La Paz – Take 2

Day 134 – Return to the big smoke (well, we felt like smokers again!)

Our flight was delayed 3 hours, but still able to take off despite the last 24 hours weather.  Very laid back after such a relaxing time in this town, we watched as almost every Israeli on the flight pushed in front of us at the check in desk, and then watched as the Israeli group’s appointed spokeswoman extensively and very rudely berated a timid young airport staff member over the one dollar’s worth of airport tax she was asked to pay getting on the plane.  We have met a number of lovely Israelis in our travels (many of whom are hitting South America after their military service) but our experiences in Rurre were mixed.  Many of the tourists in Rurre were Israeli, which is not surprising given their love of adventure activities.  In fact there are tour agencies and restaurants all over town specifically catering to Israeli groups, with guides who speak Hebrew instead of English as their second language.  The guidebook was not wrong with its comment that Israelis appear to run the town – we have never seen such a concentration of one nationality of tourist in all of our travels!

     
Our flight back, on our slightly larger plane this time, was thankfully uneventful and we were back puffing up to Brew Too at 3,800 metres of altitude before we knew it. 

The afternoon was spent having a look at the markets (including all kinds of potions and dried llama fetus at the Witches Market) and sourcing an agency with which to take the death defying mountain bike plunge down “The World’s Most Dangerous Road” or affectionately known as “Death Road” in the morning.

Successful on both fronts, we met up with Gerard, Jack and Tif from the Pampas and went out for some Chinese.  All still tired and feeling the effects of being back at altitude, it was early to bed for all and ready to be up again at 6am (at full alert!) ready for the Death Road.

Day 135 -  El Camino de la Muerte

The Death Road is 69km long and descends 3,450m from the cool antiplano above La Paz to Coroico down in the humid rainforest, with only one small uphill section the whole way.  Much of the road is a 3m wide dirt track carved into the side of a valley with drops of up to 600m off one side.  Despite this, we decided we would do, as most tourists in Bolivia do, and cruise down this road on mountain bikes.

Before we even start, a sign warns of the 43 deaths this year on this stretch of road.

The bus ride up to the take off point was quick and soon we were kitted out in very attractive green and orange tracksuits, helmets, goggles, knee and elbow pads and were off down the first, thankfully bitumen, section of our journey to “test our bikes” and for some of us – remember how to ride again!

“Test” was correct given my chain was off in the first 5 minutes, quickly leaving me a few minutes behind the rest of the group.  The guide’s solution to this problem was simply: “Don’t change the gear” which probably should have worried me, but not hard to do when the journey is more than 90% downhill as fast as possible.

With the 20km or so of bitumen section quickly done, it was back onto the bus for a stretch of 5km or so deemed too dangerous to ride.  This section had been taken off the program as it was up hill and caused the majority of accidents, with cars tearing around corners and down the hill in the opposite direction. 

Next, it was back off the bus for the main event: gravelly if not rocky, narrow, wet and steep – The World’s Most Dangerous Road!

 
At various intervals our guide would stop and give us instructions… more like warnings of various obstacles like larger than normal ditches and waterfalls on the road!

A familiar sight.

Happy to be almost done and with no damage.  Hanneke was not as lucky though, skidding around a corner and smashing her camera in the process.  At one point I also witnessed a girl from another agency slip off the edge, only to be caught by bushes – worrying given most sections were a sheer drop!

After lunch and a swim, we were back on the bus for the long journey back to La Paz.  Since this activity first became available, a new road from Coroico back to La Paz had been paved, meaning we and all the other agencies did not have to drive back up the Death Road to get back to La Paz.  We had been told the night before that we would actually be driving back up Death Road due to a rock fall on the new road, but this fear turned out to be quickly disarmed when we learnt that the rock fall had been cleared in time for our journey back.

That night we were back at the British Curry house with a few of our new friends and then everyone else went back to the Brew Too bar to join their 4th anniversary party and also make sure Hanneke’s 28th birthday began to be celebrated at the stoke of midnight.  I, on the other hand, was feeling the effects of some bad salad (first time in 4 months! Amazing!) and so went back to the hostel to enjoy some delightful discussion with our coke snorting roommates and get some rest.