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after having got very little sleep on the overnight bus to la paz, i had finally dozed off when i got woken up by a deafening racket of car horns outside. didnt really help that the man next to me considerately opened the window in order to get a better look, thereby waking up the entire bus as well. turned out we were stuck in the gridlocked la paz rush hour traffic, and rather than waiting patiently everyone had decided that leaning on their horns and shouting would help the traffic move more efficiently. so that was my introduction to la paz - turned out to be a fairly accurate first impression. its a ridiculously noisy, dirty, smelly, crowded mess of a city, that sprawls across a huge bowl shape surrounded by mountains, and is the highest capital city in the world at just under 4000m. its really cool if youre in the mood for it, however at 6am after about 2 hours of sleep i wasnt, so promptly got a taxi to the hostel and went straight to bed. eventually woke up at about midday, the girls had gone out so i toyed with the idea of staying in bed all day, eventually dragged myself up though and almost immediately bumped into an australian bloke who i had met in la paz. he was in the process of trying to retrieve his ipod, which one of the cleaning ladies had "borrowed" and apparently got quite attatched to. talked to him for a bit and asked what there was to do in la paz, he said "well....you can go to prison," also sums up la paz quite well! turns out he wasnt joking either, he had got hold of a contact inside san pedro prison (where the book "marching powder" is set, i havnt read it but think its quite similar to "the damage done" that i read in thailand), and had been on a guided tour inside the prison and been behind closed doors drinking whisky with the inmates, its apparently a prison break style system where the guards just keep everyone inside and let them get on with it - so the rich and powerful drug barons have fancy appartments and the poor probably sleep in a dirty corner somewhere. really interesting if more than slightly terrifying, he phoned up this south african contact to see if he could get us in but it wasnt really happening that day for various reasons. possibly a good thing!
also it turned out danny and rachelle (the canadians i travelled with in patagonia) were in la paz at the same time and were staying round the corner, so met up with them and their new mates and went out for pizza and a few beers. a few of us had a walk up to the prison to see if we could bribe the guards to get us in, decided not to bother though as there was a big crowd of bolivians trying to get in that actually had relatives to visit and werent just nosy tourists, so spent the day wandering around the markets instead. the market is absolutely massive, you can buy pretty much anything ranging from counterfeit dvds and clothes to dried llama foetuses in the witches market, apparently they bring good luck, probably not a very practical souvenir to carry around with me though. really good day, we all went out for a meal and drinks in the evening, then went to bed fairly early, because the next day i was cycling down.....................THE MOST DANGEROUS ROAD IN THE WORLD!!
just north of la paz is the famous death road between la cumbre and coroico, which is about 3m wide winding round the edge of mountains with 900m drops over the side, and drops over 3000m from the altiplano down to the subtropical valleys of las yungas. ideal hangover cure. luckily about 2 years ago they built a new road between la cumbre and coroico which actually has tarmac and crash barriers, so the old dangerous road (which used to take 2 way traffic - you can actually see old buses and trucks that had fallen off on the valley floor below!) is now almost entirely used for idiots going really fast downhill on mountain bikes. had the best time ever, you can absolutely fly down parts of it and the scenery is incredible, although was a little bit more careful going round the corners - there are a few memorials along the way where people have gone over the edge. also the road surface is ridiculously bumpy so my hands were a little sore the next day to say the least! was quite glad i had payed a bit extra for hydraulic brakes as well. met a couple of english lads as well (one was going to st hildas in oxford in september, ha), and afterwards went to a hotel in coroico with all you can eat food, showers and pool, yessss. almost missed our bus back but eventually got back to la paz (along the new, paved road!) quite late, so failed to meet up with the girls and went out for dinner with the english boys instead. was still quite hungover though, which wasnt helped by a ridiculously loud percussion band which stormed in unnannounced and proceeded to do their best to ruin everyones meal by banging their drums really loudly. so got another fairly early night, then headed up north to rurrenabaque the next day. OUT
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