Blogs from Yungas Road, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 5

The day I had been waiting for finally arrived. I could't sleep I was so excited. Got up and packed our things, we are taking everything with us on the bus and after the ride will get dropped off at new hostel. The bus collected us at just before 8am and loaded up. we headed off on a 1 hour journey which ended up taking over and hour and a half due to the gridlock traffic of La Paz. During our drive we met our two guides, Lyn a South African lady who briefed us and gave out safety gear, and Jubi a local La Pazian downhill biker extraordinaire who ´rocked' on a bike. We had to go through some checkpoints along the way too. finally we arrived at our start point, La Cumbre 4760m above ... read more

Since I first heard about it, I have wanted to cycle down "The World´s Most Dangerous Road". Also known as "The Death Road", it is a 40km downhill mountain road connecting La Paz with the lowlands. Between 200 and 300 people are estimated to die on this road each year. So why is it so dangerous? Basically it is a winding gravel road which has blind bends and crumbling edges, and it only 3 metres wide in some places (which is barely wide enough for one vehicle). One side of the road is the mountain wall, and the other side is a sheer drop of up to 1000m. And there was plenty of traffic on this road, because it was the ONLY road from La Paz to the lowlands! So there were plenty of cars, buses ... read more

Once we were back in La Paz, realizing that we had less than a month left of our trip, we had to decide on the things we wanted to do the most. Although we had originally planned to go into the Amazon and do a jungle tour, after our trip to Uyuni we had both successfully caught colds and were thoroughly fed up of wearing coats, hats and gloves all the time (see, you complain about the weather in Britain!) The idea of heading to Brazil for sun, sea and sand was more tempting than heading into the jungle on what we heard was the scariest light aircraft flight of all time (everyone we spoke to said they thought they were going to die). So, we booked the next available flight to Sao Paulo. However, there ... read more

In La Paz I met Treasa and James, an Irish couple that I already knew from Puno. I decided to join them for the 64km bike ride from La Cumbre (4700m) to Coroico (1755m) - on the most dangerous road in the world. It was downhill and of course speeding was the most fun.... crazy cyclists do get killed there! (you can find some detailed description on Treasa's and James' blog, see entry no 18 The death road & the world´s highest capital) http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/treasaor/round_the_world/1178466180/tpod.html La Paz - is awfully polluted and because of the high altitude (3600m) visitors suffer very often from cough and chest problems (as i´ve heard only loaded gas is used in here). But in comparison to Lima there is no fog and the setting is much nicer and you actually get to ... read more

School´s Out! Well we finished school on August 3rd. We had a final dinner as a class out at one of the nicer restaurants in Cuzco. Some very interesting meats were served (kidney, heart, etc.) but very good none the less. After a late night of drinking and saying our goodbyes seven of us set off for a 22 hr bus ride to La Paz, Bolivia. Along with an absolutely insane border crossing, a flat tire on the bus and chasing down buses in a city without a bus station, we made it to the capital of Bolivia where we stayed for 3 nights. Included in our stay was our third independence day in just over a month (USA, Peru and Bolivia). Honestly it ended up causing us more problems than anything, but that´s life in ... read more