Back again in La Paz, but this time fully acclimatised from before & so ready to get to know it a little better... this has got to be the cheapest city we've been to, very cool!
Time to brave the world's most dangerous road (Death Road as it's commonly known due to the fact that over 200 people die on it every year) - it has now become a recreational experience for tourists, an 80k downhill ride on mountain bikes! The journey started at 4500m (good job it was downhill as our lungs wouldn't have coped) & to begin with we were riding on tarmac so we could get used to the bikes (cool ones with great suspension - good job!).
As we snaked our way through the Andes to the edge of the Amazon basin it becomes a dirt track of lumps, bumps & loose stones - the idea is that you just ride over them all (you can't sit on the saddle for this as it would just be too bad on the ass!). The road is so narrow at points, it's hard to believe that buses could actually get through.
Looking over the edge is pretty scary - 3000ft cliff drops & numerous crosses along the way, markers for the many, many accidents that have occurred over the years.
All this adrenalin & to make things worse it pissed it down the entire day, so a slippery wet death road at that! To mask our bravery, I should really add that a new death road, which is much wider had been recently opened which carries all of the heavy traffic now. Much to our relief we really only had to share the old road with fellow mountain bikers! Many thanks to Claire & Andy for this (wet but fun) experience.
At the end of the Death Road the trail leads to a little sanctury for animals who have been abused (trained to bite, steal, smell etc...). After a warm shower and some food we had fun playing with the monkeys (who especially liked Lisa) and dodging the angry parrots.
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