Downhill in La Paz

Imagine you run a bus company in Bolivia on the 18 hour route between Rurrenabaque and La Paz. You discover that the road is shut Monday to Saturday between the hours of 0600 - 1600. Do you 

a) schedule the bus one hour earlier than usual to ensure you are on the road before it shuts, or

b) run it at the usual times and arrive at the closed road at 0700 hours   

Of course it was my joy to be stopped on the side of the road for 9 hours and thus spend just 2.5hours of a 29 hour journey travelling in daylight - so much for the stunning views, but I guess I didn't need to see just how close to the edge we got.  Just to complete my day of fun on departing the bus at 6am in La Paz I had my camera, i-pod and phone stolen and got to spend the next few hrs in police stations.

But the show must go on, so armed with a new camera and a new friend - Stephan arrived from a 24hr flight from London that morning - we went out to, or more accurately up to the Cholita wrestling show at approx. 4,000m.  We are struggling to climb steps and these guys are throwing themselves around for our entertainment

Cholitas wrestling

WWF it ain't

The next day was time for a bit of adventure, cycling the death road.  In 2006 this was the officially named the world's most dangerous road, Top Gear did a Bolivia special featuring it and a chap from NZ spotted a good opportunity for a bike tour.  Today the traffic all uses the new road, so it's actually pretty safe (unless you fall off the left hand side of your bike).  Virtually all downhill, there's little pedalling involved, just a bit of steering and braking. 

Valley view nr death road

coach that didn't make it up the road

the world's 'most dangerous' road

view from the road

 Starting at 4,200m with a 22km warm up on the tarmac roads, the 'road' itself is 32km of dirt road going down to the tropical warmth of  800m and lunch at a monkey sanctuary

monkey at the monkey sanctuary

not a monkey at the monkey sanctuary