Hotel Esmeralda Coroico

We took the bus from Copacabana to La Paz on 21st July. La Paz is a very busy, polluted but fairly interesting city. We visited the famous black and witches markets (selling lucky llama fetusī and other lucky charms) and San Pedro prison (novel Marching Powder fame). Yesterday we went on a mountain bike ride with Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking along The Worldīs Most Dangerous Road. Itīs a 64km down hill ride, descending 3650m. The road was very narrow at points and we had to cycle on the le...

On Sunday the 12, me and 4 friends made the day trip just outside of La Paz to mountain bike downhill to Coroico. The road has been labeled the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" because more people die on this stretch of highway than anywhere else in the world. On average 26 vehicles per year disapear over the edge into the abyss. We used the most prestigous company currently offering this excursion...Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking. They're expensive...but you get what you pay for. We saw some c...

It is supposedly the worldīs most dangerous road, but I think that itīs changed since it got that name in 1995. Yeah itīs still dangerous, but since they built a new road, there arenīt that many trucks to dodge. The most dangerous stuff is the bumpy, rocky road. Death Road We were given our dust protection pants, our helmets and gloves and piled into the mini bus. Aside from us, there was only an Austrian and a Brazilian guy and then a whole tour load of old Germans. The mini bus had all the ...

Our bike ride to Coroico started at 7:45am sharp. Around 9am we got to an altitude of 4000m by the van then got into our bikes and got few safety notes from our guide Graham. There were about 10 of us that day. It was freezing cold up there and as we started to ride down the first 22Km we even got more cold. It was foggy, rainy, you name it. After 22Km we got to the junction of the new and the old road where we started to go down the old one. That is where your 42Km of gravel starts. We had t...

Up early this morning and down to Barro biking in the backpacker part of town near our hotel. Had a quick breakfast there before getting our minibus out of town with 3 others - French and American. Keep meaning to say have met LOADS of French people here esp in Brazil and virtually no other Brits until we got to San Pedro in Chile - very odd but quite nice too! Anyway, minibus headed out of town up hill pretty much all the way and about 45 mins and a police check later we arrived by a lake at...

Today we Mountain Biked 60 Kms down the WMDR ("Worlds most dangerous road" sory mothers we wont do it again!!!) which is the "main" road from La Paz to the amazon basin!! It was brilliant, its only a dirt road and i cant believe its allowed! We did the biking with "Gravity" and its pretty safe, a good company. The speeds reached are very fast and the views along the way are amazing seen as its all downhill on a mountain! We have been constantly touring and doing trips like this since we hit S...

We decided to take a break from busy La Paz and head to Coroico, about 3 hours from La Paz. Dom had found this place, and a lovely looking hotel, whilst researching the trip back in February so we had been looking forward to coming here for a while. To get to Coroico you have to travel down The Worldīs Most Dangerous Road, a great tourist attraction in Bolivia. The irony of travelling down this dangerous road to get to a place that people describe as heavenly was not lost on me! The road itse...

We actually did find our hostel easy enough in the end and in fact made it there for last orders at the bar, great timing by us. La Paz is the worlds highest capital (3660m above sea level) but after being in Cuzco and completing the Inca trial weīre used to the altitude now and fully acclimatised. The first thing we did the next morning (after all you can eat pancakes for breakfast) was look for a company willing to do the road of during rainy season. We heard that the main company Gravity d...

Jesus take the wheel Take it from my hands Cause I can't do this all on my own I'm letting go So give me one more chance To save me from this road I'm on Jesus take the wheel Day of the Road of Death. The World's Most Dangerous Road. The road with the most deaths per kilometre. After much searching, it is reconfirmed that people lie. The 'new road', i.e., Road of Life, supposedly is not open yet and there are no shuttles on it. So while Niall heads off to do Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking d...

Life was just a tire swing. 'Jambalaya' was the only song I could sing. Blackberry pickin', eatin' fried chicken, And I never knew a thing about pain. Life was just a tire swing Well, it does make a lot more sense with the picture of us on the tire swing that swings out over the cliff dropping down from the Hotel Esmeralda's garden! Must get more pics online... Weīre eating like kings. $2 for all you can eat pancake and fruit buffet breakfast, $3 for lunch and dinner buffets. This is less tha...