Eventful La Paz

---

Day 81: Thursday 18th September 2008 - Surviving a scam

I was going to make the journey to the Tiwanaku archaelogical site today, but can't be bothered to get on a bus for another couple of hours so sack that idea and decide to book a tour for Saturday instead as it works out not much more inexpensive than doing it independently. Whilst I'm at the tour agency finalise my trip down the World's Most Dangerous Road for tomorrow, which saves me a trip to Gravity the tour company which I'm booked with, which is a mile down the Prado. Now that's all sorted can get on with having a fairly chilled out day.

Decide to go out and explore La Paz, start off by walking down the Prado the main thoroughfare which cuts through the city, lying in the bottom of the valley in which La Paz sits. From the Prado, streets branch off up both sides of the valley. Get to San Francisco church first where I try a salteña (meat & vegetable pasty) from one of the market stalls. At 2 Bolivianos (15 pence its a bargain). Bolivia is cheap! After a mooch round the church, set off looking for the Witches market. Eventually find it - I'd already walked past it - mind you I would describe it more as a few stalls than a market. The strangest thing they sell is Llama bones - don't quite know what they're for!! Otherwise its various potions........buy some Coca leaves from one of the stalls and promptly start putting a small handful in the side of my mouth. Apparently if you macerate (not chew) them in the side of your mouth for up to 45 minutes they can give you improved alertness, reduced appetite and help combat the altitude. Its the second of these I need the most help with!!! Chewing Coca is central to the Bolivian culture. Stroll down the road to hopefully improve my knowledge of the Coca plant, central to the Bolivian culture in the Coca museum, but its been shut down for not paying its taxes!! Continue down the Prado to the main plaza, where the Cathedral, the Government Palace and the Legislative Palace are all situated. All are shut to visitors so decide to continue walking down the Prado.

As I'm close to Gravity, the tour agency I will be cycling the World's most dangerous road with I decide to pop in and check a few details. Whilst I'm sat in front of it trying to work out where it is on the map I'm approached by a girl who says she's from Chile and is lost. Get my Lonely Planet out to help her and as I'm doing so, a plain clothed policeman approaches asking to see our ID. Well I never carry mine around so he insists that I accompany him down to the police station. I'm starting to get suspicious at this point, but get up and walk across the road where he says his vehicle is. At this point a taxi pulls up, he gets in, followed by the girl pretending to by a Chilean tourist and they beckon me to join them but now I'm wise to what's going on and slam the taxi door shut behind them and they speed off. Lucky escape, they would have robbed me off everything and in La Paz, the capital of scams, this is the favourite scam.

After a short while in Gravity, wander across the road to find the meeting point for tomorrow. Its an upmarket cafe/restaurant so decide to get lunch there....good choice its yummy! Later in the afternoon, start my Christmas shopping! Have in mind something I want to buy for my Mum and Bolivia is the place to buy it, manage to sort it fairly quickly, but must go back to pay and pick it up as I haven't enough cash on me. After my extravagant lunch I'm not that hungry so just grab some cheap street food - a decision I'll later come to regret! The hostel I'm staying at has a microbrewery on site so you get a free beer each day - its good beer too, best not overindulge because they can breathalyse you before the cycle ride tomorrow and stop you doing it if you're over the limit!

Day 82: Friday 19th September 2008 - Surving the World's Most Dangerous Road, but not without injury!

