our flight, we touched down in Campo Grande, one of the gateways to this huge wetland in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, at 2.30am. Our tour company didn't show up to meet us and we eventually slumped into bed at 4am.

So we were far from relishing the thought of 4 days camping, with 6am starts promised every morning.

Of course, there was a happy ending.

The Pantanal covers a vast area of 230,000 sq km between Cuiabá and Campo Grande in Brazil, stretching over the borders into Bolivia and Paraguay. It boasts an incredible array of wildlife, but is perhaps most popularly visited for its birdlife, whose numbers and extraordinary colours become evident as soon as you get close to the region.

Our tour took us into the southern Pantanal, where we spent four days exploring on foot, by boat and on horseback, led by our guide, Sandro (see left, navigating us on a jaguar-spotting trip along the river at sunset).

We also had an eventful morning fishing for piranha, assured that they only attack in wet season or if you have an open cut. Apparently the only thing we needed to worry about were the giant otters (aggressive and considered to be the most dangerous animal in the Pantanal); so you can imagine our delight when, thigh deep in piranha-infested water, and with juicy bits of bloody beef hanging from our fishing rods, a family baying otters appeared a few yards away.

Looking alarmingly wide-eyed himself, Sandro told us to move ´Quickly, quietly and without panicking´ to the side of the swamp - fat chance, I was already heading for home.

In the evenings, since there was no electricity in the camp, we would either sit round the campfire, gaze at the truly incredible stars or snooze in hammocks. All pretty idyllic.

It's easy to get complacent about the animals and birds all around you. As soon as we arrived in the camp, we were informed by one old-timer (who was 2 days in) that 'Caimans are like pigeons around here!'

Anyhow, some of the photos speak for themselves. Dusty, dirty and flea-infested, we emerged after our 4 days, smiling and all fingers and toes in tact. So a happy ending.

Laura

Salvador (by Joe)

Having read a very positive write-up in our travel guide, I've been on something of a quest since we arrived in South America to get to Salvador, half-way up the Brazilian coast.

So, loving Brazil and deciding to stay longer than we'd initially planned, we went almost 1000km beyond our original itinerary to get here. It has not disappointed.

Now the capital of Bahia State, Salvador was the first capital of Portuguese Brazil from 1549 through to 1763 (when it passed to Rio, then Brasilia). It's now a major industrial port with much poverty and many favelas. But, as a legacy of its days as capital, there remains a terrific old centre, which stands high on a 100 metre cliff overlooking Bahia Todos Os Santos, the largest bay in Brazil.

The old centre is fabulous. It is currently undergoing a major restoration project funded jointly by local government and UNESCO. Parts have been renovated, but the majority remains a wonderful ramshackle pile of crumbling colonial architecture.

Importantly, renovated or not, it all remains 'real' - the buildings are lived and worked in. It may be tourist-friendly, but this is no sheltered theme park.

The city is noted for its strong African ties, especially with Angola, being the main port through which the majority of some 4.5 million slaves passed up until 1888, when the trade was abolished. After 1888 many remained, and the city is now widely referred to as the 'African Soul of South America' - a touch poetic perhaps, but the food, music, people and even the religion, are authentically African.

Above all, Salvador is recognised as the party capital of Brazil. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon, in time for the big night of the week, when thousands of locals mingle with tourists to live music and open-air bars on the cobbled squares and streets of the old town.

It is rainy season here, but even a couple of heavy tropical downpours did little to dampen the volume of the music, the energy of the dancing and the strength of spirits (both human and alcoholic). Drinking our fair share of caipirinha (the local sugar, lime and cachaca rum) and mingling with the partying locals - sometimes under cover, sometimes in rain - it was quite a night.

The annual carnival is held early February and is regarded as the biggest in Brazil (including the Rio Carnival). Some 2 million people party through three areas of the city 24-7 for a week. One can only imagine the atmosphere and the difficulty of getting some sleep ...

Relatively few tourists come up to Salvador. With so much poverty and so many favelas, it has a justifiably dangerous reputation. Of course we have had to watch our pockets, taken heed of warnings from our (excellent) hostel not to show our camera around town and kept well clear of certain areas.

But it is well worth the hassle. Salvador has been great - the energy, the music, the colour, the unique culture, and even the sense of danger have all excited. For us, Salvador epitomises perfectly so much that we imagine - and want - Brazil to be.

Oh, and there is some awesome south Atlantic coastline, too.

Joe

Bahia-belly (by Joe)

In Brazil, I've developed a significant buffet and beer belly (see 'All you can Eat' blog - below). This contrasts horribly with the concentration of incredibly toned male torsos you see every day here in the Brazilian state of Bahia - what you might call the 'Bahia-belly'.

In part at least, what lies behind the Bahia-belly is a local dance or mock combat, Capoeira, which is extremely popular in the region (below left). Capoeira is a spectacular sight as combatants sway, cartwheel, twirl and swing legs high over each others heads.

When you see the athleticism of it, you understand rapidly how an hour or two a day from early childhood would ensure you develop abs like road-humps by the time you get to your twenties.

Joe

P.S. Apologies for the misleading angle of the picture - Capoeira does not involve one guy holding the other up by the nuts!!

'Thumbs-Up!' (by Joe)

Neither Laura nor I speak much Portuguese, but we've muddled by easily, not least because Brazilians are extremely enthusiastic sign-language communicators.

All the key signals that a traveler needs - 'Here', 'there', 'drink please', 'bill please' - are readily understood . But the sign of all signs, the one we love, is the big broad Brazilian 'Thumbs-Up!'.

From the first Brazilian we encountered (a conductor taking us on the bus from the border) we have seen the 'Thumbs-Up!' time and again everywhere we have gone.

Totally wholehearted, the 'Thumbs-Up!' is almost invariably accompanied by an enormous and full-on grin. And Brazilians seem to respond to it as well as they give it, so that, at the lift of a thumb, an otherwise stern or even threatening face can be turned immediately into a warm friendly one.

It's a kind of 'I'm OK - you're OK' thing which warms your heart every time.

Indeed the 'Thumbs-Up!' has become something of a symbol for us of one of the things we like so much about Brazil: the genuine wholehearted warmth and communicativeness of the people (which comes through loud and clear despite the language barrier).

And, just once or twice on our trip so far, our spirits have soared as we have experienced the warmest greeting of all: the full-on 'Double Thumbs-Up!!'

Joe

Gringo hat (by Joe)

Very very pleased with my new purchase - a beige-brown wide-rimmed gringo-hat (with tastefully small Brazilian flag above the rim).

I bought in one of the squares in Salvador old town from a friendly (if persistent) street hawker (left).

It was great value - his very best price and the material and stitching is finest quality, he said.

Joe