Hotel Condeza La Paz

... and was very easy for me so I was among the leaders of our group at all times. Then we reached the start of the actual "World´s Most Dangerous Road". This is an unsealed road, a little over 60km long, that descends 3600m. It is cut into the side of cliffs and is a little over 3m wide, with a vertical drop of 600m onto rocks in some places... It´s become a lot safer that back in the day since a new road has taken most of the traffic away but BBC says that back in the day 200-300 ...

... in all, I would recommend it. <br><br>Back in Potosi, there was the anneversery of the towns founding. The night before was a huge party in the entire city. There was a parade that went on for hours, thronged by crowds of people, with tens of marching bands. We got stuck on the wrong side of it from our hostel. Eventually we realized after watching the locals that if you needed to cross/go anywhere the best ...

... two lads from Munster who we had previous met watching rugby in a pub in Cusco. Then, Donnacha had a black eye from when Tim had punched him in a play fight, this time Tim had his leg in plaster having fallen out of a bunk-bed. Why these two were good adverts for this place I don´t know. Anyway dancing, air-guitars and a late return to our hostel was the result.<br><br>Next day- not much done. Further chats with tour agencies- nothing booked. Meal in a British Indian Curry house and ...

... dirty, the people are ugly. The whole town is a market with people selling things from rugs and sheets, clothes food and just **** really.<br>Caught the overnight train to Oruro. Worst train trip ever. Stinking hot inside the cabins, uncomfortable chairs impossible to sleep on and full of stinking fat Bolivians snoring all night and deciding to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to put music on their phone as loud as they can.<br ...

... qualify as a light heavy weight in the Bolivian wrestling league. Needless to say, steroids are not nearly as much of a problem as illegal shoe lifts and pastry. Nonetheless, the show was addictive. We groaned as the referee displayed dubious objectivity by repeatedly attacking the combatants from behind, often both wrestlers during the same match, which was confusing to say the least. We cheered as the short stocky woman with the imposing cleavage frequently ...

... serious injuries that had happened a couple of weeks back on the same trip, broken collar bones, broken limbs etc and it turned out that of the 5 or so people that were injured, 2 were still legally drunk at 3 in the afternoon, 1 had been on the cocaine the night before and the other had, according to the doctors at the hospital, smoked crack that same morning! Well what do you expect? No surprises that the military police had set up a drug and alocohol testing road stop ...

... We were charged an extra 13 usd for the bikes and everything was tagged before going on the bus, which we were happy about.<br><br>We made our way out of the grimy 'burbs of lima and onto the Pan American and there it was again, desert as far as the eye could see. At one point we passed massive sand dunes that you could etiher dune buggy or sand board down, although beware, people have seriously injured themselves doing this. We had the sea in sight for a while and ...

... my bag... but not to worry - I could log a complaint in la paz when we arrived, after midnight, and it should arrive in a few days - even though he had no idea where it was! I was calm and collected, despite the thought of having to wear al´s clothes for a few days... (almost impossible as he has a 32/34 waist! - but an amusing thought, although ther other way would have been even more amusing!). <br><br>Anyway, we finally arrived on our little plane into la ...

... we have a chat with the troops, they are just young lads, probably conscripts stuck in a bitterly cold spot.<br>Further on we enter cloud and visibility drops to almost zero, we are hitting patches of unmade road. I decide I do not want to continue on what is supposed to be a pleasure ride and turn round and head back to La Paz.<br>In La Paz I take a wrong turn and find the main road has been closed off, there is a protest ...