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We arrived in La Paz on the Friday that marked the beginning of carnival meaning the already hectic city streets were buzzing with activity. Amongst the pure confusion of the bus station we jumped in the first cab we found and weaved our way through the jammed traffic all while listening to dance music of the early naughties cranked through this tiny cabs sub woofer under a mini disco ball. Dan and I agreed that this was the first city to really get our hearts pumping and we were excited!! The streets were overflowing with Cholitas selling everything from foam spray to water pistols, to colrful plastic wreathes, to crazy clown costumes. We soon learned that the tradition in Bolivia during Carnival is to dress up in a clown costume, get s*** faced and spray anyone in sight with foam and water. Little kids were the biggest threat as they pumped water pistols bigger then themselves staring you dead in the eyes with a look of pure evil. It was of course a lot of fun and the meagre parade (in comparison to Brazil´s extravaganza) consisting of traditional dress and dance was really embraced by the locals despite the cold weather. The Cholitas in particular seemed to enjoy themselves dancing down the streets getting loose as, with their wide rimmed skirts and strange top hats. We even saw a few of them so drunk they had hitched up their skirts and peddicoats to take a piss in the street in clear view of everyone. Not the best sight, but for a nation that has such adversity and poverty as Boliva it was good to see everyone just get a little toasted, spray some gringos with foam and forget their problems.
Death Road
Initally I was not impressed at all having been persuaded to do Death Road by Dan and Craig (our travel buddy from San Pedro) especially to find that our starting point was 4700m above sea level where a thick fog had moved in and it was snowing. Getting rather nervous I decided to ask our Irish guide if it was safe to be riding in these conditions to which he reponded "yeah this is the World´s Most Safe Road". Stupid question. The first few kilometers were on a gravel road but we were riding through snow, sleet, fog and rain and when I finally got some confidence up I decided to try and ride over a rather large rock which sent me flying across the ashpahlt. Stacking before we had even reached Death Road (along with the guides constant stories about which bend an Israeli plumeted to their death) had completely shot my confidence to s***. So when we got to the 3metre wide rocky roads with heartstopping drops of 1000meters I was close to curling up in a ball in the fetal position and rocking. Pushing through the thoughts of me skidding and falling to my death I slowly made my way down the bumpy road- helmet bobbing around on my head, teeth chattering and hands aching from clenching desperately to the breaks. I was always the last in the group to arrive at any pit stop... by far and while everyone talked about how totally rad flying down the hill was I was collecting my nerves. By the time the rain and fog gave way to a warmer climate I was finally starting to loosen up and enjoy myself. In total we rode 64km from snow to 25degree heat, through waterfalls and surrounded by the most extreme and beautiful mountain scapes I have seen (when I actually pulled my head up from road). It was definitely worth it and even though I said Dan made me do it I would have been very upset with myself if I didn´t.
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