Markets and mountain biking

Trip Start Oct 17, 2006
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Trip End Mar 04, 2007


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Sunday, December 10, 2006

After a month it was finally time to leave Peru and head into Bolivia.  Enroute to La Paz we stopped at the pre Inca ruins at Tiahuanaco, the last ruins of the trip(!).  There were some well preserved statues and a pretty sun gate but most of the site is still buried.
I spent a long time shopping in the lovely artesian markets which had lots of pretty goods and I had fun haggling with the stall holders to get some good bargains.  I also went to the witches market where there were lots of strange potions and products as well as llama foetuses which were rather gross to see.

The highlight of La Paz was mountain biking down Death Road, the most dangerous road in the world with a fatal accident occurring on average every 2 weeks.  The first section was on asphalt so I was able to go really fast which was fun.  Then there was an uphill section which was quite tough, especially at altitude as it is harder to breathe, however I was pleased I did it as a lot of the group took the minibus up.  We then got on to Death Road properly which is a slightly wider than single track gravel road and is very bendy with 600m sheer drops down the valley.  This meant that you had to brake almost constantly but the scenery was beautiful and we cycled through a couple of waterfalls which was good to cool down.
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