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hi all,
So La Paz, i`m not joking this place is the mad but getting to La Paz was a mission in itself, so let me tell you about that first of all.
I was at the very north of Peru and to get to La Paz it took me just over 50 hours of non stop travelling and I really mean this. To get to La Paz it took me 4 big buses, 2 chicken buses, 2 taxis, a boat and a push bike. On my route I had one break down just out a place called ica where lately local rebels have been high jacking buses so to say I was little bit scared when the bus broke down here was understatement but this was a real break down so I had nothing to worry about and took about 30 mins to fix, I then took another local bus from Arequipa to puno. I was the only non local the bus but I was luck enough to sit next to this really nice local man who fed me sugar puffs as I had ran out of food by this point, about 2 hours a fight broke out, one man throw something at the other and then fist just started flying lol then just after this one of the wheel blow, my heart missed a few beats as the boy from up north thought someone fired something at the bus but no it is was just the wheel. so we all got out of the bus, it wasn´t to bad as a lovely sunny day so I decided to have a wee lie down to work on my tan, but where did I pick to lay my head but on a grave I didn`t notice the bones sticking out of the ground and to say this upset a few folks maybe an understatement... whoops... but it wasn´t all bad as this little boy came over to me and shared his packup and just started to name random football players
on to La Paz.
Well I got into La Paz and man I really notice the different between here and everywhere in Peru, La Paz is crazy it just has this vibe about the place and you feel as if you shouldn't like but you can't help your but liking it.
So highlights of La Paz
I did the worlds most dangerous road on mountain bike, 12 people have been killed on bikes in the past 10 years and since feb this year alone over 50 people have been killed on it so of course i'm going to go down it on a bike over taking cars and bus but i'm not joking this was so much fun i´m loving down hill mountain biking right now. on the way back to La Paz I've had to take the new road due to a landside which was a shame I really wanted to get some pics of the views of burnt out cars etc. On the way back we watched a local bus go of the road, the driver was going way to fast and it was really wet and misty and he couldn't seen that far a head but bus drivers over here and crazy no other word of a lie they drive them like sports cars sometime, well all the time. The people on the crashed bus where more or less ok they where really lucky as 20 meter up the road and there was a hell of a drop, the thing that got to me was that it took over an hour and half for any medical services to get there, this got to me because if we had come of the bike the same would have happen.
San Pedro prison
I don't know if anyone out there has read the book marching power well its based on this prison. The prison was closed to tourist for 4 years I think and it's only just really kind of opened its doors again in Feb. The Prison is made of 8 different sections and you have to pay to go to prison here as the government has no cash so it works like this, the more money you have the better life you have in jail. I went to the rich part where you can buy your cell for up to 23000 dollos. I went with 6 girls and we were meet by 2 blokes at the gates, one of the blokes you felt totally ok with as he had a bit of brains about him but the other was a nutter. so the alright one took us to this room, this room belonged to one of the biggest drug lords in the world and was a business partner of Pablo Escobar, he showed us his leg where he got shot by a M16 when they caught him with 700kg of coke, now his cell was 3 floors high and he had cable TV, sauna and was really proud of his old spice haha it was the so surreal because there aloud to keep there family's etc in prison with them and there loads of shops and coca-cola branding everywhere you looks, this was the strangest thing I've ever done and I will not be doing again once in a life time is enough for me!!
wresting
Well this was loads of fun, think back to days when you used to watch big daddy on a Saturday afternoon, not joking old men dressed in lycra and what looked like gimp masks. There where even women in traditional Bolivian dress who strangled each other (and men, if they were pitched against a guy) with pigtails. They had dwarfs wresting as well, awesome.
I left La Paz about a week ago and man I was ready to leave, Richard I have no idea how you lived there for 2 years as that place has it in it to kill you lol
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