Death Road

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The main reason we were returning to La Paz was to do the Death Road bike ride, something we had missed the first time around, and something we definitely wanted to do. We also loved the city and were excited to get back. We arrived at the bus terminal around 6am from our overnight bus, and were still exhausted so decided to get a private room back at the Wild Rover to catch up on some sleep. We had to go back there as we had left our bags in storage. It was a bit of a surprise when we opened the door to our designated room and saw a couple had broke in and were using it.

The hostel worker was a little embarrassed as even through a lot of coercing the culprits would not show their faces, and slammed and re-locked the door. The hostel man said not to worry, and that they would be out in five minutes. Err, we don't think so- we wanted a clean bed. So we were given the room next door, and spent the rest of the morning trying to get back to sleep which was impossible.

We set out into town in the afternoon with the intention of booking the death road trip. As pretty much every traveller does the trip there are loads of different companies offering it. Surprisingly, despite the competition the prices are still kept high. At the end of the trip different companies take their groups to different locations to shower and relax, before heading back up to La Paz. We wanted to go with Gravity who finished their tour at La Senda Verde, an animal sanctuary where you are able to stay overnight. However, we ended up booking through Vertigo who pride themselves on being the last group to ride down the road so you get the road to yourselves, and they also have somebody who takes pictures all the way down, and you are provided with a copy of the disk at the end. The cost of the trip was around £50 each, but we were promised bikes with double suspension and all the right gear, so it was worth it.

We returned to Oliver's Travels for another breakfast and with the intention of browsing at their book collection. We were absolutely gobsmacked to find that most second hand paperbacks were priced between £20-£30. What a complete joke. The barman asked whether we were interested in making a purchase. 'Are you bloody kidding me?' was Katie's response. He was really offended and attempted to justify the prices by the fact that we were in Bolivia. We weren't born yesterday matey, we thought. Luke was happy that we had arrived before 2pm because it was a pub rule to man-up and that men weren't allowed to drink smoothies or milkshakes in the afternoon. We then went shopping for some hiking shoes for Katie which were absolutely extortianate, and we had no idea if they were real or fake brands. She eventually settled on a pair of Timberlands which weren't too nerdy. In the evening we headed back to our hostel and had dinner, and decided to go to bed early as our trip started early the next day.

We got up early and were herded onto our tour bus heading for Death Road. We were really excited but not scared as we had spoken to many people who had done it and told us it was easy. We drove to the starting point and were loaded into a clearing. All of the bikes and equipment were laid out ordered from smallest to largest. When we had booked the trip Katie had only just managed to be allowed on the trip due to the height requirement. She was needless to say given the smallest equiment. She was really impressed that they had an XS helmet. We were told which brake was which, and were given the opportunity to test the bikes out before heading off.

The first part of the trip was not actually on the death road. It was still a steep road with steep drops on the side, but the surace was tarmac not rubble. It quickly came to our realisation that this was not a leisurely bike ride- it was a race. Everyone on the tour was out to get ahead of you, and we were powering the pedals to go as fast as we could. The road was still vehicle access meaning we were dodging around traffic and having to overtake many buses and face oncoming traffic. It was really exciting but difficult to appreciate the views as every second was spent concentrating on the road in front.

We eventually arrived at a check point where we had to pay to access the death road. Another tourist trap. Katie went to the toilet and was surprised there weren't any doors- she was welcomed by a child sitting on the bog. We were then loaded back onto our minibus bikes and all, to be transported to the beginning of death road. Afer a quick sandwich which was disgusting and we had to sneakily discard of in the bush, we were ready to start the trail. Fortunately it wasn't raining as the roads were literally made up of rubble. However, they were at least 3 metres in width even at the most narrow points, so it wasn't that scary. As the whole time was spent concentrating on the road ahead, even the steep drops weren't that distracting. Again this part of the trip was a race, despite the imminent danger. We must have been reaching speeds of at least 30mph haring around the bends along the rubble roads. The rocks meant that we skidded quite a bit which was scary and could have been deadly in an unfortunate event. In the office of our tour agency we had seen a picture of a guy who died last year on the trail. He couldn't have been much older than us and it really hit home reading the letter from his parents to the tour agency.

Every 20 minutes or so we would stop so that everybody could catch up. We were able to see some really cool views and take group pictures (that we haven't uploaded yet). As we got lower, the temperature began to rise and it got really hot. We began to strip off our riding gear as we were on fire. There was one stretch that was uphill and was really tiring to ride up at the altitude. We finished the ride in the early afternoon where we stopped for a beer on the side of the road. The beers were cold and were a great prize for the end of the ride. By now we were all looking forward to the swimming pool that awaited us, and we had seen in the pictures at the tour agency it looked beautiful.

We boarded the minivan again to our destination, to find that the disappointment of the situation awaiting us was actually quite hilarious. We pulled up at some place that could onyl be described as someone's family residence. It had a pool alright, but it was empty. The guide looked a little put out, and after a quick discussion with the owner we were ushered across the road to a neighbour's yard to use their disgusting dirty algae filled swimming pool. No thanks. After half an hour we were called back to the original house where we were offered a buffet lunch which was actually ok.

We headed back up to La Paz via the new safer road. It rained most of the three hour journey, but cleared for a bit when we parked up to get more beers and another disturbing toilet stop. We got back to La Paz where we were dropped on the side of the road, and were told by the guide our hostelw as just one block away. We had not been on this side of town before and it was dark and we had no idea where we were, and no map. We ended up walking around for about 45 minutes becoming increasingly agitated. We eventually arrived back at our hostel where we ordered dinner and saw our friend Carly that we had met back in Ecuador. She had just got back from climbing the Potosi mountain the only girl who made it on her trip, so we had a celebratory drink. We entered into the pub quiz but by the second round Katie had fallen asleep on a makeshift pillow of Carly's jumper and bag.

Luke and Carly continued pub quiz and managed to cfome second, despite Luke having to take part in the limbo round. Eventually he woke Katie up and we headed to bed.

The following day we checked out of the Wild Rover, and headed over to Loki as we were planning on spending our last night there to get a free T-shirt. When you have stayed at three Lokis you get a free one, so we wanted to get ours. Loki was cheap er than Wild Rover at £4 a night as opposed to £4.40 which was a nice surprise. The cheapest dorm which we were staying in was still really nice and spacious although had a funky smell. We ordered lunch in the Loki bar but with the clear incompetence of the staff and more than an hour and a half wait after ordering, we realised our dinner wasn't going to come. We headed out instead for dinner at an Argentinian place called Casa Argentina which had been recommended to us by some Aussies we met in the Loki bar. We walked down the main street in La Paz to the south of the town, where we had not been before. It was like discovering another city as there was so much we hadn't seen before. We found the famous Eli's which sells pizza conos, but we had steak on the mind. We found the steakhouse and ordered a 1.2kg piece of meat between us. It was good and tender but not the nicest tasting steak we have had so far.

After dinner we were intending on going to the cinema but only Tron was on so we decided not to bother- we went back to Loki to watch Lord of the Rings in bed. After a quick nap we headed back out to do some shopping in the local mall. We were really shocked at the prices of clothes, especially the fake Hollister and Abercrombie stuff. We headed back to the the main road where we went to an ice cream parlour for some real good ice creams. We had an early night as we needed to get to the airport for 8 the next day.

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