Chicken, llama foetuses, poo problems, death road

Trip Start Jun 03, 2008

Trip End Sep 22, 2008

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Bolivia La Paz, Bolivia
Saturday, July 12, 2008

Right so we left for La Paz early on Thursday morning. There were lots of random stones on the road etc from where the road blocks were due to the protests, so this slowed us down quite a bit. We got to the border eventually and there was a big queue for immigration, which was an easy process - a couple of forms and some stamps. There was a great view of the city from the top, it was just like lots of houses in between the mountains. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and already I could see the difference between Bolivia and Peru. We got there about lunchtime, was craving a KFC but couldn´t seem to find one (or a McDonalds! but there was a burger king...) which is unusual for a capital city.. however there were PLENTY of chicken places so my chicken craving was quickly satisfied. I tried some street food too.. some random fig juice which looked like a little brain in goo and a hot sausage sandwich. Bolivia is much cheaper than Peru, we stocked up on some ammareto and coke to get going that evening and I ate half a chicken with potatoes and sauce for less than a 1.50quid. Walking around La Paz was really good, lots of stalls that sold cheap stuff.. like walthamstow market.. and it was much less tourist-orientated than Peru, so was full of the hussle and bussle of locals just doing their thing. There is a witches market, that sells random herbs and plants, and most disturbingly.. dried llama foetuses, which people bury in front of their houses to send away evil spirits. Freaky stuff. THat night, we went to RamJam, a nice bar/restaurant and spent the evening there.

lapaz

I was looking forward to getting some oxygen from ozone, the 'Highest Oxygen Bar inthe world´ but it had closed down.

On Friday we had to go early to pay for ´Death Road´. I hadn´t been feeling well for a while but Friday was the worst, I spent most of the afternoon in bed, in the hope that I´d recover because I wanted to do Death Road regardless of how ill I was.

Saturday morning came, the day we biked down Death Road. The company we went with is called Gravity Assisted, they have an amazing safety record (only one fatality in 10 years) and their bikes are amazing - full suspension and worth $2500. Went for their best package which comes with all the gear, and took out extra insurance (just in case). The ride is 64 km of downhill mountain biking 3,600m vertical descent down the famous World's Most Dangerous Road... it is not called this for marketing purposes, there was a study that showed that this road has the most deaths per km... on average over 200 fatalities a year. It was amazing.. great scenery, thrilling, shit scary, and i managed to vomit only 4 times (i was ill!)

There was a 3-day festival in the town of Coroico and police said we couldn't bike down the first part that they usually do to get us going, the asphalt section, as there was bound to be more traffic than usual and a lot of drunk drivers. So good thing we didn't - and that wasn't even death road yet. Instead we got to try a section of their 'Ghost ride' to warm us up before death road. It was all gravel, quite steep with lots of corners, and it was a lot of fun.

lapaz

We were told the road was more challenging but not as dangerous as we weren't cycling on the side of the cliff! That was quite fun, and good preparation, only Emma who was cycling in front of me managed to fall off just the once which was quite funny to watch (only funny after I knew she was ok!). We were given good coaching - told to ride in the "rough rider" position to centre our weight on the bikes, and taught good moutain biking ettiquette like cycling single file with 3 bus lengths between us and giving clear notice when overtaking. Another group of cyclists from another company obviously didn't have this kind of coaching and it was frustrating when they overtook without notice, stopped in front of you or cycled in one big pack.

The worlds most dangerous road seemed like exactly that - quite narrow, lots of corners, and most importantly - big 600m vertical drops on the side of the road, so if you do go over the edge you're a gonner. For safety from vehicles, he had to cycle on the tyre track close to the cliff edge and if vehicles did go past we had to stop on the side of the cliff! The bikes basically went wherever you looked, so if you looked at obstructions you'd crash into them.. if you looked over the edge - that's where you'd end up! So I tried my best not to look on my left, sometimes i'd catch a glimpse and get so nervous that I'd brake lots. It's all downhill, so you can't go too slow otherwise you'd have to jump on the bus - similarly if the guides thought you're going too fast or racing you'd end up in the truck.. but nobody did so its allgood. As the day progressed, I got more confident and was zooming down and really enjoying it. Apparenlty most accidents were towards the end, as a result of people being fatigued and overconfident.. but nobody got hurt this time around. The day ended in a cool animal sanctuary full of monkeys and other animals, where we were fed a buffet pasta lunch, a beer and the reason I did the ride - free tshirt!!

I didn't wanna risk taking my camera on the ride, in case I crashed and broke the camera (rather than me getting distracted and falling off the cliff!) but I'm getting a photo CD sent back to england so photos will be up some time or another.. So yeah it was a good day all-in-all, was so knackered at the end of the day I konked out and had a good nights sleep..