Hotel Calacoto La Paz

... 2):<br>Went to the pickup point, go driven to the start of the ride and given my bike. I decided to use Gravity Bolivia because Lonely Planet blatently says they´re the best and most safe. I have to recognise that they bikes were grand (sull suspension, front &amp; rear disk brakes and so on) but the rest didn´t look particularly better than other companies. E.g. I saw some that provided elbow pads and helmets with full face protection.<br><br>First bit of the ride was on a sealed ...

... and green parks and we thought this was just wonderful. Spanish was lots of fun. We enjoyed wandering around the town, through the markets, sitting in teh squares. In Bolivian cities, all the stores of a certain kind, perhaps jewlery or furniture, are clustered together. We seemed to be staying on the street of the funeral homes, or funererias. We found some great places to eat and drink. It was a great city ...

Out of Buenos Aires again and made my way to La Paz over 68 hours.<br><br>Stopped in Salta for a 9 hour wait<br>Caught the midnight bus to the Argentina-Bolivia border.<br>Got ****ed over at the border for money.<br>Waited for 6 hours in the sun with a couple of Argentinans I met on the way with no shade in Villazon in Bolivia to catch the train. Got extremely sunburnt. As soon as I get to Bolivia, things change drastically. Streets ...

... who put on a great show while kicking the guys´ asses and appealing to the underdog in us all. What a crazy show &#8211; like North American professional wrestling except even more ludicrous and over the top, kind of like an According to Jim holiday episode. For starters, the combatants, while all loudly outfitted to resemble a bafflingly diverse set of characters, were far from Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, or even while running for re-election. I would ...

... sea level. We were issued with our bikes, fantastic bikes as it goes, and safety helmets, gloves, bad ass goggles etc. Then the guide gave us all a briefing which was p`robably designed to scare everyone even more as he outlined the dangers and described the injuries, and fatalities, that had occurred in recent years, in fact accidents were quite common. Though to be fair it seemed as if you were sensible and did as you were told it was easy to stay alive! He desribed some ...

... to tourists. I really wanted to see it (not inside though) since I read Marching Powder (an amazing book about an English mans incarceration there - I fully recommend reading it). I did manage to get a look through the main gate, into the courtyard where loads of prisoners were hanging around.<br> Other than that, it was an easy couple of days, spent relaxing and eating!<br>Then onto Lake Titicaca!<br>

... desk to check into, just gates... so panic started as we tried to work out how to get through security backwards to go and check in, anyway, after more attempts of Spanish, and a nice English speaking man, we were told there was a tiny desk that would open in a few hours... so we just went to waste more time (getting quite delirious now!)<br><br>Finally we went to check in and also to check our bags were on their way to la paz with us, and the man told us they had ...

We are going to Coroico today young Graham wants to ride the "Road of Death" a particularly dangerous dirt road that falls 3600 metres in 69km with no barriers and shear drops.<br>I have agreed to go along but will use the new "safer" route.<br>We head up yet again into mountains just when you thought you could go no higher, it gets colder and we hit the snow line. <br>We stop at a narcotics checkpoint, we haven´t got any ...