Wake up feeling a bit queasy.....must have been that street kebab. No time for breakfast at the hostel as I have to be at the meeting point for 7.30am, so get breakfast there. Its an hours drive from La Paz at 3600m (high enough, and the world's highest capital city) to La Cumbre at 4700m, the beginning of the World's Most Dangerous road (WMDR) ride. Its quite bleak surroundings when we get out of the van and get handed out the equipment, bikes and clothing for the ride, but we are surrounded by some beautiful mountains. After a briefing we all take a swig of the local firebrew, as well as giving an offering to Pachamama (mother earth) and our bikes, for good luck. At around 9am in cold weather we start cycling the tarmac section at the top of the route. This is not officially part of the world's most dangerous road but is nevertheless great fun riding down for around 20km on a steep downhill in stunning mountainous surroundings. Reach the checkpoint at 10am after a few stops, where we pay the entry charge for the WMDR. At this point we have the option of doing the only real uphill section of the ride. I opt to do it, if you're going to do the WMDR ride then you do it all. Its not too bad, its 5km, mostly uphill but some downhill too and its not too steep, but at 3km + altitude its burning my lungs. Absolutely drained by the time I complete it, and also red hot. Lose a few layers in preparation for the start of the real WMDR, which is a gravel track of 3 metres wide which clings to the cliffside and plunges down through jungle, in amazing scenery. In parts the drop is up to 600 metres down to your left and almost always 100 metres, so one false move and it could be death!! Its great fun though, as you descend from around 3600m to 1100m at the finish at Yolosa. Its quite twisty too, so intense concentration is required. Enjoy it immensely, stopping every 20 minutes or so to keep the group together and for Matt our guide to issue some more safety instruction, advice and to give you a scare story about the injuries people have suffered whilst doing the WMDR.

Towards the end of the ride, which we finish at about 2pm in Yolanda covering the 70km in 5 hours with numerous stops I suffer a bit of a mishap! Ignoring Matt's advice of keeping to the left I come round a right hand corner on the right hand side of the road (so as to cut the corner) and meet a van coming up the road head on! I quickly react pulling on my brakes, but in my anxiousness to avoid him I break too hard flying over the handlebars and on to the side of the road. Walk away with only a grazed elbow, guess it could have been much worse. The driver of the van gets out and makes me eat some dirt from the road as thanks to Pachamama (mother earth). Can't say I'm keen but just go along with it. Complete the last section of the WMDR a lot more carefully and with my adrenalin pumping. At the bottom after a group photo we get lunch and showered at an animal sanctuary before we leave for the journey back up to La Paz via the WMDR. It takes about 3 hours to get back, and looking out of the window of the van on the way up you realise how scary some sections of the WMDR are....glad I couldn't see it all whilst on the bike!! So why the WMDR....well before the new road was built 2-3 years ago which has taken the majority of the traffic off the route there were 320 deaths in the previous year!!! Cycling it I can see why, and I'm glad it wasn't in the wet season or with much traffic otherwise it would have been treacherous.

Back in La Paz, stop off at Gravity's office for an hour to collect my DVD of the ride. Not feeling good - very tired and feverish, can't weork out if its 1) the adrenalin from falling off 2) the intense concentration for the first time in 3 months or 3) the dodgy kebab from last night or all three. Anyway, its an early night for me to recover, shame as I was looking forward to a night out in La Paz.

Anyone interested to see video footage of the WMDR log on to www.gravitybolivia.com

Day 83: Saturday 20th September 2008 - Tiwanaku and a mild bout of food poisoning

A restless night for me.....I've decided I must have had a mild bout of food poisoning. Feeling rough and like staying in bed but as I have a tour of Tiwanaku booked I'm not quite bad enough to give it a miss. Still, not exactly looking forward to it. Get picked up at 9ish for the hour and a half to Tiwanaku ruins, close to Lake Titicaca. Tiwanaku is Bolivia's premier archaeological site, the civilisation being pre inca from around 600BC to 1200AD. The site is under excavation, but still there is evidence of pyramids, monolith's, carvings etc. After Peru, its somewhat of a let down, but I can't help thinking that in a few years it will be an impressive site. After lunch return to La Paz for about 4pm. Its time for a risky decision now....decide to get the bus tonight to Sucre.....not well enough for a night out in La Paz as still feeling rough but going to brave the 13 hour bus journey on semi paved roads and no toilet facilities on the bus......sould be the stupidest decision of the trip but we'll just have to wait and see..........

---