La Paz and The Death Road

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Arriving into La Paz at 5 in the morning is not fun. We had barely had a wink of sleep the whole journey and the prospect of getting into a bed as soon as possible was all we wanted. We went back to the Adventure Brew Hostel and picked up our bags, managed to slyly have ourselves a free breakfast and then walked on down the street to their other establishment, the B&B. If we would have checked in at 6 they would charge us for an extra night so we chose to find a sofa in the hostel and wade out the tiredness until 8amwhen we could check in properly.

Once 8am came and we were checked in we were wide awake and didn't stand a chance of sleep. We had one choice, to stay awake for the rest of the day as a mid day sleep would have killed us. Zombies.

It took us a while to get ourselves ready, washed and dressed before heading out into La Paz, a city with very little to do for a day. The last time we were here over a week ago we experienced most if the sights and so today was dedicated to present shopping and booking a bike trip for the following day.

When we finally got ourselves out of the hostel it was 11ish (we intended to move slowly as the city is pretty boring) and we were on our way to the artesian stores, filled with multi coloured everything. The first thing we did was book our bike trip for the next day, going with a company that we visited the week before and it took all of 10 minutes to sort out. We were then onto the shopping part.

The thing with shops in Bolivia is that they all sell the same things, so even though it looks like a shoppers paradise you only need go into one and you have the full selection then and there. I won't give anything away as to what we got but it definitely wasn't one of the Llama foetus's that you see in every shop apparently giving you good luck. I don't know how the customs would look upon it either!

It took us a couple of hours to get the bits and bobs, Laura got herself another pair of jazz pants to sleep in and then we were left with the rest of the day to wallow away, and we don't like wasting a day. We ventured to the market, got ourselves a selection of potatoes for tea and then sauntered back to the hostel. It was only 4pm when we got there.

For the remainder of the day we read, sent emails, even looked for jobs and then made some tea. It wasn't the most interesting of days by no means. It was around 9.30 when sleep took us and next news the alarm was going off at 6am the next day, the Death Road day.

If anyone hasn't heard of the Death Road before it is essentially 65km of going downhill, starting at an altitude of 4500m and finishing at 1500m. That isn't how it got its name though, the road itself is wide enough for one car, made entirely of hard core, has no guard rails and has vertical drops of upto 300m on the one side. It is no longer the main road between La Paz and Yolosa but when it was it was responsible for upto 30 car losses a year, and with that its passengers hence the name the Death Road. And the Bolivians thought it was a good idea to take bike tours down it, nice work Bolivia!

We got to the office for bang on 7am, picked up shortly after along with the rest of our group, 9 in total, and we were on our way to the Road. Its a 1hour drive out of the city to the top of the mountain from which you commence the ride, and we made it that far safely. The next thing we did was get ourselves into all the safety gear, knee pads, arm guards and a full face helmet. We then donned the water/wind proofs and finally took a briefing about the road. The guide had two signals, stop and slow down and that was the briefing in a nutshell. We were on our way.

Both Laura and I had full suspension Kona's so we were geared up well enough for what was to come. We thought they would take it easy at the start, find out what people's capabilities on a bike were but no, we were hurtling down the road (the first section of which is not the Death Road but a normal tarmaced safe road) and at times over taking lorries. We had two guides, one always at the front and the other racing off to get to a good photo point where he would then take all the photos, jump back on his bike, overtake us and then do it all again.

20km later and all limbs still intact we made it to the star of the Death Road. By this point though none of the group could feel their face, toes and hands because of the cold, we had no time to get warm before the start of the ride so started the decent with the only warmth coming from the clothes. Laura was almost in tears with it, using my gloves as well as hers and a cup of coffee to try and warm her hands back up again. Eventually she got her warmth back.

In the time it had taken to cover the 20km we had passed into the clouds. What was a beautiful day at the top was now a rather glum and misty morning in the valley. However by the time we had our snacks and refreshments the mist was rising and 20minutes later we had, yet again, a clear sky. Supposedly there is a 50%!c(MISSING)hance of a clear sky and a 50%!c(MISSING)hance of mist every day, we were lucky.

We were at the start of the Death Road and the first thing that you can see is the road winding through the mountains until it is out of sight. The drops at the side of the road are more than visible and the drop itself is not worth thinking about. The tarmac was now replaced with loose gravel and the guard rails had altogether gone. The width of the road we enough though to make you feel safe and confident enough that you won't go over the edge.

