First I went to Tiwanaku. Big excavations of the Tiwanaku people, living here from 2000 BC until 1200 AC. After this period they became part of the Inca empire. The excavations were, in spite of the info in my book, not the most interesting. Actually I enjoyed the megaphone, made of stone in one of the temples, the most. If you stand behind it and whisper it is amplified very much. Impressive and without electricity .
On Saturday my relaxing day consisted of a thrilling biking tour along the 'Death Road'. The old road from La Paz to Coroico, in the Yungaz, is a downhill road from 4700 to 1700 m alt. It is a small road without any protection with deep ravines and a lot of curves and of course no hard surface. A few years ago this was the most dangerous road in the world. The danger has decreased because there is also a new road on which most of the motorized traffic goes. So we went down the old one with mountain bikes. It is about 60 km. And really thrilling. I knew that using the right brakes was important, so after about 6 hours we arrived, soaky wet, in Coroico. Very nice with a lot of fun. Some people have made too much fun (luckily not in our group) and paid it with their lives, you can see a lot of crosses along the road.
The pictures are from the agency.
In Coroico we had lunch and I stayed for 3 nights in the hotel, Esmeralda. A beautiful room with a nice view over the valley and a hammock on my balcony. A swimming pool and a big garden and a perfect and nice service for a low price. And the climate was also moderate. So I changed my relaxing plans to this village.
The following days I made a few hiking's in the beautiful mountains. Tourist information had offered me a guide. They said it would be difficult to find the paths and because of the many Coca-plantations a lot of farmers would be unfriendly. Pigheaded as I am I thought I will find my own way, and a smile (almost) always changes unfriendly people into friendly ones.
My first walk was to Tocañna, a very special village because of its inhabitants. There are living only 26 black families, 100% descendants of the black slaves of the Potosi mines. They have even their own king, a straight descendent of a king who was caught as a slave.
This village is famous for their traditions and their traditional music.
When I arrived at the hostal in Tocaña someone told me that at night there would be a fiesta with lots of music and food and beer. I am music enthousiastic, so at night I took a taxi (it is at night a long and dangerous road) and asked the driver to wait for an hour until I would have decided whether it was a real fiesta or not.
At 20:30 there were 3 local people, almost drunk. They had 2 guitars and a drum. When I told them I came for the fiesta, they welcomed me very warmly (lots of handshakings and offers of drink and Coca). But there was no fiesta. So they played a few songs and were very eager to talk with the first dutch guy they ever met (????). A little bit difficult to understand if one has no teeth anymore. It was a great time and I felt very well there, but after an hour I took the taxi back. Very nice people!!!! Nothing of unfriendliness!!!
Next day I walked with Thomas and Steffy (I met them on the biking trip) up to the Uchumachi summit (2500 m) and after that to some big waterfalls (alone).
It was a nice and really relaxing closure of my trip.
Back in La Paz I met Pietro an Ivana again, and we had our good bye diner.
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