Cocacabana, La Paz and Death Road..!

After crossing the Peruvian/Bolivian border we arrived into Cocacabana. Unimpressed with the place we stayed there for one night and then head on to the capital, La Paz.

La Paz is 3600m above sea level and with it being set in a valley, we found ourselves constantly walking up and down steep streets, feeling incredibly breathless!

Our first night in La Paz was pretty uneventful and despite the fact that we enjoy each other´s company, we felt we needed some more people to add some more fun to our nights. The next day we moved to a much more upbeat hostel called Adventure Brew Hostel, which had this brilliant deal of as many pancakes as you can eat in the morning and a free beer in the evening! We took full advantage of both. That day was our day of chores and we spent most of it organising the famous bike ride, known as ´The Most Dangerous Road in the World!' for the following day and a three day jungle tour in Rurrenabaque for the day after. Pleased with accomplishing both and Sam managing to buy a Rolex for three pounds, we decided that we would have a chilled out evening, ready for the bike ride the next day. However, when E-J entered the bar for her free beer she was suddenly overcome with excitement to find Angie one of the Australian´s from the Inca trail, having a beer there too. Within minutes Sam, E-J, Angie and her boyfriend Dave were in full flow of conversation and excitement to see each other again and decided to make a night of it!

After a great meal, we headed to a place where we could hear booming music coming out from the windows and thinking this would be a happening place to go, entered the doors. When we reached the top of the stairs we were confronted with a mass of Bolivians celebrating their Saturday night. The place seemed to almost stop and stare at us four gringos and feeling the pressure we meekly bought a couple of beers and stood in the corner of the large room, terrifyed to cause any animosity. Five minutes later a group of partying Bolivians, beckoned us over to join them and before we knew it we were all in the full swing of Bolivian love, being bought an abundence of rounds of rum and coke and all toasting `La Paz, number 1´and `Salut Bolivia!´ Both Angie and E-J also found themselves being constantly asked to dance by one Bolivian after another until they were both totally warn out. Finallly, at 3am we managed to drag ourselves away from the place after many hugs and kisses goodbye and mutual love and appreciation. Angie and E-J had managed to be reasonably sensible with their consumption of alcohol, but both Sam and Dave were staggering back after too many drinks with the locals including one particular chap by the name of Fidel Castro Rodriguez!

The next day, E-J with difficulty manage to awake Sam at 6am and we both staggered to the bike shop to start the tour of ´The Most Dangerous Road in the World'. E-J was only really tired from the night before, but Sam was definitely struggling with blood shot eyes and the constant need to rehydrate himself with water. The first part of the tour consisted of us driving for two hours to begin the bike ride. This was a good time for Sam to sober up as best he could!

The group who were doing the tour consisted of three incredibly agile Norwegians (who we had actually met previously during the Inca Trail) and a Scottish son and father who were fanatic mountain bikers. It was at this point, that E-J started to question her abilities, what with being the only girl in the group and with a load of sporty, competitive men.

The first part of the bike ride was pretty straight forward cycling, or should be say free wheeling down a tarmac road as fast as you could go. There was the occassional truck or car that passed us, but nothing to make us worry and we had the knowledge that there was a guide at the front and at the back and a minibus constantly following the group.

It was when we got to the check point that things seemed to change. Sam, who had (for the first time) been in charge of the wallet containing the only credit card we could use, had somehow managed to misplace it. After several angry words from E-J and the guides kindly suggesting to drive back up to the top of the road and search the whole track, Sam then discovered that it had not fallen out of his pocket, but was on the floor in the minibus. The next hurdle was when E-J realised that the actual Death Road was on gravel and not tarmac. Having never ridden over gravel before, this came as a little shock to her as she found her wheels flying in all directions. One of the guides then advised her that she should go slowly if she had little experience of this terrain as the road was incredibly dangerous (funnily enough) and falling off the edge of this steep cliff could be fatal. This was when it dawned on E-J that she had not actually ridden a bike since she was fifteen years old, and before that not much more, so that her abilities as a cyclist were probably similar to that of a six year old and as she started to descend down the steep, rock filled, precarious road, she started to plead to the above 'Please don´t let me die, please don´t let me die..!'.

Sam on the other hand, realising that his abilities were way above E-J´s, had left her with the back guide and was flying down the cliff right behind the front guide. A couple of times, he found that his back wheel would swirl out of control as he hit a rock or two and he would then question the strength of his insurance but other than that he was having a whale of a time!

E-J, not only was hating every minute of this 4 hour, 65km ride, but was in absolute agony, as she seemed to bump over every single rock along the way. Several times the guide at the back, seeing her pain, would suggest that she get into the minibus, but being as stubborn as ever she was determined to complete the ride, no matter how much pain she went through. What hadn´t helped E-J´s confidence was that within the first ten minutes of the actual gravel part of the Death Road, three girls had fallen off their bikes, hurting themselves badly, including one poor girl who had broken her femur!

The boys were incredibly patient with E-J, stopping for forty minutes or so to let her catch up with them, before they all shot off again. Finally we reached the end of the ride and all the boys were pumping with adrenaline while E-J was just relieved to be alive! We had a lunch in the beautiful town on Coroico before heading back to La Paz. By the time we reached La Paz, E-J had developed the movements similar to that of a decrepid eighty year old and would let out a little yelp each time she had to sit down. Sam was just exhausted after a late and alcoholic night before and an exhilarating day.

When we finally reached the hostel, we had a take away Pizza and an early night in preparation for our early start to the Jungle then next day.

Sam´s comments: Amazing, great time in the bar, Bike ride was fantastic, defintely do it again! However, was concerned with E-J constantly swearing at me when she reached the bottom!!

E-J´s comments: I absolutely hated Death Road and had I known there had been a death in March from someone falling off the edge, I would not have stupidly done it! Also for the next two days I felt like I had the bike seat permanently stuck to my bottom! I really hope that our next tour is more enjoyable, but I am pleased to say I completed it, though I won´t be riding a bike again for a VERY long time!