Blogs from Yungas Road, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 4

Well, it took me two months to finally loose something. Unfortunately it happened to be my Ipod, which I left on the bus from Copacabana to La Paz. Bummer…. After arriving in La Paz I checked into a really cool hostel called the Adventure Brew Hostel. It is the highest micro brewery in the world, and I must say it is pretty good stuff - especially after drinking all this South American beer. At the hostel I meet up with the Irish girls from Copacabana and the next day we set off to book a mountain bike trip down the world’s most dangerous road and also check out if it was worth going into the Jungle. Well it seems that wet season in the jungle just isn’t worth doing so we decided to skip the mozzies ... read more

Well gang, hope you all had a peaceful and tranquil christmas day....mine was anything but!! After I wrote the last travel blog, Ben, Brad, Bill and I decided we were bored and would have a couple of pre group meal "quiet" drinks. Well needless to say it was happy hour 2 for 1 on rum and cokes. We turned up late for the group meal a little worse for wear. When our food arrived i stuffed half of the green beans in my gob turned to Ben and said "do I have something in my teeth?", ala Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura. Well he absolutely pissed himself, then i got the giggles and we couldnt stop'laughing for the whole meal, whilst everyone else just looked at us bewildered. Thats about as far as my memory goes ... read more

Week 6 La Paz is the highest capital city of the world at 3600m lying at the bottom of a steep canyon and ringed by snow peaked mountains. Our Hotel Continental was in the heart of the city along a road lined with bowler-hatted women selling a variety of clothes and food stuffs. In trying to get our bearings the first day we managed to get lost in the maze of bustling street markets. That night we visited a popular bar called Ram Jam - an energetic throbbing place clearly aimed at gringos with an oxygen bar upstairs where you could intoxicate yourself with O2! The following day, after a healthy breakfast in a cafe aptly named 100% Natural, we visited the coca museum to learn more about this famous plant that has shaped much of ... read more

The Worlds Most Dangerous Road!! Rock on!! Hey, I´ve got an idea, lets mountain bike down it as fast we can!! This is officially the worlds most dangerous road, or at least used to be before they built a new one (which is also pretty bad and is falling apart only a few years after completion…). Apparently at the height of it´s infamy it averaged (more or less) around 400 deaths per year and it has a really interesting history for other reasons as well (like one of Nazi Germanys nastiest pieces of work fleeing to live on the road to carry on with attrocities against the locals on American sponsorship!). Just another one of Bolivia’s long list of Worlds best/highest/most etc etc… The ride starts in the snow capped mountains and descends 3600m over 65km ... read more

18/11/07 Not one of the most sensible things I´ve done but it just had to be done! The worlds most dangerous road had been calling ever since we got to South America and how cool was the ride. We went with Gravity Tour Company which is one of the best for safety and equipment (safety first). The road is approx 64km long and in places is only 3.2m wide. 11 cyclists have been killed riding it but its got its name from the number of vehicle accidents with one of the worst accidents where 120 locals were killed when there (drunk) driver went over the edge after a football match. There are plenty more stories like that and plenty of crosses along the road as a reminder. The first 22km were on asphalt so pretty easy ... read more