Death Road - part two*

It felt great to reach the end and we were all pretty tired by this point too. It was also mega hot now as we were basically in the jungle and we had all stripped down to our most basic layers. We had gone from freezing cold to hot and humid in the space of a few hours. It was also amazing to hear all the jungle noises again and we took a few moments to take photos of the river we had been viewing from up high, which now ran under a bridge by the village we were in.

We hopped back on the bus after taking some survivor photos (no-one even fell over) and we were given t-shirts too as a souvenir. We headed five minutes down the road, to a place where a lunch buffet had been put out with a free beer on offer and a swimming pool available to dunk in. The lunch was great, plenty of meat, pasta and rice and the few sips of beer I stole from Rob were pretty good too!
We headed for a swim after chatting to a few of our fellow bikers and came across the most adorable kittens and their mum playing amongst some wooden pallets. There were so many of them and they were so cute! We stood and watched for ages but don't have many photos as they were mostly on Robs now stolen phone.

The pool was a bit nippy and so it took a while for us to brave it, but we did eventually! It was pretty glorious once in the water and we enjoyed a bit of a swim and a few ball games before getting out and basking in the sun, whilst listening to the birds and watching the butterflies.

Jubee, our guide, was being followed and clung to by a young girl who he clearly knew and she seemed besotted with him (was very cute as she was only about 10 and she would not leave him alone). When he eventually gave in and got on his bike to pull some stunts for her, he managed to fall over hard and gained quite a few cuts and bruises, oops! The only person to fall over and it wasn't even on Death Road.

Eventually, it was time to head back to La Paz. We got back on the bus and turned on the tunes for the three hour journey back up. This time we used the highway! It started to get dark and the clouds further up were so thick that it became a running joke that maybe we hadn't actually survived yet. It was a little scary and we had to keep overtaking lorries that were too slow in the clouds. It got a bit much for the Italians apparently and one of the men surprised us all when he stood up and stormed to the driver to shout "NO, STOP NOW, STOP, NO MORE, NO MORE!!" We were all a bit taken aback. It was a little scary, yes, but also none of us had driven this road a hundred times before and the driver knew the road a lot better and could see ahead a lot further than any of us. Jubee explained this, and the fact that from the back of the bus it looks a lot worse, but the Italians refused to allow us to overtake any more lorries. The music was turned off, the mood became a bit sombre and we sat behind a lorry going at 10mph whilst all the lorries we had overtaken on the way up, now overtook us both. At this rate, we would be in La Paz in several long hours. Eventually, the driver decided enough was enough and we began overtaking again, I think most of the bus were glad as we wanted to be back in La Paz.

Eventually, we arrived back and after enjoying one of the beautifully made pizzas at the hostel, we crashed out for the night. I felt quite ill and flu-like at this point and the aches from the day didn't help, so I was pretty much out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.

All in all a great and exciting day!Read more