Ok, so last you heard we were planning to head down to La Paz and Uyuni for a Salt Plains tour. Let's continue with that. We got back from the Isla del Sol no bother, and the bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz passed, as bus rides tend to do. Our hostel, the Adventure Brew B&B (includes 1 free beer per night) was just a few minutes' walk from the bus terminal, handy. We checked in ok and very quickly found that the shower in our room worked wonderfully. I think it was fairly lateish at night by then but we were hungry so wandered off in search of food. The Adventure Brew hostel, just down the road was serving food so we cashed in our beer tokens and ordered a burger each. Eventually they turned up, and were actually almost worth the wait- good tucker.

We had decided to bike down the Death Road, which had for ages been the world's most dangerous road. It technically is still open to traffic but everyone these days uses the new road, which only took 20 years to build- good things taking time and all that.

At the hostel they only sold Gravity Bikes which was about 750 Bolivianos and definitely the most expensive. We'd done our research though- sort of- and knew there were other companies just as good out there. Found one at the Witches' Market (overrated- was just a street of souvenir shops which had dried baby llamas as well as bags, scarves, gloves etc.) which was called Vertigo Bikes. They were a hell of a lot cheaper, around two thirds of the price…and just as good a reputation. We signed up for the Monday trip, and then continued our wandering. Nick was dead keen to check out the Sunday entertainment of 'Las Cholitas' which is in essence a few locals dressed up (guys in superhero costume or similar, ladies in traditional dress) who get together once a week and wrestle. At 80 Bolivianos (about NZ$15, or GBP8) we figured why the hang not. So on Sunday afternoon the ones of us from the hostel jumped on the shuttle bus and toddled off for an hour to the venue. I'm not sure what I had been expecting but honestly, it was better than I'd thought though maybe a bit on the long side. The best thing was that the tourists were outnumbered 10 to 1 by locals so it was obviously a popular thing.

You can't really describe the Cholitas Wrestling- it's worse (a lot worse) than the American WWF, the acting and playing up to the audience is more obvious..but somehow it still gets you. There was one gentleman, a local who had few teeth and was older than god, who was in the audience- he'd started up the far end of the benches but by the end of the evening was practically sitting in the laps of us gringo tourists in the front row. One of the continuing themes of the evening fights was that the ref (same one for all bouts) would be on the side of one of the wrestlers, but the audience didn't let hi or them get away with anything, having no hesitation throwing water bottles, popcorn, oranges etc at them if they got too smarmy. Hilarious. Anyway the night ended and we headed back to the hostel to get ready for bed as the Death Road was the next day.

Monday dawned early, overcast and not particularly brilliant but all good as we wouldn't be there anyway. There were 6 or 7 in the Vertigo group total though only me and Nick from the Adv. Brew. After just over an hour or so driving we arrived in La Cumbre- which happens to just be a big carpark, a lake and three crosses. Suiting up in full body gear- pants, jacket, knee and elbow pads, full face helmets and gloves- we all looked a bit odd but other companies looked worse so all was well. After a quick run down on how the bikes worked etc we set off. The first part was the new road so we had traffic to contend with. Part way down one of the steeper bits of road, coming up to a blind corner, the Bolivian drivers continued to live up to their reputations of mentals, as a white van was over taking a car on the corner, and happened to be coming towards me and a great rate of knots. The girl just in front of me braked hard and I came up beside her, still braking gently so as not to skid. The van didn't seem to care that it was on a collision course with two cyclists so I tried to get as close to the outside as I could, without hitting Christina. She saw me close to her so tried to brake and swerve away a bit while I was still freaking out a bit about the van. Next thing was she and her bike were on the ground, I was damn close to it, and the van sped past, still on our side of the road. I stopped to check how she was, and luckily apart from a small graze on her ankle, it was all good. The van didn't even stop, b******s. The group was fairly spread out but we regrouped a bit up the road for photos (on top of a cliff) and with the promise of me buying Christina a beer at the end of the day, we carried on.

Shortly after we arrived at the end (for us) of the new road and the van took us 8km uphill to where the old road started. Frigging scary looking down. I'd always said there would be no way in hell you'd get me on that road in a vehicle and looking down the windy narrow stretches, my certainty was confirmed. I would handle a bike ok no worries but that would be my line. I have to say, GOOD FUN!! Nick and a few of the others were miles faster than me screaming ahead at a thousand miles an hour- I was scared just watching my belovely hooning ahead with no braking in sight- but I went fast enough that I did do a few skids, without any kind of falling off. Yay me!
On the final stretch maybe 3.5 hours into the ride we were told there were three downhill bits each ending in a stream we'd need to bike through. Hahahhahaah on the last stream I was coming downhill and through the water when I saw Nick on the side of the road, standing next to his bike. Numpty had somehow broken his chain. Whoops! I waited for a minute next to him until one of the guides said if I wanted to, I could carry on… so I did. Mwhwhahhahaha. Sadly, the guide lent Nick his bike and he soon caught up to me (though I had reached the others by then.).

At the end of the road we went to a lodge place where there were showers (yay), food, and hammocks. We stayed there a couple of hours before heading back. The driver coming back was obviously pleased to be heading home and scared the s***e out of us by tailgating the vehicles in front, overtaking like a nutter and driving badly enough that I got carsick--though managed to not throw up until we stopped at the hostel (Finally!!! Hallelujah and saved!), jumped out, ran across the road, grabbed the key from reception, bolted upstairs and into the bathroom. Bless Nick, he'd been busting for the loo I think but knew not to stand in my way….

We were both too tired to go out at all though were a little bit hungry- ended up getting pizza delivered to the hostel. Champions.

Anyway, the next chapter will cover the trip from La Paz to Uyuni, and maybe to Sucre etc…. but for now I'm starving, Nick's worse, so we're off to get food. Might splurge on something fabulous though I mean, it might cost us NZ$10 or something…. Expensive tastes…

Till next time!