Danger & Death

South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
December 2nd 2015

Published: December 30th 2015

Edit Blog Post

Delek Delek

Waterfall...Onto The Death Road

Sybe holds his bike triumphantly under the waterfall. Meanwhile, check out how steep the cliffs are off the side of the road.

The overnight bus ride from Sucre to La Paz was long and winding. Peering out the window at one of our stops, I noticed that we had gone all the way back to Potosi again! It wasn't the most comfortable ride - the on-board toilet was out of action and the bus was freezing until about 3am, when the driver finally remembered to switch on the heating. So I didn't have the best night's sleep.
We had bought camas for the ride but they weren't really the 180° incline seats we were promised - they were more like a wider semi-cama - so more like something between a cama and a semi-cama.

Arriving at the bus station in La Paz, we made sure that we caught an officially licenced "bubble" taxi - lucky there was a queue of them waiting outside the station under a massive sign saying "taxis seguros".
My first impression of La Paz was that it was chaotic. Nicola had arrived a day before us and described the place as being like India and I wouldn't disagree; cars, pedestrians and food stalls all compete for space on the street and the sidewalk, with the street and sidewalk

Calle Jaen

La Paz's prettiest street.

being sometimes indistinguishable.

Reading about La Paz in the Lonely Planet freaked us the hell out, warning us about express kidnappings, violent muggings, bogus cops, pickpockets and thieves who spit at you. This was why I was glad I was here with Sybe, Fleur and Nicola - it is always safer travelling in groups.
Nicola in particular is a very useful individual to have in the group; much like my cousin of the same name, she is very organised and likes to know what she is doing and when. As she has usually been one or two days ahead of us, she would often have done all the required research in terms of what to do, where to go and what to eat, before we arrive - saving us the hassle of doing the same and leaving us simply to enjoy each place we are in without wasting any time. Thanks Nicola!
And it was thanks to Nicola that we reunited with her again for a guided walking tour of the city.
To be fair, it wasn't the best walking tour I have been on - certainly not as good as the ones we did in Santiago - but it was informative nonetheless.
Among

Cycling To The Death Road

Cyclists make their way down to the start of the Death Road.

the things we learnt were;

• Cholitas - local indigenous women who wear shawls, colourful skirts and tilted bowler hats. The way the bowler is tilted will tell you if a cholita is married or single. Calves are accentuated - apparently the local men love them and will throw rocks near any cholita that takes their fancy, in a bid to gain their attention.
• Carceras - local market shopkeepers who are like your second mum. You always buy your fruits and vegetables from the same carcera and you tell them about what is happening in your life in the process. But beware - carceras are also gossip queens, so don't expect any secrets you tell a carcera to stay secret for long!
• The assassination of the unpopular President Gualberto Villarroel - murdered by citizens who stormed the Palace of Government and subsequently hanged him from a lamp post in the square outside in 1946.
• The various gaffes of current president Evo Morales, the first democratically-elected indigenous president - for example, he once banned condoms because thought that the population of Bolivia was too small; he declared on public television that eating chicken makes you gay and that drinking Coke

Baby Llamas

These are bought and then buried under new houses as a offering to Pachamama, or Mother Earth.

makes you bald - only to be caught eating chicken and drinking Coke; and being a 'football fan', he was asked who his favourite teams were in Spain and Europe respectively by a Spanish journalist in New York - his answer was that "en el futbol de espana soy del Real Madrid y en el europeo, del Barcelona."

One of La Paz's main tourist attractions is the witches' market. Bolivia is a very superstitious country - thus keeping such a market alive. Among the more interesting things on sale are "follow-me follow-me dust" (to make girls follow and fall in love with you), obedience potion (to make men do what you want), the now-banned horse Viagra, and perhaps most disturbingly, llama foetuses. Outside of these products, the rest of the stores are mainly made up of gimmicky health supplements and various good luck potions and figurines - disappointingly, there didn't appear to be any freaky, black magic shit you might expect to see at a "witches' market". It was nevertheless a very interesting place to visit - likewise having a chat with the shopkeepers.

Also of interest was the Museo de Coca. Coca leaves are an

Photographs At The Coca Museum

Highlighting the addictive effects of cocaine.

essential part of Andean culture, having been consumed safely for hundreds of years. The museum highlights this fact, as well as the many health and medicinal benefits of chewing coca leaves, and how they are traditionally processed.
After this, the museum then goes on to chart the history of coca and eventually the creation of cocaine from it. Cocaine was initially used for medicinal purposes and in Coca-Cola - coca leaves are in fact still used in the production of Coca-Cola today - before being released as the pleasure drug it is today to the masses around the world. There was a strong anti-Western bias at the museum - an opinion evident in the exhibits that Europeans have ruined coca with their development of cocaine and everything that has led to today. The coca leaf is very much a spiritual plant for the Andean people and I certainly got the feeling that the curators of the museum feel that the development of cocaine has now tarnished the coca leaf's reputation and overshadowed its positive benefits and associations.
There was an educational slant at the museum however - as well as detailing how cocaine is produced, it also highlights the pitfall

Vehicles Going To La Paz Have Right Of Way

In the distance, you can see how steep the cliffs are and how narrow the road is.

of the drug and promotes an anti-drug stance.
Perhaps the most important thing I learnt however, was that I have been consuming coca leaves incorrectly the whole time - I should have been chewing the coca leaves lightly, squeezing out the juices and keeping it in my mouth for 30-60 minutes, rather than chewing the leaves into small pieces and inadvertently swallowing them!

