La Paz and the World's Most Dangerous Road

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After a bumpy twelve-hour bus ride imagining i was in a really vigorous massage chair, i landed myself in the terminal de buses in La Paz at about 7am. Headed to a hostel called 'Adventure Brew' that had been recommended by some people i met on the bus and dropped of my stuff and was advised i couldn't check in until 2pm, so i had a good seven hours to wander around the city on the back of pretty limited sleep. First impressions were not so amazing... I opted to wander down the main strip through the middle of the city, and just got overwhelmed by masses of traffic, car horns, dudes leaning out van doors yelling where they were going and trying to entice people inside. Road rules optional. I ended up reading a book in one of many plazas to kill time, and bought a really swish new watch with a calculator on it for about 2US. Passed out almost immediately after checking in to the hostel.

Arose to a fresh new day and complementary pancake breakfast. The hostel was really nice. Microbrewery on site and a bar on the top floor (not able to be reached without at least once puffing from altitude). Aforementioned pancakes are a godsend and if you can eat enough for breakfast you don't even need to buy lunch, but get pretty uncomfortable glares from the kitchen lady when you load up seven pancakes at once. Met some interesting folk in the bar, including an Argentinian cosmetic surgeon, a very drunk man from Texas who was WAY right wing and was responsible for the brewery onsite, a large bald british man who took his poker very seriously and almost punched me in the face when i clicked my fingers at him in jest, and a fifty-odd year old man from California who'd been on the road for about a year and had much to say about life. I met up with all the guys who i'd done the salar tour with because we all happened to be in La Paz at the same time and were all keen to ride bikes down the 'Death road' (more later). Had a magnificent day wandering around the markets with a friend (the city is a billion times better off the main strip). You can buy pretty much anything at these markets. Turning a corner sends you from a street lined with business suits, to one with just giant sacks of spices with big metal scoops in them, or strung up llama foetuses. I fell in love with a little guitar in one place, which i later bought myself for christmas when i managed to find the store again. It was about 150US (extortionate for LaPaz, but a very pretty guitar).


Things about LaPaz:
-I saw at least three street protests (Very sedate. They are the norm here)
-Due to the lack of traffic rules, they get people dressed up in full body zebra costumes to run in front of traffic and dance in place until the pedestrians have got across the road. Awesome.
-Soft drinks come in glass bottles, which the market vendors expect returned. The options are to drink the beverage at the store and return the bottle, or have the whole thing dumped into a plastic bag with a straw. Also awesome.

After a couple of days relaxing, the Salar crew and I (plus an extra belgian) set off to 'The World's most dangerous road'. The road used to be the main link from LaPaz to nearby Coroico, and was named due to it's being about 3m wide at most points, and clinging to the side of a mountain with no rails to prevent plummeting into the fog. It has since been bypassed, and sees much less traffic, so a bunch of tour agencies in LaPaz offer to drive you to the top and then let you loose with mountain bikes. Very cool.

We got kitted up, and sat on our bikes (amazing bikes, by the way. Duel suspension, disc brakes, all black. The sort of thing Batman would ride if he were into biking) at the top of the mountain getting drizzled on and feeling slightly worried about the weather situation. The first leg was all highway, being the end part of the new bypass (bolivian highway, mind you. Not in the best condition). It was INCREDIBLY fast. Trucks and buses zipping past in the other lane, sometimes not in the other lane... mountains and amazing views all around whenever i was game to look up from the road. The second stage was the death road itself. Basically a dirt road hugging the side of a cliff all lined with crucifixes and plaques from when it was in full swing with vehicles. The first stage was quite muddy, and all that could be seen off the edge was mist and nothing, but the sun soon broke as the altitude decreased, and the view was amazing (see pictures). Pretty tame ride on the whole. Only one person fell of (me) and rolled into a ditch full of water next to the cliff. One minor close call with a truck that our leading guide didn't quite see in time to warn Jim and Eros at the front, but overall a great experience.

The plan was to drive to a hostel for beers and lunch at the end of the ride, but there were landfalls which held up our van for a half hour, so we hopped out and back onto the bikes to ride to the hostel after dashing past the rockfall while rather large rocks were still rolling down onto the road (apparently it was ok because we were wearing bike helmets?). The ride to the hostel sucked. Pedaling a dual suspension bikes uphill just makes you bounce up and down rather than going forward. There was a pool and beers to reward at the end though.


Running out of blog enthusiasm now, but the drive back was rather interesting. Rock falls blocked the bypass, so we drove up the death road itself. Way cool. Fortunately, the protocol is to overtake on the opposite side to usual so the the driver on the edge can lean out the window and see how close his wheels are to slipping over. This meant that we were on the side next to the wall whenever there was overtaking to be done.

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Photos

The first leg
FAST

The gang at the bottom
Getting MOLESTED by mosquitos