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“You seriously couldn´t walk for more than a couple of minutes without getting pelted!” |
We caught the overnight bus from Sucre to La Paz. Bus was comfortable enough but we weren´t prepared for the cold! Even with fleeces and jackets on we were freezing! Arrive in La Paz around 6.30am.
We spent quite a bit of time looking around the many markets selling all sorts of handicraft things, including the strange witches market where they sell Llama Foetuses - very wierd.
We stayed in La Paz over the annual carnival when the city seems to go mad! All the market stalls sell water bombs and cans of foam and everyone goes around throwing them. You seriously couldn´t walk for more than a couple of minutes without getting pelted! On the Sunday, the main carnival day in La Paz, there was a huge procession through the city. We mainly watched it from the ´safety´ of the hostel terrace although even there everyone had their own water fight so still ended up getting soaked!The owners of the hostel invited a Bolivian lady selling water bombs to come and sit upstairs in the hostel - she must have made a fortune that day!
The next day we decided to brave cycling down the ´world´s most dangerous road´. We signed up with a company called Downhill Madness as they seemed to have the best bikes. The ride is 64km long and descends from around 4,700m to 1,200m with vertical drops of upto 600m off the side of the road with no barriers - pretty crazy! We all got on the bus which took us to the starting point where it was snowing - Ben took the opportunity to get me with a few snowballs - typical! It was pretty tough going at first as the rain/snow made it hard to see and our fingers and toes were frozen! After an hour or so the rain eased but we still couldn´t see far. We passed the longest drop on the ride - a sheer drop of 600m off the cliff edge! We could only see about 50m of it though (thank goodness!). As we went on, the weather got a bit better and we could see more. Our guide pointed out lots of places where vehicles had fallen off the road - including a bus with 45 people on it. Pretty scary. The road is not as dangerous to cycle as it used to be as a new road has been opened up and the majority of the traffic goes on that one. It is very bumpy though so a bike with good suspension is essential!
There are lots of waterfalls and good views on the way down. We were just drying out from the rain when we had to cycle through a couple of rivers. Needless to say I didn´t quite manage it so ended up having to walk through one of them.
A great day (I was actually dreading doing the ride at the beginning) but really glad we did. It is quite mad to start a cycle ride in the snow and a few hours later be in the hot tropics!
We decided to stay in the hotel at the bottom in Coroica. A lovely hotel with a nice pool and sauna and great views over the Yungas. We had a big balcony with a hammock on it too. Spent the next morning (my birthday!) by the pool then caught the hotel "express" bus back to La Paz. All good except it broke down half way back due to overheating. The 11 of us eventually managed to flag down another bus which could fit us all on board.
Back at the hostel we made the most of the remainder of happy hour with others from the hostel. Ended up being quite a late one! Not good for early bus the next day!
previous travel blog entry
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