La Paz's biggest backpacker draw is not the coca museum nor the witches' market however; it is a stretch of road a few hours outside of town that was once the world's most dangerous road. The Death Road.
Creeping along steep hillsides - often with the road merely the width of one car and with sheer drops of up to 600m just off the side of it - it was estimated that 200-300 people died a year trying to negotiate the road. Perhaps not surprising when you add the fact that rivers and waterfalls cross the road, that there are often landslides and rockfalls on it and that there are hardly any guard rails on the road. I mentioned earlier that President Gualberto Villarroel was assassinated by his own people in 1946; one of the reasons

View Over The Valley

Don't get distracted by the views while riding...or you may be joining it.

they did this was because of the repressive measures he took against intelligentsia and political opponents, which included throwing five of them off a 400m cliff right here on the Death Road.
The road's reputation has since attracted thousands of thrillseekers to come and give the road a go - us included.
We weren't to drive the road however - don't be stupid - we were to tackle the road by mountain bike, a now common tourist activity.
We started about 60km above the road itself at an altitude of around 4,700m in freezing temperatures. Wearing as many layers as I could muster, it was crazy to think that by the end of the ride that we would have descended 3,000m and that we would end up in sub-tropical conditions requiring the use of insect repellent.
The initial leg of the ride was all on asphalt and was all about generating speed - even if the fog ensured that sometimes you couldn't see more than ten metres in front of you. Not that I was generating much speed - I think I must be too light. The were some outstanding views where the fog wasn't though - including the wreck

Waterfalls

In the cliffs above the Death Road.

of a bus that fell off the cliff edge after the the driver fell asleep!
It was then time for the road proper.
The rules of the road here are reversed - vehicles are required to stick to the left instead of the right, to give the driver on the cliff edge a better view of his/her outside wheel. This meant however that we were meant to stick to the left of the rode as we rode down - meaning we had to ride on the cliff's edge. With a 600m drop awaiting you if you made a mistake or ran over a "baby head" stone. F*ck that. I was petrified of the edge was was hugging the cliff wall on the right as closely as possible.
The bikes themselves were of excellent quality and were brilliant in riding out the bumpy surface, although my balding tyres were sliding around just a tad. I was definitely one of the slower riders - even girls were passing me - but I just didn't want to hit a rock and go flying, over the edge or otherwise. A fall on the road can still be quite nasty - something that Nicola discovered

Down...

This is from the van taking us back along the edge of the Death Road. We are stopped over a waterfall.

first hand, as she damaged her wrist and brought her ride to a premature end.
Which was a shame for her as the ride was a fun one. Parts of it involved riding through rivers and under waterfalls, which was refreshing as I was so hot by the end of the ride. Fortunately, there was a swimming pool waiting for us at the end of the ride; unfortunately, it was disgusting and green so there was no way I or anyone else would be swimming in it!
Overall it was great fun.

We then got the news that there was a landslip on new road back to La Paz - and that our only option to get back was to go back up the Death Road! Hats off to the driver for his experience and skill - I have to say that the ride back was a hair-raising experience that was possibly even scarier than the ride down itself!

One thing we were thankful for the next day was that the day's weather hadn't occurred while we were riding down the Death Road. Trapped in our La Paz hotel room, it was cold, and there was a storm

Gobierno Autonomo Departamental de La Paz

The house of the regional government of La Paz.

complete with thunder, lightning and ridiculously heavy rain. Add to this the fact that the altitude was making me run frequently to the toilet and that La Paz is a ugly and dangerous place, and I had decided that I hated this place.
We eventually braved the rain however and ended up having a fairly productive day, especially from a culinary viewpoint.
Among the local specialities we tried were api, a hot, non-alcoholic gluhwein made from purple corn; tucumanas, Bolivian-style empanadas with crispy-fried pastry; saltenas, another type of empanada with a slightly sweet meat fililng, which we tried in a nice, fancy cafe; and the best thing we had in La Paz - rellenos, a crispy-skinned potato ball with meat inside, like a meat filled hash brown. Delicious - all items were nice.

We also managed to explore a bit of the city.
Sopocachi is the Palermo of La Paz - the hip, arty, posh area. Things seemed more developed here in contrast to the rest of the city. The Plaza del Monticulo in Sopocachi provided some nice park space and a brilliant view across the city.
Back across town we attempted to enter the museums of Calle Jaen

Sopocachi

Upmarket neighbourhood of La Paz.

- only to discover you needed you passport to enter (!). The Mamani Mamani gallery proved to be a good substitute though - I loved the colour and vibrancy of his paintings. I would certainly buy a couple of his pieces if I was a rich man looking to decorate my house. Calle Jaen itself is probably La Paz's prettiest cobblestoned street and is also an important one, having played an important role during Bolivia's battle for independence by housing the two of the independence movement's main protagonists.
Walking back to our hotel, the streets became noticeably busier as dusk started to fall. I've never seen so many stalls and vendors on the streets - people simply selling anything they can, anywhere they can. I'm not sure I have seen anything like it before.

The afternoon's exploration had made me think that perhaps La Paz isn't as bad as I thought. I had discovered that La Paz has some really nice parts to it. It didn't seem dangerous - if I had not read anything about the dangers of La Paz, I think I would've thought that the place is like any other city. Yes, a lot of the

Plaza Avaroa

Main square in Sopocachi.

city looked ropey and sketchy but I never really felt threatened.
The evening's events however made me hate the place again. A place of bad service and bad air. We had a nightmare trying to book accommodation for our next destination thanks to Bolivia's notoriously sketchy wifi - we would have to chance our arm once we get there. Also, we couldn't fine somewhere to eat and it was cold again. I couldn't wait to leave.

I wouldn't have to wait long - after the danger, stress, hustle and bustle of La Paz, we were hoping to chill out a bit at our next destination - Lake Titicaca.

Hasta luego,
Derek

Additional photos below

Photos: 24, Displayed: 24