Blogs from Yungas Road, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America

Met my friend Oli from univeristy and his two mates Dan and Tom who I´ve met before on Thursday afternoon: Great to see the lads and in true British fashion celebrated our rendezvous with a couple of mid afternoon cervezas :) Had a wander around La Paz and looked into the possibility of getting a tour around San Pedro prison - one of the most notorious prisons in the world. Unfortunatley we only managed to get outside as this bizarre tourist activity has become somewhat more difficult to do in recent years! Showed the boys my penthouse flat before heading up to Gravity Mountain Biking to book our ride on the ´The Worlds Most Dangerous Road´, aka Death Road, for the next day. Spent the evening at Diesel Bar before moving onto to a kareoke bar ... read more

Departing Rurre: When we returned from our Pampas trip we headed for the Amazonas office to reconfirm our flights. We saw a comotion and realised quickly something was amiss. We spoke with our two Belgian friends and they informed us that no flights were leaving for two days because of rain. (It was drizzling, very very slightly) I suppose it is a grass runway! So we settled down for another night in Rurre. Ourselves, the Belgians and the Germans met people from Dubai and France and we spent the following day hanging around with them, drinking coffee and playing pool. Theres little else to do in Rurre! Our Dubai friends obtained numerous flights throughout the day which continued to be cancelled, so we had lots of goodbyes and lots more hi were back again! We heard ... read more

This has to be a really rapido entry as I am due to leave this Internet Cafe in 15 mins! (sorry to those of you who have emailed or messaged with no reply - my internet time is very scant!) So. Firstly, sorry Mum, I know I said I wouldn{t do this! But, it was really really fun. Long story short, on Sunday, I decided to make my escape from the black whole that is La Paz, or more precicelty, Wild Rover. So I decided to oncve and for all book my trip down the worlds most dangerous road and then a ticket out of La Paz. ORigionally I intended to gho to Uyunio, but the bus times weren{t workiung for me so I booked to Potosi instead - due back from the cycle at 7 ... read more

64KMs Down We had booked to ride down The World’s Most Dangerous Road (the Death Road) on Thursday. There was no shortage of choices for booking the trip, with just about every shop front on Sagarnaga advertising it. The standard fee was between B$400-500 all of which seemed to offer pretty much the same thing. We ended up booking with Vertigo Biking, who charged B$550, because all their bikes were Haros with double suspension and they gave all customers a free t-shirt and a disc of photos and videos. Hoping to do it on the Friday, the Boss’s lack of shoes had meant we had to wait until after the weekend but it also meant we got a B$70 discount, so we were happy enough to wait. Vertigo Biking was situated next door to Cactus on ... read more

Today, I cycled down ´The Road of Death´and as you can probably tell, I survived. This is the road (as featured on Top Gear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xClV7oRjj0o ) that used to be the most dangerous in the world having more deaths per year than any other until a bypass was built 4 years ago. The 61 kilometre road used to be responsible for 200-300 deaths per year and here is my story of survival... 8am pick up and we were taken to the starting point for a warm up before attempting the Road of Death. We were given our bikes, our gear and a little bit of food. Only I totally freaked out before even starting because when on the bike, my feet couldn´t touch floor. People were saying to me ´oh you don´t need to reach the ... read more

So, we’re skint, sat in La Paz feeling a bit jaded. We’ve got a few days to burn. We’ve done one of the hardest Peruvian treks having never trekked before, so what do we do? With ZERO proper mountain biking experience, we decide to sign up for the “DEATH ROAD” Mountain Biking. Nice. The whole time we’d said, “Nah not our thing” and “Why bother, if people die on that thing?” I think the amount of denial and pure terror surrounding the prestigious “Death Road” just outside La Paz finally got to us. That and everyone in the hostel having done it and said it was amazing!! Even though the road is rarely used now, with vehicles using a new tarmac road, we’d still heard all sorts of horror stories of injuries and even deaths!!! We ... read more

Bonjour, bonjour, Comme vous pouvez le voir, j;ai survecu a la route la plus dangereuse du monde! Je n,ai pas de photos de ma descente a velo car ils nous recommandaient de ne pas prendre les cameras avec nous. En effet, de 1- si on chute, on risque de briser la camera et de 2- les chocs de la route vont briser la camera anyway si on la conserve dans une poche pendant la descente (et je n,ai pas de misere a le croire... c;etait vraiment intense!). MAIS, un des guide a pris plus de 100 photos et videos de la journee et enverra le lien internet pour voir les photos d;ici une semaine (lien que je vous transmettrai) et j,ai commande le cd des images et videos de la descente et le tout me sera ... read more