Hotel Italia La Paz

... bike somersaulting over me through the air several times. He asked if I was OK and I said I was grand, like (or words to that affect).<br><br>Then, as I was preparing to sadle up again, my tongue felt what felt like an enormous hole in my teeth. I also noticed both elbows and forearms were busted open quite badly, one of my knees was busted open and also one of my cheeks. My sunglasses were mangled ($5 fake Chinese Ray Bans so it´s impressive they didn´t shatter and pierce my ...

... would let us sleep in a bed before 2 pm. The best part of it was when we hailed a taxi, agreed on a destination and price, put our bags in the trunk, climbed in and started driving. About half a block later, he saw some other toruists, who apparantly he liked better, because he pulled over, deposited our bags on the curb before we even understood what was happening, and told us to take a different taxi, and took ...

Arrived!<br><br>Near on 7 hours later.<br><br>The border crossing was horrific - 2 hours waiting on the Peru side in a massive queue for an exit stamp and then more waiting on the Bolivia side for my entry visa. Public holiday week!<br><br>I have a lovely room to myself in a triple share with a massive king size bed. Cant complain about that! <br><br>La Paz is like Lima on steriods. Its massive, dirty, people everywhere ...

... at least at that kind of speed. It was maybe just a hint smoother than some of the roads in southern Utah, and admittedly with less than half as many Mormons to boot. Hammering across the wash-boarded desert path we alternated between feeling like we were sitting in a slightly evil version of a La-Z-Boy massage chair or as had a thousand enthusiastic smurfs beating us with bags of batteries and toenail clippings. Throw in a semi-hourly wave of curiously warm ...

... from Peru to Bolivia we get off the bus and walk accross the boarder and get our passports stamped. Its all a very easy process. We get back on the death bus, but thankfully only for another 8km before they transfer us to another company at Copacobana. The bus is probably in even worse condition then the last and the driver was simply unskilled, but at least he didnt try to kill us.<br><br>About and hour or so after the second bus finally leaves Copacobana ...

... and wide sweeping corners allowing some serious speed to be gained. It was hard not to take a peak over the sides as I gained confidence nailing the corners but after a while you just learned to forget that you were on the side of a mountain. The ride was broken down into sections, after each one we stopped in a passing place to allow everyone to catch up. About an hour from the end of the ride one of the guides, Javier, had moved on ahead to get into position for the video ...

... and sniffed it, at which point I started laughing, but then they started opening all the zips in the bag, and we knew the money belt with all our usd, sterling etc was in there. lucky for us there are so many zips he didn't get round to the inside one, also, that they were a bit thick, it wasn't a systematic search it was 2 blokes taking a last opportunity to scam a couple of gringos. not this time matey.<br><br>Having said that, it was the first time anyone had tried ...

... and was amazed and annoyed to find we had to check the hand luggage through security again. Crying out loud, I´d already had to take my shoes off in Manchester, what more did they want with me? <br><br>Amsterdam came and went and we rocked on to the 12 and 3 quarters of an hour flight to Lima, filled with mad old Dutch people and various latin american looking types. Fully limbering up my ankle joints and praying to god i didn´t come down with a mad case of thrombosis when we ...

Up out Copacabana with clear blue sky overhead and a slight chill in the air. <br>We climb the hills at the edge of the Altiplano the bike struggling on Bolivian fuel and thin air. <br>One thing about buying fuel in Bolivia, it is simple, petrol stations have only two pumps diesel and gasolina, and only bad gasolina at that, low 80´s octane rating. No super or extra super just gasolina like it or run out!<br>We ride back down to the edge ...