Bolivia

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Bolivia
Another plane got to by the skin of our teeth immigration slows the whole thing up! Imagine home alone in the airport!! Alot of running!!! Bolivia is the busiest place we've been so far so bit of a shock- place is huge n you can see the snowy mountains in the distance. Stayed in wild rover la paz, perferred cusco one at first but just took a day or two and settled in ! On Saturday- we headed off with gravity to do mountain biking on the worlds most dangerous road!! We started up in the snowy mountains, it was feckin freezing!! Cycled down hill for 22k on a main road... Still had a drop on the side but had barriers!! After that we arrived at the start of death road. It's complete gravel so was a bit nerve wrecking - afraid of pulling brakes in case of skidding! He told us to stay on the left (drop side) in case we met a car!! I took my chances and stayed on the inside most of the time!! There is some drop! We had plenty of pit stops n bus was always beside us. Was cool when we stopped and could look at the view but there was no way I was looking at anything but the road while I was cycling!! You would find yourself veering off !!Made it anyway 42k later!! Had dinner down in an animal rescue sanctuary, saw the usual monkeys, turtles, birds etc... Then it was back to the bus!! We had to go back up death road on it!! I sat on the cliff side didn't fancy looking at the drop for 2 hours!! We did hang out of the bus under a waterfall to get the 'top gear ' shot which was cool!! On Sunday we headed to cholitas wrestling ( local aul ones dressed up in local dress wrestling )!! It was crap! One fight with 2 women fighting fake wrestling!) rest was men dressed up like Mexican wrestlers! Out for few drinks that night and talking to a few others, we found out that wed the 21st was census day in Bolivia. The whole country shuts down and no one is allowed out of their houses or will be fined! Typically for us we were flying to Chile that day! The next day we went to the airline to find out what to do? We had to go to the census office and queue up to get permission passes to be allowed on the street and into the airport. Only few taxis and international flights were going! So least we got that sorted! Headed for dinner in hostel that night and found out then that all pubs were closing at 12 that night because of the census, Bolivia decided to go dry for 48 hours!!! Hostel kept serving but of course we got greedy when they closed, hopped in davys jeep (one of the owners of all the wild rovers, from tipp!) and headed off to his penthouse apartment in south la paz for a party till early hours!! Random !! Oh n he invited us to his hse in Vegas for New Years... Maybe next year!!That night too, Barry donated his Kk jersey to the pub in the hostel, we all signed it cause we're famous sure!! Next day, Diego had it framed and put up in the pub!! Girls have a look out for it if u stay there- def recommend it! Got free t shirts when we left too, they loved us! One of the bar staff Pablo said he's def visiting us!!Left then on wed, was weird seeing no one but cops all over the streets, barely anyone in airport either. Glad we were leaving that day as everyone was in lock down in hostel and there wasn't much else to do in la paz. We decided against the salt flats too cause travel agent told us there was a strike on in uyuni and we couldn't risk not getting back in time!! Stopped over in Santiago, Chile for about 8 hours last night, looks like nice city, very modern !

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