32 - La Paz and Death Road

From Copacabana Casey and I took a beautiful bus ride to the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

This is a photo I snapped from the bus. It's Lake Titicaca, and a snow-capped mountain in the distance
Here are a couple more photos snapped from the bus.



About an hour in to the bus ride everyone had to get off, and take a boat across a part of Lake Titicaca. Our bus crossed on a separate boat.

La Paz was a crazy hectic place filled with lots of people, cars, markets, dogs, buildings, mountains, and most importantly lots of street food.


Casey and I went a little overboard our first day in La Paz, and we tried every sort of street food that we encountered. Here's a list of what we ate our first day in La Paz
- Egg, cheese, tomato sandwich and coffee
- Saltena (like an empanada filled with potato and meat)
- Fresh squeezed OJ
- Fried dough
- Pork sandwich
- Chocalate eggs
- Chocolate covered strawberries
- Chili, rice, and potato dish
- Ice cream
- Banana bread
- Empanada
- Popcorn
- Another coffee
- Hot dog with veggies


What a wonderful day of eating!

Casey and I had some good days of exploring La Paz, and there was plenty to see. We went to this cemetery right in the middle of the city.

Not quite like the cemeteries we have in the states, huh?


Death road was once the only road that cars and trucks to use to get from La Paz down to Coroico (another town). The road is about 64 km and starts at a chilly 4,700 m, and ends at a warm 1,200 m. The road is gravel, narrow, and curvy. To one side of the road is mountainous rainforest, and to the other is a sheer drop. The road isn't really used for transport anymore because a new road was built. It's now used by risk-taking/stupid tourists such as myself as an adrenaline filled bike ride.
We started out the ride on paved highway, and I just flew down, no brakes, making myself as aerodynamic as possible to get maximum speed. What a rush!

The second part of the ride we turned off the highway onto the gravel Death Road. There were so many deaths on this road back when it was use by cars and trucks that it was dubbed "the most dangerous road in the world".

Here's Casey standing in front of a cross where someone died.

And here are a few more photos from the ride...






It´s sideways, but this computer is too slow for me to fix it. Just tilt your head.

The entire ride was downhill, and if you fell and went off the edge you were done for. I probably have too much testosterone in me or something because even with this knowledge I still raced around corners and through the rainforest, mountains, and waterfalls. Eventually the cliff on the side ended, and the road became narrower, curvier, and sandier. But there was no cliff, so I didn't need to go slower, right? Wrong. I took a sharp blind turn, and I would have been fine, but then there was a big rock, an I turned sharp to avoid, and my tires slid out from under me. I went flying, rolled a couple times, and then stopped. I stood up, brushed myself off, assessed the situation, and hopped back on my bike only to realize that my seat was at 90 degrees to what it should have been. I fixed it, and then got on my way. One turn later and we were at the end of the bike trip. Now I can say I survived the "world's most dangerous road"... barely.

So La Paz and Death Road were awesome. Since La Paz I've been traveling to lots more cities within Bolivia, and I'll get to work on my next blog entry as soon as possible.
Take care friends,
Amanda