Archive | September, 2013

Dicing with death on the World’s Most Dangerous Road

25 Sep

The Most Dangerous Road in the World stretches 61 kilometres from La Paz to Coroico and descends over 3,000 metres from spell-binding Andean mountains drenched in snow, to lush sub-tropical hills covered in rich forests and dotted with waterfalls. This stretch of unpaved dirt track earned its name by taking the most lives (annually around one hundred) of any road in the world. A newly opened bypass has significantly reduced the flow of traffic on the Death Road and the number of fatalities has been drastically reduced but the fearsome reputation of the road remains as strong as ever. In places the road is little more than three metres wide with sheer drops one side plunging up to six hundred metres below and vertical walls of rock on the other.

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La Paz – The good, the bad and the ugly

19 Sep

La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, at an altitude of 3,660 metres above sea level, had us in a spin from the second we arrived. Approaching the city the empty, flat plains of El Alto go on endlessly until that special moment when you see the ground opening up and receive your first glance of La Paz sprawling in the deep valley below.

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Bonito – the Caribbean of central Brazil

16 Sep

Bonito is a small, charming Brazilian town set on the edge of Parque National de Serra de Bodoquena – a beautiful nature-lovers paradise complete with dense forests, stalactite filled caves, crystal clear lakes bursting with fish and scenic waterfalls. Bonito and the Mato Grosso do Sul region have become increasingly popular as a tourist destination in the last few years, especially amongst holidaying Brazilians. We’d heard that out of peak season (December – February) Bonito was a laid back, friendly town and an excellent place to relax for a few days so we headed there after our trip to the Pantanal and before returning to Bolivia.

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The Brazilian Pantanal – Wet & Wild!

4 Sep

The sun was still high in the sky as we cruised down a long, straight stretch of unpaved road taking us deep into the Brazilian Pantanal. As one of the biggest wetland areas in the world covering 230,000 square kilometres, the Pantanal is home to around one thousand different species of exotic birds and animals and is renowned for being one of the best places in the whole of Latin America to spot wildlife in its natural habitat. The Pantanal would soon start living up to its reputation as we pulled over to the side of the road to view two magnificent black bodied and bright orange beaked toucans in the trees only 10 metres away from us.

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