The city that never stops!

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La Paz has to be the most incredible city we have ever been to. It isn´t actually the official capital of Bolivia, but simply the administrative capital, where the government is based. The city was built in a canyon created by a river, so it´s up and down everywhere. Add the altitude of 3600m above sea level and you understand why travellers get out of breath after crossing the road! There are houses and buildings everywhere. No space for anything! Some houses are actually built on some hill completely erroded, and they do not look safe at all!!

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We stayed in a party hostal called Wild Rover. We decided to choose a dorm this time just to save a bit of money. But I love bunk beds anyway so I thought it was great! The matresses were extremely comfortable and we actually had a proper duvet for once, not the itchy rug we are accustomed to!! The bar shut at 2.30am and it had a pool table, friendly staff and some good people there. Dylan made us proud by winning killer pool one night, and I wasn´t the first to get knocked out, so all in all we did pretty well I thought!

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At 1.30am every single night the hostal organised taxis to various clubs, and you simply go with the flow... impossible to resist. We met some travellers who´d spent weeks and weeks endulging, with no time to sober up. Not seen daylight for days! Not quite our idea of travelling... A few days partying great, but not months on end! You might as well stay at home. I think so anyway... don´t want to judge anyone though!

Despite not being so confident on a bike we decided to do the famous death road! Might as well die in style... :) Nah, we chose a recommended company which had the best bikes out of all and we felt pretty safe. The road to Coroico starts on a peak at 4633m and ends at 1700m above sea level. Sounds impressive ey?  The scenery was simply mesmerising although we had to concentrate on the road obviously! In some places you ride on a gravelled road of 1m wide, the mountain on your right and death on your left. A few bikers have fallen off the cliff over the years which makes the whole experience all the more thrilling. Unfortunately our group was extremely competitive and the Dutch guys were really speeding down. Didn´t seem like they were taking the time to enjoy the experience. We did anyway! (Pictures to come)

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Fernando, a good friend of ours that we met in Huacachina and in Arequipa joined us in La Paz on Saturday which was nice. On that very night we met Pierre, a very interesting French-German guy, and Mauricio, a Bolivian-Argentinian guy, who happens to be the son of a football manager. So he took us to the game the following day of course! He even let us go into the dressing rooms and see the lads warm up! It wasn´t quite Old Trafford but the experience was great!

We also got to see the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, but the scenes which were alledgedly shot in La Paz were actually shot in Chili. There is no way that posh hotel is in La Paz!! The scenes in Sienna were however genuine, as we were there for Dre and Gretchen´s wedding back in April and we saw all the camera crews.