We would love to write that things turned around for us and we loved every second of La Paz, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. We arrived after our disastrous bus ride from Copacabana and checked into our hostel near Plaza San Francisco. Our room was great, we paid BOB180 per night for a private room with bathroom and breakfast. Things were looking up. We both had great showers and headed out for a steak dinner. The next day we caught up on the blog and did our washing. That night we took a taxi to a Vietnamese restaurant that ranked high on TripAdvisor. We had spring rolls, curry and a bottle of wine. It was delicious! We were finally enjoying Bolivia!
Then in the middle of the night it started! I vomited and had to go to the toilet for the next two days. We’re sure it wasn’t the food from the Vietnamese place because it really was a nice restaurant and Chris didn’t feel sick at all, so we can only think that I swallowed some of the shower water, which did smell a bit like sewerage! Chris was great and stayed in bed with me. He ordered take out for himself from the restaurant downstairs and just brought me tea and Powerade when I was up to ingesting something!
We had booked our mountain bike ride down the World’s Most Dangerous Road for Sunday but had to cancel last minute, as I was still ill. It ended up being a huge hassle to rebook the tour as the tour agency owner also fell sick and didn’t come into work for the next 4 days and wasn’t answering his phone either. We had paid him the BOB320pp for the tour so we weren’t willing to let the money go! Eventually, under threat of calling the tourist police, the hostel got hold of him and he booked us for next day. As I was feeling better we headed out for the day to do some sightseeing. We took the Teleferico (cable car) up to El Alto and had a great view of La Paz, which sits in a bowl-like valley with houses sprawling down the hills. We then headed to the Witches Market where they sell anything from llama corpses to souvenirs! We bought tons of souvenirs and some warm clothes for our Salt Flats Tour. That day we also past a hairdresser and I decided to chop off half my hair. It only cost BOB60, bargain!
The next day we were picked up by the No Fear Adventures minibus and were driven about an hour out of La Paz. We were given our bikes, elbow and knee guards, cycling jackets and pants, gloves and a full-face helmet. For the first hour we cycled down an asphalt road to get the hang of our bikes. The bikes were in really good condition and had disk brakes and front suspension. Down this first part we got up to 60km per hour – it was thrilling! Then we got back in the minibus and drove the 20-minute uphill part to the start of the World’s Most Dangerous Road. This road is a 62km long dirt road that skirts a mountain, with sheer cliff drops of 1000m+. It was given its title due to the number of vehicles that disappeared over the edge. A new road was built in 2005 leaving this road open for mountain bikers and the few crazy people who still drive it! From the top of the Death Road to the lunch stop it takes about 2 to 2.5hrs depending on his fast you dare to go. Chris is a mountain biker back home and was bombing it down the mountain and was at the front of the group the whole time. I, on the other hand, didn’t let go of my brakes and had a blister on my one hand by the end of the ride! The road is so narrow and the drop is so high that I thought safety first was the way to go! Two people in our group fell as they were going too fast, luckily missing the edge both times! At least 18 cyclists have died since 1998 riding this road. It’s not for the faint hearted! After the cycle we had a buffet lunch and a quick swim in the hotel pool before we headed back to La Paz. The ride back is luckily on the new road, which is completely safe. Three hours later we were dropped off with our “I survived the Death Road” t-shirts and a CD of photos they took throughout the ride. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour!
The next day we were meant to head to Potosi and Sucre but found out that Potosi was inaccessible due to striking miners – a little South African flavour in Bolivia! So we skipped Potosi and Sucre and booked a bus straight to Uyuni. It was probably best to get out of Bolivia as soon as possible! We booked a night bus to Uyuni (BOB137pp) so we checked out and spent the day doing some more shopping. We had lunch at Sol y Luna, a Dutch-owned restaurant and bar. We had the most delicious bitterballen! In the afternoon we headed out to Valle de la Luna on a local bus from Plaza San Francisco. The bus took about 45mins. The valley really does look like what you would think the moon looks like. It is actually just the product of erosion, but is still very cool. We walked around for about 45mins before we headed back to the hostel to get our bags. We caught a taxi to the bus station and caught our 7pm bus to Uyuni.
The first part of the bus ride was great, we had great seats, we were nice and warm and the road was smooth. We were then woken up at 1am and were told to change busses as the next part of the road was really bumpy and only certain busses can take the strain. This next part of the bus ride was the worst ride we have ever had! As if Bolivia couldn’t get any worse! The road was so bumpy and the bus was so cold as the windows didn’t close properly and there was no heating. We both only slept for about one hour of that next leg. We arrived in Uyuni at 7am and it was beyond cold! We quickly layered up and tried to find a warm spot to have something to eat. We found the only place that was open at that time, Noni’s Café, and had some breakfast while warming up a bit. We booked our Salt Flats Tour in La Paz and were told to meet at the travel agency in Uyuni at 10am, so we just passed the time with hot chocolate before we went to the tour agency’s office. More on the tour in the next blog post (click here).
Chris and Ro go... 
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