La Paz

After arriving from Sucre on an overnight bus we needed to stretch our legs so did a walking tour of the city with Red Cap Tour Group. The tour started beside the prison which is a working prison but it also used to be a tourist attraction as well. Prisoners used to do a tour of the prison for tourists and tourists could also stay the night in the prison with prisoners too. However as you can imagine this wasn't the safest place for tourists and some tourists were not allowed out of the prison the following day unless they paid the officers hundreds of dollars. Eventually after multiple incidents of this the Government banned tourist tours of the prison. Today it is still used as a prison for prisoners and their families to stay in. We also walked through the witch markets where we heard about the givings they offer to their God, Pacha Mama, when trying to gain better health and wealth. Finally we ended at Saint Francis Church which was the first Catholic church that the Spanish built in Boliva however while we were there there was a large protest against the government for their education programmes. We later heard that the Bolivians don't like their president anymore as he fixed the last election to be able to stay on for his third term at office instead of the maximum two terms. Our guide suspects that when the next elections come round next year if the current president runs and wins again then there will be a civil war in the country.

We found out that Red Cap Tour Groups also had a food tour of La Paz so we decided to do this tour as well the following day. We drank a corn based drinks in the market and sampled two of their six hundred types of potatoes (not as nice as the Irish Spuds but not too bad). After seven different courses we ended at an international restaurant to eat apple crumble and custard. It was delicious to have food from home however I wish the tour had more market-style Bolivian food to sample.

The following day while Rob was biking; Una, Eadaoin and I had a girl's day out. We used the cable cars to reach a region on the outskirt of the city: El Alto. La Paz city is in a valley and they are unable to have a metro service as there is too many rivers in the area that could fluid the tunnels. Therefore they built cable cars to reach the towns higher up the mountain side. We learned that to drive to El Alto from the city centre it takes over one hour however by using the cable cars now it only takes ten minutes. This has helped to expand the El Alto community. Now there is the largest outdoor market in South America in El Alto. We walked around the market finding a wide variety of products for sale including food, clothing, electronics and craft work. The market was so big that we didn't get to walk it all before we headed back to the city.

The next day was the dreaded day to cycle down Death Road with Barracuda. We were picked up at 7:30 and drove to the top of Death Road. This drive was supposed to only take one hour however there was snow on the top of the mountain so the Police had closed the road until the snow had melted. We waited in a queue of cars and trucks to see how long the snow would take to melt. [We found out afterwards that the day before only company cycled Death Road as there was too much snow. This company finished the cycle however they got caught in the snow on the way back to La Paz which resulted in them having to sleep on the van for the night]. Eventually the Police opened the road and let all of the trucks and vans through. At 13:30 we started cycling on the main road first to get used to the bikes and changing gears.

When we reached the start of Death Road we got a briefing about how we need to be careful on the road and where the tricky parts of the road are. They warned us about on average two cyclists die every year while cycling this road. That was a bit of a shock as we didn't want to be added to this death list. At the start Rob was up at the front with the guide speeding down the mountain while the rest of us took our time at the start. The road itself was a gravel road with some large rocks in the middle after some landslides of the mountain. These large rocks were the hardest things to avoid. Part of the road had a barrier protecting from the drop off the side of the road however most parts didn't so we had to be really careful that we didn't skid over the side of the road and drop off the side of the mountain. We stopped quite regularly to take a break and take photos. Death Road is 24km long and it is amazing how vans can drive down the road as parts of the road is very narrow. Eventually we got into the swing of it as we got used to the bikes and the road and flew down the mountain. It was so much fun as we didn't have to cycle that much just pull the breaks to slow us down as the road as down hill. I didn't anticipate it to be as fun. When we finally arrived at the end everyone gave a cheer as we hadn't added to the Death Road death list. We finally arrived back to La Paz at 22:30 with sore arms and hands from holding the breaks for so long but we survived which was the main thing.Read more