So after our journey into the Salar, tired of sitting in a car the whole time, but overwhelmed by the incredible scenery, we arrived back in the hustle and bustle of La Paz once more. That night was our last night together with the whole group, so Christina had arranged for us to go to a nice restaurant and to a bar afterwards. The restaurant was a pan-asian restaurant in a really nice area of La Paz, and we had some wonderful thai curries - yet another welcome change in cuisine! The bar we went to afterwards was a typically 'gringo' bar, full of all the travellers and all the rich Bolivians prancing around to comercial pop and some crazy latin tunes. The place was quite small and completely packed, so the heat hit you as you walked in and all you could see were piles of coats, scarves and hats in every corner as it was so cold outside! The funny thing was that the wooden floor in the bar was just bouncing under the weight of all the people, and it really felt as though it was going to give way at any moment! After much shaking and shimmying, we said goodbye to the group and headed back to the hotel as we had to wake up early to ride THE ROAD OF DEATH? Bleary eyed, the next morning we walked through town to the meeting point for the bike ride with Hannah and Pippa from the tour group. Having four of us there gave us a bit more support for doing the crazy thing in the first place, and we ate our breakfast in anticipation of the day ahead. We jumped into the minibus, which drove us for about an hour to the place where we were to get all our gear, get comfy with the bikes, and get a briefing on how best to ride them on the road. A little history?Starting high in the rarefied air of the Bolivian Andes, the steep and bumpy La Paz-to-Coroico road plunges down almost 3,600 metres on its spectacular 64km path to the lush, sub-tropical Yungas and the sleepy town of Coroico. The narrow - occasionally very narrow - track hugs the walls of the sheer valley as it snakes its way beneath waterfalls and rocky overhangs. A fatal accident every fortnight is not uncommon on the Coroico road. In 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank dubbed the La Paz-to-Coroico route "the world's most dangerous road." After the intial warm up, we started off the ride on a less dangerous part of the road, fully paved, with railings on the sides. This beginning part was beautiful as we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains, that led onto lush green valleys below.That part of the road was fine and it was actually really fun to ride down fast and take in the amazing scenery. The guides were really good, one American guy and one Bolivian guy that was the fastest down hill rider in Bolivia?if you had watched him ride and blinked, you would have missed him! He was totally fearless and slightly loony for doing this as his career if you ask us! Anyway, further down, the road became looser and more 'dangerous' and the railings along the edge disappeared to reveal sheer drops all the way down! Until then, everything was going to plan?then?Rakhee's wheel caught the end of a big rock and she skidded slightly which meant she was closer to the edge and her brakes weren't slowing her down enough on the rough, broken ground! The Bolivian guide behind her grabbed onto her vest and tried to slow the bike down so it didn't go over the edge. Instead, it scraped past the scrub on the side of the road and she slowed down enough to get back on the road properly. This scary, near-death experience scared the living daylights out of her, and she basically wimped her way down the rest of the road. It seriously makes you think why the hell anybody would want to do such a crazy thing, especially when you stop on the road every so often for the guides to show you an accident site, a memorial flag where someone has recently fallen off the edge of the cliff, or simply to explain just how many people have died riding on this road!!!Despite this, Marisha grew increasingly confident during the descent and by the end of the day she was flying down the track at lightning speeds, the wind in her hair!!!The only real problem she encountered was when riding through a small river....Approaching it far too quickly, she misjudged which part of the river was the most shallow to ride through and quickly began to slow down due to the depth.A few seconds later the bike came to a complete standstill and with the only other option being to topple over completely, she had to put one, fully trainer clad foot into the river, leaving her right leg soaked up to the knee!It was pretty funny and Hannah and Pippa had a good chuckle as they sailed through without so much as a splash, but she soon dried out as the bottom part of the road was bathed in sun! We made it in good time to the bottom at Coroico and ended up at an animal refuge, where there was a swimming pool, lots of monkeys, birds, dogs, cats and a massive buffet lunch waiting for us. The refuge was in a beautiful setting, surrounded by a mini-jungle and a stream that flowed beside it. It was a nice relaxing end to the crazy day and we all gratefully received our free t-shirts to let the world know that we had survived "The World's Most Dangerous Road"!!! The road home was a three hour, uphill struggle in the minivan, which took the new road back to La Paz.We were all exhausted from the bike ride and so slept most of the way back. We arrived back in La Paz, shattered but victorious, and managed to squeeze in a quick drink with people from the bike ride, before checking into the new hostel and knocking out!The next day we arose lazily and went to the manic markets of La Paz to do some present shopping. You wouldn't believe how cheap things are in Bolivia and it's hard not to go crazy when buying things! For example, one person can eat a meal for around a pound, including a drink! Such silly prices mean that it is harder to bargain, but to be honest it doesn`t make much difference when they knock off a few Bolivianos anyway, because it`s 15 Bs to a pound! After a hard day of shopping, we retreated back to the hostel, where we met up with Christina (our tour guide) and her friend James, for an evening out. We headed to RamJams (gringo trap), where we had a really tasty dinner and wine. After dinner, we were looking forward to going to the oxygen bar upstairs, where you can sit and get high by inhaling pure oxygen through masks! We were sooooo excited, however plans quickly changed...Marisha:I was chatting away to Christina in another of our girly chats, when I suddenly began to feel very strange, in a way that I had