And we were off, like before the lead guide waited for no man, setting a pace that took some keeping up with. We stuck like glue to the right hand side of the road so IF we fell we had a good distance to roll to a stop in. We were killing the kilometres and after only 10 minutes of riding we pulled over for more photo opportunities. At the start of the ride we were in a barren mountain wilderness, now after depending 1000m the land scape became greener and the cold no longer rattled our bones.

Off again once more, stopping frequently to regroup and take photos, one of which we were stood with our bikes looking down at the vertical 300m drop and for some reason we felt safe! The road remained constant, loose gravel the whole way with the odd rocks that we could use as a kicker for a jump. Laura said that she had a few hairy moments but made it this far unscathed. We were now 2/3rds of the way down.

Just as we set of again around a truck I heard my chain set snap, I had a look down and sure enough it was broken. I couldn't stop there though as I had a truck and a handful of bikers close behind, so rode on another 50m until I stopped. I searched for the snapped bits and luckily found them but there was no way that this bike was rideable again today and so I borrowed the guides bike for a few minutes. A couple of minutes on that bike was enough and 5 minutes later I was riding the spare bike from the top of the pursuit van. It was way bigger than the first bike and felt like a tank in comparison. Still it was much better than walking the rest of the way.

Another one of the photo opportunities saw us all nailing it through a waterfall that inconveniently fell upon the road. However it made for some awesome photos and a good excuse to cool off. What felt like minus figures at the top of the mountain was now humid and hot, we had stripped back our layers to just a shirt and trousers yet we were still too warm. The waterfall came at the right time.

The remaining third was straight forward, a little section where we had to peddle (can you believe it, we had to peddle!!!) and the rest followed suit from the road passed. We were all alive and kicking, warm and prepared for the last 20 minute 'technical' part of the ride. Up until this point it had been a very straight forward ride, and the technical part wasn't much harder than the rest, it just had a couple more turns in and a few stray dogs to look out for.

Everyone had made it to the end successfully in 2 1/2 hours and it was now lunch time. We clambered into the very confined van and drove off to a hotel where lunch was waiting. They had a swimming pool, showers and towels as well so we all took advantage of those before sitting down to yet another buffet. These buffets are killing us. Soup, fried chicken, spaghetti, rice and salad were all on offer and so we made the most of it all, yet again.

Feeling completely stuffed we were into the van once more and at 2pm started to make our way back to the city. As we started the ascent up the new safer road we quite quickly saw that it wasn't going to be a quick journey back; there was a huge rocky landslide covering a section of the road. A digger was sat at the top of it apparently helping but looked more like he was making it worse. Every couple of seconds a load of huge rocks would come thundering down smashing into the no longer existing side wall. In true Bolivian style they said they would have it sorted in ten minutes so that we could pass. After 30 minutes of waiting, rocks still flying down and no sign of it opening any time soon we got back into the van and started towards the only other road back to La Paz, The Death Road.

Coming down on a bike you feel safe however in a van its a different ball game. The 2m crash zone that we had on the bikes was now gone and the tires at points were centimetres from the edge. The driver who does this route everyday at the back of the bikers was more than comfortable with this, going as fast up it as we did down. What it did do though was give us time to look over the edge and see what we had ridden down. At the bottom of one of the valleys was a burnt out car and that was one of the ones we could see, for everyone that we could see there would be 50 we couldn't, hidden away in the trees.

As we continued up there were constant reminders of how he road got its name, crosses and memorials stood on many of the steep sloped corners. We were in a 12 foot van but many of the trucks that used to come on the road were the size of arctic lorries and when the back end slips, the rest goes with it. Not only this but there used to be two way traffic so the odds of an accident were even greater. All I can say is that I'm glad they don't drive up and down it now.

By 6pm we had nearly made it back, all in one piece and La Paz treated us with an amazing sunset. Because we drove over the mountain range we were looking down on the city, just at the right time too. We had a couple of minutes to get some photos and we were then only 20 minutes from being back.

20 minutes later and we were back. We all headed for the office to get our copy of the photos and we then went out for tea to a place called 100%!N(MISSING)atural. Natural it may have been but I've never had to wait 1 1/2 hours for a simple sandwich before and by the time it came we were famished. Some of the other guys with us had to wait even longer, upto 2 hours for chicken and mash, we weren't the happiest customers in the world. 6 out of the 9 of us were heading to Copacabana in the morning so we were sure that we would cross paths again.

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