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Kolins Travels
The view from the airport as you travel into La Paz is amazing , La paz the highest city in the world and poverty is everywhere. I was told at my hostel that the average life expectancy of a gringo at the airport is 30 minutes, after that it gets more dangerous! Nice. Well I was out of the airport in about 25 minutes, people always blow these things out of proportion anyway.
La Paz is in a huge valley which traps the cold at night, Bolivians sell pretty much everything in the streets and most vehicles on the road would be condemned if they were in Britain. Small vans with crazy Bolivians shouting destinations and costs act as unofficial taxis and there are armed guards at cash points with shot guns and riot sticks. I made the mistake of eating in a "kind of" fast food "restaurant" (it was disgusting) and even that had a guard with a riot stick.
It appears the Bolivians are trying to get electricity connected for villages without power and are forming human blockades with gas bottles on the roads.
Again the air is pretty foul and the effects of attitude are not only leaving me a little out of breath (good job I don´t smoke anymore!) but also a little tense. I´ve found Coca tea helps with this even though it tastes foul.
On my second day in Bolivia a organized to mountain bike "the Most Dangerous Road in the World"..so called because of the shear drops from the road into the surrounding valley! It started at La Cumbre at 3600 metres above sea level and finished at Coroico at 1700 metres! That's 65 kilometres which was 95 % down hill. The views of the surrounding mountains were breathtaking. About 20 KM of the ride was on smooth road, the rest was over gravel. The official road for trade has been updated but some traffic still uses the old road as well as crazy tourists on mountain bikes. I picked a more expensive well recommended safety conscious tour group. I´ve found that most of my best memories of activities on this trip have had some element of risk, you just have to have faith in your abilities( or lack of!)
The day was a real rush but on a serious note ...people have died doing this! I only found out on the trip that an Israeli guy died 2 weeks ago and a french girl last year. It also appears the road has it´s place in Bolivian history, it appears 5 candidates for a democracy government were democratically thrown off this road to maintain the political climate at the time!
I,ve now met up with my tour group and we leave to cross the border into Peru tomorrow..on ward to Lake Titicaca!
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