never felt before.Everything suddenly felt very heavy, blurry, and slow, and I remember thinking to myself that I had hardly had anything to drink, but felt like I had drunk too much all in the space of five seconds .The last thing I remember is waiting for Christina to finish her sentence and then asking which way the bathroom was... Rakhee:Marisha was about to get up to go to the bathroom, and as she did, she put her bag on the table.Suddenly her head flopped onto the table, knocked over an empty glass, and then she didn`t lift herself back up. A second later, I realised that something was up and that Marisha was completely out of it. I lifted her head off the table and her eyes had completely rolled back into her head and she was gritting her teeth. I started shouting to see if she could hear me, but she wasn't responding. At this moment I started to panic and screamed, as I had NO idea what was happening. Christina and her friend James took a while to react, as they thought Marisha was just 'messing around'. After much fanning of air, yelling to see if she could hear us, and James and I trying to stop her from swallowing her tongue, Marisha started to gain consciousness and slowly her eyes were opening. She was breaking out in a cold sweat and her eyes were slightly glazed over. The whole restaurant must have been watching as all I could see was a circle of people around me. Suddenly, out of the crowds came the bouncer from the door, who started performing the heimlich manouever on her. Without assessing the situation, he must have thought she was choking, so he lifted her off the chair and started squeezing her ribs. We were all confused as to what he was doing, however it woke her up and she was talking and fully aware of things around her... Marisha:The next thing I remember is the feeling of someone crushing my ribs, almost preventing me from breathing.I felt like I had been having a weird dream, as before I completely opened my eyes, I could see a hooded figure, which I now understand was probably just Rakhee, James and Christina so close to my face, trying to wake me up.When my eyes were fully open, I knew where I was, but I couldn't work out what had happened, as I was still on my chair, but really far away from the table, and everyone in the restaurant was staring at me.The others looked so panicked and I felt like some time had elapsed since the last thing I could remember doing, butcouldn't work out what had happened during that time.They kept asking me how I was and I said I felt fine, but I was completely unaware of how much I was sweating... Rakhee: We gave her a sip of water, however a minute later she started blacking out again, and this time it was even scarier as she couldn`t keep her eyes open...Marisha:All of a sudden, everything felt like it was fading, and all my senses seemed dampened.This time I was aware that something was happening to me because it happened more slowly, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open, but everything slowly went black and I lost my vision.I could still hear the others talking to each other and telling me to stay with them, and although I'm sure they were shouting, it seemed barely above a whisper to me.I could feel Christina tapping my face and talking right into my ear, and I kept telling them that I could hear them, but I just couldn't see anything and it was a really frightening experience...Rakhee: I was screaming for someone to call an ambulance or for some medical help, and a lady came over and started rubbing Marisha's top lip, which started to make her gain consciousness again. We wasted no time in carrying her outside, where the fresh air also helped to wake her up. Shaking and scared, we all got into a taxi with the bouncer who took us to a medical clinic a few minutes away. Unfortunately, the first one we went to was closed, but there was one a few doors down with a doctor present. We went straight through to the examining room and Marisha lay down on the bed, whilst Christina relayed all that had happened in perfect Spanish to the doctor. After some tests and a few more questions, the doctor concluded that it was a delayed reaction to the altitude and explained that many people can have reactions up to ten days after being in high places. He put Marisha on some oxygen for a bit and told her to take it easy for the next few days.He also advised her to get a blood test, just to rule out any other potential causes for the blackout.It was the scariest thing Rakhee has ever seen and shook her up quite badly.Back in the cab, we all began to calm down a bit, and obviously opted for an early night.It took a while to get to sleep as we were both afraid that something else might happen whilst we were asleep, and Rakhee was somewhat haunted by the image of Marisha passed out in the restaurant.At the time it was extremely frightening, but now we can laugh a little at the irony of Marisha being the only one who managed to experience inhaling pure oxygen that night!The next day we met Christina and James for brunch, as we had a flight later that day to Santa Cruz, where we were due to volunteer on a children's project for two weeks. Still shaken and tired from having had nightmares and lack-of-sleep, we reflected on the night's episodes with disbelief. It had totally scared all of us and probably affected Rakhee more than it did Marisha, as she saw it all happen! Following the doctors orders, we took the rest of the day easy before our flight to Santa Cruz, however we got a bit riled up when we stopped in an internet cafe to check our emails... Having e-mailed the volunteer project a few days before to remind them that we were coming, since we had first contacted them 9 months ago, we got a response saying that they had changed their policies!Previously, they operated a policy where they never turned volunteers away, and they acknowledged that this had been the case when they had last contacted us, however, they had now decided that they couldn't operate efficiently with more than four volunteers at a time, and they were fully booked for the next month!!!We were furious to say the least!Fancy being told that you can't HELP!!!Volunteering had been our sole reason for going to Santa Cruz, and had we have been informed of this change in policy earlier, we wouldn't have booked the flight and could have made alternative arrangements to go back to Sucre and help out at the boy's orphange we had visited during our tour.At this late stage, there wasn't too much we could do however, and so grudgingly we boarded our flight bound for Santa Cruz later that evening...