Death Road

Our first night in La Paz. We stayed in a 14 bed dorm in this crazy hostel. It was nice enough and there were people everywhere. We chatted a to few people in the room, then decided to see whether we could book death road for the following day. We booked with 'Barracuda' who were cheaper than 'Gravity'. We wondered what the difference in price was and discovered that Barracuda just use Gravity's old equipment. That evening we were recommended a restaurant called 'Cafe de Sol & Luna' on Cochabamba street, a short walk from the hostel. La Paz is mentally busy. We kept wondering what all these people were doing on a Wednesday evening. It was a mission to get anywhere. So we found this restaurant and went in. The food was amazing! We had beef, which we never normally do. It was such a posh meal in a lovely restaurant, and only a fiver... Bolivia is super cheap. It sounds like Jen and I elate eating out loads, which I admit is true, but the hostels here don't have kitchens and it would actually be more expensive to cook yourself! We've bought fruit and things from markets and street food too and it just works out so cheap. Their equivalent of a consumerist society is consuming the street food. In La Paz, or anywhere for that matter, you'll struggle to find a supermarket, but surety food and markets places with cheap set menus are everywhere!

We woke up early for Death Road and got to the meeting point at Oliver's pub at 6:45am. We left at about 7:30am after breakfast and when we were all signing off the list. There were two groups. Jen and I were in a group with 8 other boys. Our guide, called Gus, introduced himself and we had two guys named Jimmy and George from NZ on the tour from our room in the hostel who we'd chatted to the night before. We were all given helmets and gloves and a jacket which we had to wear. After the hour drive outside the city we were dropped off at a very high altitude of 4600m. We were each given our bikes, with incredible suspension, and we tested the brakes and gears and adjusted the seat before setting off on our adrenaline fuelled day.

The guides were great. There was two of them, one stayed at the front, one at the back at all times and the bus followed with all our stuff. We were filmed and photographed the entire journey by the other guide, called Cese, and were given it on a CD at the end of the day. We were briefed on how to use the bikes properly before we got on different terrain throughout the day; what brakes were best to use and how high your seat should be etc etc. We were wished good luck by Gus and he made us go round the circle, drop a bit of alcohol from his bottle onto the ground, the front wheel of the bike and then take a swig. We passed it around and everyone did it, eventhough the spirit, whatever it was, was horrid! The first hour or so was before Death Road and on tarmac. It was very smooth and we just went downhill on the mountain bikes. It was great fun and the views were amazing. They kept stopping every five minutes so we could get photos, admire the view and have the group stay close together. We kept going all the way down to Death Road. We got back on the bus for a small uphill section and got off at Death Road. The terrain was all gravel and rocky, therefore it was going to be very bumpy. The views were amazing and you could just see the road cut into the edge of the cliff. It was amazing. We stopped often at first as the track had a steep drop on the side we took photos and cycled through waterfalls. Some parts were really muddy and so we got wet got mud on our faces. The further down we went, the lower altitude it was, so it was hotter. I did get a little nervous nearer the end. I think I was hot and tired and it was hard to keep the bike steady on the gravel, stay slow and in control. It didn't help being in a group of fearless boys, who went ahead, however the guide constant lye stayed at the back, so I just took my time. Where was Jen? Way ahead- adrenaline junkie!

After another hour on the road we stopped at the lunch spot. We all got in the river and had a swim. It had a pretty strong current so we held onto the edge at first and walked upstream and found a nice spot on the rocks. The sun was strong and we felt like we were being burnt so we got out the river and changed our clothes and had lunch. The tv was playing with photos and footage from the ride- a 'crazy llama' picture was there! I spotted a parrot outside and we went to had a look. I gave the blue and yellow parrot some crusty bread, which he enjoyed. The feet, beak and tongue looked so strong.

So we were all on the bus and we  had the option to drive back up death road to get back, or go on the newly built road. We thought, 'okay, let's go on the new road because it will be tarmac es hopefully'. We found out it took longer and it was partly tarmaced and would be open in half an hr from that point as it was 'broken'. Reassuring. We decided on surviving death road twice and took the risk. We were only reassured in our driver's 35 year experience when he made a U-turn and landed in a ditch. Tying the van to another with a rope didn't work as it broke. They tried to double it up- you know what happened next. There was a reason for all the boys in our group: they all pushed the van out of the ditch. We got going, the journey being a little more terrifying than we had anticipated. The road only fitted one car, so much so that you could not see the road when you looked out the window on the cliff side. We stopped a couple of times to see car and van remains from recent accidents. More car accidents happened than cyclists, but they still happened. After a 2-3 hours and some tunes blaring in the van, we arrived safety back at the hostel.

We ended up going for dinner with Jimmy and George and an Australian girl from our room. We headed to the Christmas market. It was massive and had loads of stalls. We had an array of street food all costing about two quid in total. Dessert was the most interesting, although us girls were too full to fit anything else in, there were loads of similar stalls one after the other. They all had a tv in place playing a movie on repeat, with rows of table and benches. It was like a outside, Christmas market, street food cinema. It was bizarre, but good fun. The smurfs was our choice of film. Back at the hostel we bumped into Ian and Marie-Lou again and had a good chat with them. We intended on getting a drink and socialising, but we just went to bed!