Wild La Paz

Wha' happen?

Wild La Paz

18 Aug 2010

: BOL100724 – to Cochabamba – Roman style paved roads in a few sections of the route to Cochabamba.

: BOL100725 – Cochabamba – Llama fetuses… I would like to believe they were all natural death.

: BOL100725 – Cochabamba – This Christo Redendor is taller than the one in Rio. While both represent 1 meter for each year of Jesus life, the Cochabambinos added a few cm since Jesus lived “33 años y un poco”.

: BOL100726 – Cochabamba – That’s a tightly packed skeleton.

: BOL-100726 – How the Ten Commandments were taught to the local people back in the 16th Century. I like the drawing of the 9th commandments 🙂

: BOL-100726 – Translation in case you couldn’t figure it out.

: BOL100727 – to La Paz – The route climbs even higher, up to 4,500m, then drops toward La Paz.

: BOL-100727 – to La Paz – I passed by this lively local small market where mainly cloth, animals and fruits+vegtable are sold. I also filled gas here from a stand selling it in plastic bottles. Trust me when I tell you I was convinced my bike will stall and die a few minutes later… but Llama and I survived. And by the way, tire repair shops are littered all over Bolivia roads, cities, small villages… Goes to show you what state of roads to expect.

: BOL-100727 – to La Paz – I am telling you, Bolivian people are so kind and thoughtful. They put up signs announcing Llama and my arrival: “Watch out ahead, Llama is coming” 🙂

: BOL-100727 – to La Paz – The strangest sighting of the day. During the whole climb up toward La Paz, dogs stand at the side of the road every 100m or so. As I stopped here at La Cumbre (4,500m) to snap pics, this 6-wheel truck stopped and gave the dog food. Inquiring, it’s a tradition, sort of superstition…

: …Feeding the dogs is an offering to the gods of the mountains to protect them on these treacherous routes. IMO, after what I experienced on these routes, the protection/blessing should be updated to include an alcohol + road rage inhibitor (yep, I am bad!).

: BOL-100727 – La Paz – View from El Alto. LA Paz lies in a fishbowl with the 3 snowy peaks of the Illimani Mountain in the background – the protector of La Paz.

: BOL-100728 – La Paz – Toy soldiers.

: BOL-100728 – La Paz – You can also buy llama fetuses decorated as X-mass trees.

: BOL-100728 – La Paz – With the Kiwi gang…

: …and some high altitude (low oxygen) induced fun 🙂

: BOL-100808 – Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia have this habit of concetrating each type of business in a street. How many hairdresser shop can you count?

: BOL-100727 – to La Paz – Doesn’t Coke still use Coca leaves as part of its “secret” taste recipe?

: BOL-100729 – El Alto – The famous El-Alto market and the few things you can buy.

: BOL-100729 – El Alto – Just like what my grandma used to have.

: BOL-100729 – El Alto – Hope you’re hungry.

: BOL-100730 – to the WMDR – First ride up to 4,700m.a.s.l.

: BOL-100730 – WMDR – Drum roll !!! Here it is… “The Death Road”.

: BOL-100730 – WMDR – Nowadays, tackling this road it’s really not that bad. The road is ~ 3m wide and barely any incoming traffic because they opened a new road around the mountain.

: BOL-100730 – WMDR – … it was a very easy ride; I even took some video while riding 🙂 … holding the camera in one hand and cruising along 🙂

***

At La Sanda Verde, you share the refuge with the animals. The way it works is: you are in the cage and the animals are free outside. The animal have all the rights, in between other: they eat first and we 2nd and we are not allowed to approach them, they have to come to us for us to be able to play with them (which they ALWAYS want to do :). Vicky, Edgard, Dee,… take extreme good care of these animals, most of them were rescued from the black market or from abusive families. . For example, some monkeys hate female (their owner were ladies who beat them). Another monkey is “racist”, he will attack Bolivian of darker color (you figure out why),…

: BOL-100731 – Sanda Verde – Parrots abound…

: BOL-100731 – Sanda Verde – My morning alarm clock.

: BOL-100731 – That one was stressed, tearing his feather.

: BOL-100731 – Sanda Verde – Come on, jump!

: BOL-100731 – They even have a beautiful spectacled bear named Aruma.

: BOL-100731 – Some sort of a turkey… yummy?

