La Paz and The World's Most Dangerous Road

At 3650m La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and we certainly feel the affects of the thin air as we walk up the steep hills to take this photo (Click photo to enlarge)

From Cochabamba we continue north to La Paz. The bus ride is delayed a few hours as we follow Tour de Bolivia over the mountains, but the journey provides some incredible views of the countryside and the people living in it (unfortunately the photos through a dirty bus window didn't turn out so well). 

Plaza Murillo, La Paz

Arriving in La Paz at night, we see the huge city of lights clinging to the hillsides and sprawling down the valley. Our long journey behind us we settle in for a HUGE delicious pizza down the street and straight to bed - doing nothing all day on a bus is hard work!

Witches market, La Paz

The next day La Paz turns on the weather for us and we set out to explore in the sunshine. The city is quite beautiful in parts and fun to explore with numerous markets selling everything from llama fetuses to alpaca jumpers (yes I bought one. Someone has already kindly pointed out it will be great for the next dress up party. I can go as David Bain). 

The smaller and taller your bowler hat, the better.

Steep streets of La Paz

The 'must do' tourist attraction in La Paz is the bike ride down 'The World's most Dangerous Road'. Arriving in La Paz I was fairly certain there was no way I was going to do it, and was trying to convince George it wasn't a great idea either. Mike presents a fairly compelling argument here. But somehow or another (and after a thorough read of our insurance terms and conditions) I get sucked in and find myself up early on our second day in La Paz to head up to the start of the road.

The view from the top. We take the road on the left.

As it turns out, George and I are the only people riding with our company on the day and I feel more comfortable straight away - I won't be dragging the chain too much if I am clenching the brakes the whole way down! It is a perfect morning and the snowy mountains in view are amazing. Kitted out in full mountain-bike attire, we head off on our way down the 64km decent from 4700m down to 1100m.

Extreme biker George

And less extreme Nic

My fears disappear as we wind our way down the first section of the road. It's a windy but not too steep sealed road with a huge valley below. We have ridden the 31km on sealed road in no time and it is time to tackle the 'real' death road.

A stop for a snack at the end of the sealed road.

With images of Mike lying in a hospital bed on our minds we take it pretty easy, but relax into things and enjoy the ride down into the jungle through waterfalls crossing the road. Parts of the road are incredibly narrow for the few vehicles that we see along the way and it is easy to see how the road earned its name, with huge vertical drops (white crosses mark the really steep bits) nearly the whole way down.

The famous balcony. We are on the edge if you look closely.

It's with relief that we round the last corner and arrive at the bottom, safe and sound with a shower, pool and lunch awaiting for us. The climate has changed dramatically in 3 hours from a near freezing morning at the start to a very humid and hot jungle at the end.  We have survived death road, which is lucky because we have a plane to catch the next day to the Bolivian Amazon!

This little guy gave me a congratulatory hug at the end of the road