The Spaniards cleverly choose this odd place for a city 20 Oct 1548 to avoid the chill winds of the plateau, and finally for the first time in over 10 days, it was warmish to walk around at night!!
Jemma and to much of all our horror got her top of the range Cannon camera Nicked on the bus journey to La Paz. So we all got a horrible wake up call and were extra cautious, thankfully after going through the motions of reporting it to the local tourist police, we were able to relax ever so slightly and take in all the weird and wonderful things on offer in and around La Paz.
We found some accommodation in a "residential" building in the heart of the city around the corner from the central "Plaza San Francisco"
for €1/night! A few days later speaking to a English girl working locally she pointed out the fact that our residential building offered rooms by the hour!!!
Behind the San Francisco church a network of narrow cobbled streets rise steeply up the canyon walls. Much of these streets are permanent street markets, selling handicrafts, guitars, llama clothing etc. There is a lot of masked shoe shine boys and beggars in La Paz.
The Amazing and famous "Mercado de Hechieria" (witchcraft market) sells fascinating charms, herbs and nastier stuff like dead Llama foetuses which are meant to protect you from evil spirts!!!
I nearly had a gruesome experience when I took a corner a little too quick distracted talking to Parky and nearly stepped into a bucket full of blood from these wretched dead alien-looking-nasty-creatures!!
Turns out our local "Olivers Travels" pub was directly across from we were staying and was a Full-On Gringo bar packed full of Irish & Brits, so each night we headed out with the everyone in the bar including "Mad lively & Daft as a brush" Oliver ( the owner) to different night clubs, RamJams & Mongos!
We decided it was time for a change of scenery so we left the enjoyable hustle n bustle of La Paz for a day trip to insanely mountain bike down the "The Worlds most Dangerous Road" with Gravity Assisted mountain biking, the only company with 100% safety record!!!
We met up with our guides & 16 fellow adrenaline junkies @07:00, we got the Gravity bus with all our mountain bikes secured on top to our starting point an hour away up @ a breathless4,800 Metres!
The Cost was $68 for the day, including buffet meal and T-shirt at the end of it.
The trip we signed up is a 64 km of downhill mountain biking 3,600m (or 12,000 feet) vertical descent down the famous World's Most Dangerous Road ending in a picturesque town called Coroico
We decided to upgrade our bike to a Kona "Stinky" full-suspension model,Hayes hydraulic disc brakes as standard. We got Safety goggles, helmets, offered a prayer to Pachamama with some jungle juice Gravity provided took a quick swig and sped off!!!
The First Section was pretty easy, we went down a beautiful tarmac road at incredibly satisfying speeds, overtaking buses & cars and I finished second to the lead guide, so I started getting a little cocky but the road does live up to its name for a very good reason as I was about to find out!
Gravity were pretty good on Safety and explained some good mountain biking techniques, leaning into corners, relaxing through bumps and proper braking procedures. at each stop they routinely checked all our bikes, breaks gears etc..
The scenery was stunning, but the road soon became an extremely narrow dirt track, bumpy, dusty and downright insanely impassable considering that its barely only wide enough for 1 lane of traffic on this 2 way road!!
we then had to bike up hill for 7 lung bursting kms which knocked the stuffing outve all of us as the altitude was still more than 10,000 feet with its thin lacking Air.
We descended through the Misty mountain into a sub tropical rain forest, and the temperature quickly got hotter as the day wore on. Further sections required the use of Dust Masks, we passed under waterfalls on the excuse of a road/dirt track and pressed on around hairy unnerving bends and bumpy terrain that offered no protection from shooting cleanly over the edge to a horrible death!!
we arrived down covered in dirt from head to tow, wrecked , exhausted, exhilarated and above all satisfied in the achievement of it all! We were greeted by locals that provided us with ice cold yummy much needed beer
Myself and Alex looking a little worse for wear after the descent but enjoying the refreshing beer provided!
Motley Crew that Caned it down the mountain!
Our guides said we were the fastest and largest group that they could remember to descend, we arrived @ 13:09 a very respectable time indeed! We also hit 75Km/hour on one section!
Movie clips to a get a taste of the action!
Alex,Parky, Jemma and myself decided to stay on in Coroico in the very comfortable self contained Hotel Esmeralda for some much needed R & R! We have some spectacular views of picturesque Coroico, cinema room, sauna, Pool & much to everyone's enjoyment Free Pool Table!!!
Unfortunately Im leaving Jemma,Parky & Alex tomorrow to head back up "The most dangerous road" (going back up is meant to be a lot worse as the bus drivers seem to be oblivious to the lack of a road and severe sharp drop off and like to place the Gringo on the "scenic stomach turning side"!) to La Paz to hopefully get there in time to get a bus onwards to Lake Titicaca.
Labels: adventure, bolivia, la paz, most dangerous road
