Sports and other adventures

Since I arrived, I was really keen on attending at least one soccer (football) match while I was here. La Paz has two teams: Bolivar and The Strongest. The Strongest were lined up to play Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro – a team that no other than Ronaldhino plays on, and a couple of friends were already buying tickets so they picked up an extra one for me. Not only did I get to catch a game here, but I also got the chance to see Ronaldhino. Tickets were pricier because of the star factor but even after splurging on the more expensive tickets (“Preferencia”), they still cost Bs100, which is approximately $14 USD so for most who have been to games in Canada, this was a great price. The only downside was that seats are not numbered so it is best to arrive early in order to secure a good spot – which we did not do and ended up spending the first half of the game watching from behind the players area (with their bench covers, we could only see the pitch at one end), we did move for the second half and caught the game from sitting higher up in an aisle.

For a little while, a group of us had been planning on cycling from El Alto to Lake Titicaca, which is about 60kms. Our plan was to rent bikes from Geo Trek, located on calle Sagarnaga, on Friday evening after work. At $17 USD for the day, I wasn’t too sure what condition the bikes might be in but I was keen on giving it shot. Efrain and Delfin are amazing! The two of us who were renting ended up with some well taken care of bikes that were ready for our adventures the following morning.
We were aiming to catch a bus at 7am that would take us up to El Alto where we would begin our ride… that was before an evening that started off with dinner but ended up catching up with friends in a watering hole called “Abbey Road”, then to check out this other bar that none of us had been to (nothing to really write home about), then a quest for some dancing that had us stopping by a friend’s restaurant “Maphrao On”, where some of La Paz’ best DJs were celebrating the birthday of one of their own with spinning some great music…
In any case, 7am came very quickly and although running on 3 hours of sleep, the four of us were en route 45 minutes later. Once in El Alto, we went on the hunt for a place with a presta adaptor as one of us was riding a road bike and definitely needed some extra air pumped into the tires before starting off on the ride. After some serious searching at multiple tire places, we finally found one mechanic who had made his own presta adapter that included holding a couple of flat rubber pieces together while pumping up the tire.
Bikes ready, we were off to tackle the traffic of El Alto. After battling heavy traffic, street markets, muddy roads and massive speed bumps, we were finally on the highway, heading north to the lake!
The highways here can be pretty scary most of the time but somehow, on bikes, I didn’t feel threatened by the speed nor the way that people drive here. We stayed on the large paved shoulder and the only thing that we had to watch for were the minibuses that stop anywhere to pick up or drop off passengers along their routes. Most people both in cars and in the towns along the way were first surprised to see us on bikes (we were three girls and one guy) and then would smile when we would say “buenas dias” while pedalling along. As usual, any other cyclist that we would meet along the way would get a wave and a “buenas dias”; although there weren’t that many, the majority were men from one town cycling to the next one, and one touring cyclist.
Although we were delayed and didn’t make our full 60 kms, we were able to complete 50 kms of our trip and enjoyed a tasty treat of fresh trout, rice and potatoes. What surprised me was that although I have not been on a bike since leaving home over a month ago, plus the factor of fighting a cold, and cycling at 12,000ft, my breathing wasn’t affected.
After our well-deserved lunch, we caught a bus back to El Alto and after getting lost for a little while, we found our way on to the Autopista and rode back down into town just in time to return the bikes and get ready for the fancy jello shot party that one of our fellow cyclists was hosting that night.

Next up? A weekend in Coroico, with tropical weather, swimming, and hopefully more cycling!