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Next stop on our nueve personas tour was La Paz, this is a pretty big city in west Bolivia and was to be our last stop in Bolivia before we headed for Peru. We checked into adventure brew hostel with its own micro brewery onsite and knew there was going to be some good nights here! First stop was the 'witches market' which was home to all sorts of weird and wonderful souvenirs....most of which had a lama on them! There were even dead lama babies that the bolivian people hang in their houses to warn of evil....no bloody wonder, they'd warn off everybody, they're horrible! After buying the start of our lama products (there were to be many more purchased!) we headed back to get ready for a well needed night out...unfortunatley it had been a loooong time since any of us had done any washing so as we'd handed it all in that morning there were some randowm outfits on show that night! After a few free beers and glasses of wine we were all over the fact it looked like a wardrobe had thrown up on us and we all jumped in a taxi to the so called 'party hostel'! Comence 'rock paper sissors, deal or no deal, would you rather and any other drinking game you could think of! Unfortunately by half two some of us had the wonderful idea of street food, so while a few of the guys headed out to 'blue house....literally a blue house!' for some dancing on tables, we decided on food....this would come back to haunt shelly!
The next day was a VERY slow one, infact all we managed was to book 'Death Road' for the followning day, this is a road that has now been closed to vehicles as it is a sheer drop down for 600 metres on one side with no barriers....so we all signed up to take on death road on mountain bikes!!! We ended the day with an amazing Thai and headed to bed to be on form for the next day, we'd need our whits about us! Unfortunately this did not exactly pan out for Shelly who spent the night hugging the toilet (a nasty nasty toilet at that!) throwing up! So by 6 am when she still hadnt slept a wink it became clear that Death Road was no longer on the cards for her! :-(
DEATH ROAD DAY! We all woke up bright and early for our trip down the worlds most dangerous road (well everyone apart from Shelly who still had a dodgy stomach). We were greeted by a really cool guy called alistair who had a very strange ginger beard arrangement and he actually owned the hostel we were staying in and the mountain bike company! we took the bus for an hour up to the start of the road where it was asphault so we could get used to the bikes we were relying upon to save us from going completely off the road and down 600m sheer drop! The first hour of the ride was at very high altitude and on very smooth but steep roads where you vould get up to speeds of 80kms plus. The wind and rain was very much apparent at this point of the ride and all of our clothes were completely soaked and we were sooo cold we could hardly press on our brakes (not what you need when riding down this road!) We stopped for some snacks then jumped on our 3000 pound bikes again for the start of the more difficult part of the worlds most dangerous road!Even though the bolivians drive on the right hand side of the road, when going down the worlds most dangerous road with 600m drops of the ,the rule is that you must drive on the left hand side...yes the same side of where these infamous sheer drops are! So after the first half an hour of everybody being a bit hesistant to stick to the side of the death drops we got used to the roads a little more and began to ride with a bit more confidence! there were many obsticles along the way...waterfalls, rivers, landslides and some very scary but beautiful sights we made it to the bottom where we had hot showers, a buffet dinner and an animal sanctuary waiting for us. We watched all our photos and videos of us riding down death road then looked round the animal sanctuary where animals from monkeys to parrots to snakes were rescued and brought to the centre, however some of them still had their old tricks they were taught of biting people and also pick pocketing tourists! Our journey back to the hostel from the animal sanctuary was put at an instant stop with a massive truck taking up the whole road as it had got itself stuck in the mud, so after an hours wait for a jcb digger to come and literally rip its axel off and then another digger to come and push it from behind we were on our way...only for literally 100metres. Up the road was a blockade due to all the taxi and bus drivers going on strike because they wanted to be able to drink alcohol whilst driving and also to drive at night with no lights! A couple of perfectly good reasons to stirke dont ya think?! so we waited there for another 2 hours and then we were able to go on our way back to the hostel!
For our final day in La Paz we were on a mission to not miss anything out before we left, we started our personal walking tour down the main street where chaos persued....markets stalls everywhere, literally even on roundabouts! And more people than we even knew were in Bolivia! We spotttd Zebras helping people cross the roads...strange but true and the most bizzare things on sale! Next stop on our fly by tour was San Pedro prison, we were all so intruiged by this place, loads of us had read 'marching powder' a book written by an English guy who ended up serving a loooong sentence inside the prison and he began 'tours' around the prison for tourists. This does sound crazy...and it is, you can bribe the guards (only if they want to depending on whats going on inside the prison) and they will allow you access to the prison where you will be shown around by prisoners and protected by gangs....the prison is soooo scary, it is run by prisoners, deaths daily, but families live inside and kids go to school from the prsion! Loads of travellers had reported going in and coming out....one even dated a prisoner! So we decided if we were this close we had to give it a go, so after walking past the main entrance and seeing in to a courtyard where prisoners were all sat around on the floor we couldnt believe our eyes. A prison van pullled up infront of us, two guards get out with shot guns and then out jump 2 prisoners with cuffs on and they walk straight into the prison infront of us, we then turn to see a prisoner walking down the street right past us, cuffs on but only one unarmed guard strolling next to him not even touching him! After approaching a guard with 100 Bolivanos in hand we get waved away and told we cannot gain access....think we were quietly very relieved as the reality of how crazy a country where coca cola is more expensive than cocaine sets in!....Oh and the prison is also the biggest manufacturer of the purest cocaine in the world.....seriously mental!
We were all in a bit of a daze after the prison but headed to the market to buy lots of presents for family and friends back home.....ohh it escalated out of all control, chess boards, lamas, charlie managed to buy 4 pairs of lama socks! And before we knew it we were having to buy extra bags to carry all our new stuff in! We finally managed to drag ourselves away from the market and headed back to try and cram it all into our bags ready for our bus over the boarder to Peru the next day!
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