Brush with Death

Northeast of La Paz is a 43 mile road, the North Yungas Road, which has been christened (by the Inter-American Development Bank) as the “World’s Most Dangerous Road” or “Death Road” due to the number of deaths along the road annually.

The road is dangerous because of the sharp turns and the fact that it winds along the mountainside with sheer cliffs (nearly 2000 feet!) on one side.

An average of 26 vehicles per year have gone over the edge in the past 30 years. The worst road accident in Bolivia occurred here when a bus with more than 100 passengers went over the edge in 1983. The road, in parts, is only 10 feet wide so these accidents often happen as vehicles (going in opposite directions) pass.

The scenery along the road is unbelievable. The ride starts at nearly 15,500 feet and descends to 3,500 feet in less than 40 miles. At the top, waterfalls are frozen, by the bottom, it’s hot and humid as you progress from a mountain environment to the rainforest where the road ends.

The Death Road was recently featured on MSN as one of the 12 craziest drives in the world: http://www.bing.com/travel/content/search?q=Crazy+Drives%3a+North+Yungas+Road%2c+Bolivia&FORM=TRSSPG.

In 1990, this road was opened for tourists who wanted to ride mountain bikes down Death Road. In the last 21 years, 33 tourists have died on this bike ride – the most recent incident was in early June 2011.

In March 2007, a new (wider and paved) road was built connecting the northern jungle to La Paz. Since that time, the number of accidents has decreased dramatically! But the old, narrow, gravel road remains and is now primarily used for those tourists who want to bike down the Road of Death! To my great surprise, I am one of those tourists!

It was a bit scary in parts – the loose gravel always makes me a bit nervous. But the views were amazing! And, I try to always live by the policy of Eleanor Roosevelt: Do One Thing Each Day that Scares You. For today, I sure did!

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¡Costume Party for 25,000!

By a twist of great luck, I happened to arrive in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia (and the highest altitude capital city in the world), the day before the largest festival of the year -- La Festividad de Nuestro Senor Jesus del Gran Poder (“El Gran Poder”).

El Gran Poder ("the big power") began in 1939 as a candlelight procession led by an image of Christ through the traditional indigenous neighborhoods of upper La Paz.

The following year, a local embroiderers union decided to form a folkloric dance group, complete with beautiful embroidered costumes, to participate in the event.









In subsequent years, other folkloric groups joined and the once small religious procession grew into a huge annual festival dedicated to the cultural traditions of the Bolivian people.

Today, this unique La Paz festival includes more than 25,000 performers (dancers, musicians, etc.) from all over the city and the region. This year the parade continued uninterrupted for nearly 8 hours!

Embroiderers work for months to prepare beautiful elaborate costumes and the performers practice for weeks leading up to the event.

Most of the dances have specific meanings celebrating or memorializing specific part of Bolivian heritage. For example, some of the dances are based on traditional Incan ceremonial dances. Others recreate periods of slavery in Bolivia’s history. Many of these dances focus on the Spanish and their treatment of indigenous peoples. Many dances mock the Spanish king and members of their upper class as well as their traditions such as bullfighting. Years ago, vocal objections were punishable by death, so disguising your objections in dance, was the only form of expression.

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Will it Float?

In addition to the 70 permanent islands mentioned in my last blog entry, Lake Titicaca is home to approximately 48 floating islands off the shore of Puno, Peru. These islands are the home of the Uros Indians.

For hundreds of years, the Uros people have lived on these manmade islands in Lake Titicaca. The Uros are primarily a fishing tribe who, the story goes, moved to these islands to avoid oppression from other peoples on the mainland. Today, about 600 Uros Indians live on approximately 48 islands. Many more now live on the mainland and come out to the islands only to give tours of the islands and give a glimpse of the traditional lifestyle enjoyed by the Uros people.

The Uros islands are made of layers of torta reeds – the dominant plant found in the shallows of Titicaca.

These reeds are the building material used for buildings, roofing, fishing rafts, and, of course, the islands themselves. In addition, the inner parts of the reeds, near the roots, are an important food source for the islanders.

Each island takes about 3 months of communal work to create and they last between 12 and 15 years. First, large numbers of reeds, including their roots and the surrounding sod, are harvested.

These chunks of sod are tied together and covered with alternating layers of reeds several feet thick.

The completed islands are then tied to long sticks which are forced into the lakebed thus anchoring them in place. (However, during rainy season, the islands’ anchors can come undone and the islands move about the surface of the lake.)

These Two Sticks are Examples of Anchors for this Island

Local Uros Resident Demonstrating Island Building Process

However, once the island has been built, the work isn’t complete -- the bottom layers of reeds are constantly rotting so new layers need to be frequently added to the top to keep the island intact.

It’s not easy keeping your house afloat!

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Lago Titicaca

Lake Titicaca, straddling the border of Peru and Bolivia, is the world’s "highest navigable lake." This means that: 1) the lake is really high – it´s at an altitude of nearly 12,500 feet; and 2) that the lake is big enough and deep enough for large commercial ships to move across it.

Just how large is the lake? It is 3200 square miles of water. At its deepest, Lake Titicaca is 1214 feet deep! It´s the 19th largest lake in the world. However, compared to my hometown lake, Lake Michigan, it’s about seven times smaller -- but about 300 feet deeper.

An inland sea called Lago Ballivian used to cover this region before geological faults and evaporation dropped the water level to where it remains today.

The name Titicaca comes from the Aymara language and means “Puma’s Rock” -- due to an interestingly shaped rock on one of the largest islands in the lake. And, speaking of islands, Titicaca has more than 70. The largest of which, Isla del Sol, contains over 180 Incan ruins. The Incan people believed that creation occurred on Isla del Sol when the sun and moon mated to create the Incan people. Interestingly, the pre-Incan civilizations also believed that the sun rose out of the lake each morning. 

The lake is surrounded by snowcapped mountains which adds to its beauty and undoubtedly contributes to the lake’s mystique.

I spent a few days on and around Lake Titicaca. I visited three of the islands and spent the night with a family on one island. It was wonderful to meet these people and experience a small part of their traditional lifestyle.

There are two other interesting facts I must mention. First, it was in the area around Lake Titicaca thousands of years ago that the potato, the tomato, and the common pepper were all first domesticated. It seems much of Latin American cooking owes a big thank you to the people of this region!

And my favorite fact of all: while Bolivia is a landlocked country (it does not border an ocean or sea) they have a navy. Since Lake Titicaca is so vast, and since it also borders another country, Lake Titicaca is home to the Bolivian navy.

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