La Paz - Bolivia get´s better and better

Arriving in La Paz by bus (or indeed any form of road transport) is quite an experience as despite the city being mostly at around 3500-4000m in altitude it sits in a canyon created by thr Choqueyapu River that is now mostly covered over through the city itself. The bus that we were on (along with quite a few other gringos, most notably a guy who had lost at poker / drinking the night before and had paid a "haircut forfeit") approached from the desolate altiplano where you see nothing for miles except small mud bricks houses, donkeys and dogs. The first signs you are entering a large centre of population comes with the satellite town of El Alto where the hustle and bustle of those arriving from the countryside creates a giant collectivo (minibus taxis with various mispelt stickers emblazoned on them - Johnnys Cab, Speed Deemon etc) stop a mile long. Also in El Alto is the highest commercial airport in the world, a facility we made the most of on our departure, replacing an 18hr bus journey with a 45 minute flight. Once our driver had made his way through the chaos we were treated to our first view of La Paz, it is like someone has taken a normal city and pulled up the Northern and Southern outskirts by their edges in order to pour everything out of the Eastern end! High up on the sides of the canyon is a patchwork of part finished houses, a result of the law that no tax is paid until the completion of building meaning complete stories having no windows or houses finishing just below where the roof should be. In the base of the canyon sits most of the tourist areas, commerce and administration meaning most things worth seeing are within walking distance...needless to say that those that can afford also live at this slightly lower altitude.

Fearing a gasping walk with our backpacks (4000m plus 15 - 20kgs can really take it out of your lungs) we were delighted when the bus pulled up 2 streets away from our hostel right amongst the llama foetuses, charms and potions of the Witches Market.

Our good friends Dan and Dom had warned us about how La Paz can pull you in and keep you for a little longer than you intend and we realised why pretty much straight away why, it has a great combination of everything a traveller might need...some great food, good watering holes, plenty of things to see and do and some pretty friendly locals. In the end we only stayed a day longer than planned but felt as though we did the city justice.

Our biggest day out was to go and ride the "Most Dangerous Road in the World", not before a quick call to my sister to check our insurance policy covered such stupidity. This road is a 70km stretch of dirt that runs down into the town of Coroico got it´s name as a result of the fact that an estimated 200-300 people perished trying to navigate the twists and turns. This is a result of the lack of grip on a "road" that is just over 3m wide and has a drop of up to 600m on one side and a solid rock wall on the other. Normal road rules don´t apply with those coming downhill having to take the outside line in order to stop the speeding head-on crashes that caused most tragedies. Nowadays a slightly more modern (although equally badly paved in places) bypass means that the road is mostly the domain of tour groups like ours.

We tried not to dwell on the horror stories we heard about the ride, some companies cut corners with bike safety and group size meaning there have sadly been some 13 deaths of tourists. We also listened very carefully at our briefing and before each of the 9 sections - with enticing titles such as Collarbone Alley.

At the start of the ride we gave on offering to Pachamama (goddess earth) in the form of some neat alcohol on our front wheel followed by a small amount for ourselves (no doubt for courage.) We get used to our bikes during a short tarmac section at the top testing brakes and suspension as there is no room for error once we hit the dust and rocks that await. Each section is approximately 15 - 20 minutes long after which we all regroup and excitedly chat about how we nearly "stacked it" or just made it past "that" rock. I must admit to getting in the support bus for the short uphill section but my logic was that we were riding down the road, the tour comapny were called Gravity and my lungs were going to be saved for gasping at the views!!

After a very tiring day (I haven´t concentrated so hard since trying to finish the Rubiks Cube) we settled down for a slap up meal and a beer before the nerve jangling ride home in the bus.

A slightly more sedate outing was to the ancient pre-Inca site of Tihuanacu, a city that is thought to have once been one of the most important in South America with anywhere between half and one million inhabitants at it´s height that rather impressively lasted from 1200BC to 1000AD when it was misteriously abandoned (some theories given by our guide were loss of faith in the local religion, invasion, large scale crop failure or his favourite of meteor strike.) This was a good day finding out a bit more about the local indigenous population and how they suffered at the hands of the Conquistadors - for example they were forced to take down huge stone bricks from this important temple complex and carry them around a mile to the nearest settlement in order to build a church which they were then forced to attend.

Around these tours we did quite a bit of walking, visiting some pretty squares a decent little art gallery and some cute coffee shops as well as quite an eclectic mix of restaurants. On our first night we went looking for some uncomplicated local food...and stumbled on one of the best curry houses we have been to, Cath couldn´t resist the Llama Tikka Masala and I plumped for what turned out to be quite an impressively hot Chicken dish,a great start! After a couple of days of Bolivia belly (which we attribute to a dodgy breakfast) and a diet of Gatorade and water I was ready for solid food again and so it was off to the much recommended Sol Y Luna which turned out to a specialist Dutch restaurant...soup and meatballs and a great almuerzo saved the day. Not wanting to lose the international flavour we decided to splash out opting for a place called Vienna with appropriate specialities...I sadly opted for the seafood special (forgetting that Austria is landlocked!!) prompting a slight relapse but Cath enjoyed her saurkraut and sausage. Just to round things off, on our last night we popped into Olivers Travels...a 100% fake English pub that none-the-less served proper PG Tips tea and delivered a mighty Bangers and Mash that saw us on our way to our next destination!!