: BOL-100731 – Sanda Verde – Of course they had monkeys 🙂 Fun & playful Spider monkeys, trouble maker Squirrel monkeys, a gorgeous Howler monkey, a nocturnal Owl monkey and quite a few Cappucin monkeys which are in general a more aggressive bunch, better left alone.

: BOL-100731 – Yolasita – I also had time to go around Yolasita village. I tried the tirolina (zip line). For someone who does not like heights, it was quite an exhilarating experience.

: BOL-100731 – That’s Wara the black spider monkey and Elvis, a squirrel monkey who thinks he’s the “owner” of the spider ones. He’s mostly riding on their backs and is a troublemaker, he likes to create problems between the spiders.

: BOL-100731 – Meet Canelo, a baby howler monkey. Cuddly, playful (especially if you are wearing a hat) & spoiled. Wonder what will happen to him when he grows up. His canines are already a cm long. I guess he has to be caged or restrained 😦 You know, these monkeys cannot be released… in the wild they live in “tribes” and Canelo will most probably be killed by other males as he doesn’t belong.

: BOL-100801 – Kate, an Oz volunteer (actually was living in BC) resting after a hard day work. The monkeys (Canelo + a spider + a capucin monkey) were playing/fighting around her.

: BOL-100801 – Yolasita – We took a break to hike around the area and took a dip in this secluded small stream.

: BOL-100801 – Wara really liked me and she always hanged around me…

: BOL-100801 – Auto portrait.

: BOL-100801 – Time to sleep…

: … until Elvis comes along and disturbs everyone.

: WAKE UP!

: Wah’happen?

: BOL-100801 – …few minutes later Canelo came around, a little jealous. He wrapped his tail around my neck and started bothering Wara (she’s holding his head).

: BOL-100801 – They love to eat porridge 🙂

: BOL-100801 – Back at la Sanda Verde, this small spider monkey was in a playful mood and I was more than happy to join in.

: BOL-100802 – This is Jimmy, a dual personality squirrel monkey. He thinks his a dog… or at least their owner. He does not like humans, most of the time he’s riding one of the dogs and he even eats their food. If you try to caress or worse, play with one of the dogs, he will sometime attack!

: BOL-100802 – WMDR – I rode back to La Paz up through the WMDR as it was a fun ride… but this time I was hit by fog and rain making the trip a little bit more interesting.

***

The great Tiahuanacu civilization trace its origin to 600B.C. until their mysterious “disappearance” around 1200 A.D. (some propone they later formed the Inca culture…). What’s sure is their architecture, religion and culture influenced many others including the Incas. I visited what is left of this Tiahuanacu complex (its stones were used to build the local church, village house and even the railway tracks that cut right through the complex!). This Tiahuanacu complex once harbored up to 20,000 people and was surrounded by terrace like fields, ingeniously constructed and irrigated to produce way more food than is possible (or being done) nowadays.

: BOL-100804 – Tiahuanaco – “El Fraile” or priest, a famous monolith. It holds in its hands both power (religious and political).

: Yet take a look at its right hand: it’s in an impossible position to hold the object. All other monoliths & sculpting of deities/kings have similar yet not understood hand form.

: Its robe was adorned by what I guess were 365 circles marking a full year. One local guide insisted that our year has “360” days equal to the number of circles he counted on the monolith. I gave up trying to correct and didn’t even attempt to count the number of circles.

: BOL-100804 – Tiahuanaco – The famous “Puerta del Sol”. It’s not at its original position; no one knows exactly where it was. It’s sculpted in a single block estimated at 44tons.

: BOL-100804 – The carving on its front face is said to symbolize the sun deity (holding the 2 powers) while the smaller sculpture around the deity are said to be a calendar.

: BOL-100804 – Stones, big and small, used to be held together by copper bars in a shape of a double T, fitting these holes. Big stones had huge T shape incisions, up to a meter wide. Some say they were made of gold, although it sounds unlikely, rather it could probably have been gold plated copper bars?

: BOL-100804 – Tiahuanaco – Corner wall of the Kalasasaya ceremonial platform.

: BOL-100804 – Tiahuanaco – The Templete Semi-Subterraneo with its walls adorned with 175 stone head (of different shapes and races) and in its center the monolith of the all mighty Viracocha, the most powerful and revered god of many cultures.