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La Paz
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I got to La Paz late at night and the bus dropped us off at the local cemetary. There were some women working outside the cemetary, closing up their flower stalls and I asked one of them how much a taxi cost into the city and she said that the taxis were dangerous and that the place was full of robbers and only to get a taxi that said Radio on the roof. Then one came along and she told me to get that one, and then the taxi driver started talking to me about how other taxis were dangerous and then went off into a rant about how it was affecting his business and then he was talking too fast and I couldn´t understand anything, so I just nodded and kept my hand on my wallet!
La Paz was pretty nice...I´d heard different reports about it, some people said it wasn´t that nice so I wasn´t expecting a lot so maybe that´s why I thought it was ok. I ended up staying in a hostel across the square from the San Pedro prison which is supposed to be totally corrupt...some of the rich prisoners have satelite TV and stuff and you used to be able to do prison tours but not any more.
I signed up to do a bike trip from La Paz to Coroico which is known as the world´s most dangerous road. And it´s pretty dodgy alright! The first 22kms were along a sealed road which was ok and had nice scenery. Then we had a pit-stop before the non-sealed part and the guys in the gravity, the bike company, checked the bikes and changed my brake pads which was good! Then we headed down the dodgy part, about 45km but it´s all downhill. It´s freaky, you´re cycling along keeping your eyes on the road and then out of the corner of your eye you see the road just drop off to the side for a couple of hundred metres. And there´s lots of traffic on the road too...big trucks and local buses ploughing along and churning up the dust so you have to stop and get off your bike and make sure you don´t stand too close to the edge as they pass by. There´s lots of crosses along the way too, and wreckages of buses and trucks that have fallen over the side which is pretty sobering. Anyway, I made it down and back in one piece and got a free t-shirt which was good as I needed the clean clothes!
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