La Paz and The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

La Paz has served us well the past week and a half as a homebase for all of our mountain biking and jungle excursions. To get to La Paz, we passed through El Alto, a high, dirty suburb of the main city. But then you get to the rim of the bowl the city is in and look down into the brick red, concave city. It is quite a sight! This city will get your heart racing with its busy streets and high elevation (3,800 meters) but we really enjoyed the hostel we stayed at. It is called the Adventure Brew Hostel, and for a mere $7 a night, you get an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast every morning and a free handle of one of their microbrews every night. Those perks aside, the hostel staff is friendly, the beds and bathrooms are clean, we have a communal kitchen available to us and a local market 10 minutes down the road.

Our big experience out of La Paz was mountain biking the World´s Most Dangerous Road, otherwise known as Death Road, because quite a few lethal bus and car accidents have happened there, and crazy mountain biking tourists have died as well. We booked our day trip the first evening we were in La Paz and the next morning we were putting along in second gear with a bunch of other backpackers up to La Cumbre pass at 4,670m. Due to large amounts of precipitation the night before, we started our descent in snow. The first part of the circuit was down paved roads. There were occasional cars going both diretions on this road, so we had to be careful, especially when there was a slow car coming up the road and other cars were trying to overtake them in our lane. We still got quite a bit of speed on that section of the road and it was a good warm up for the old dirt road we would be spending most of the day on. The scenery was also stunning, with snowy peaks and whispy clouds through the valley. Every once in a while, the guides would stop us, have us peer over a cliff and see the car or bus remains below. Usually at these accident spots, you could turn around and see crosses next to the road for the deceased.

After a quick snack break at the end of the paved road, we loaded up our bikes on the vans and drove 15 minutes to the start of the really dangerous, unpaved road. By now, it was much warmer since we were dropping significantly in elevation. We got amazing views of the green valley we were biking down. We flew down that mountain (Jon was usually at the front of the pack, I was front middle, not that we are competative or anything) underneath water falls, through puddles, around tight cliff bends. Usually you wouldn´t know how precarious the trail you just rode down was, until you stopped, turned around and saw the sheer drop off, some of them up to 600 meters. Jon and I were the only two people to get flat tires, but the guide in the back would quickly rectify it by switching us bikes, fixing the tire, and then switching bikes back at the next stop point. While we probably reached faster speeds on the paved part of the road, this rocky road was way more technical and fun, and the elevation change still prompted a rapid pace.

We ended our ride in the tiny town of Yolosa at 1200 meters...so thats 3470 meters of elevation change, or about 11,385 feet from start to finish. From snow covered mountain pass to humid jungle, we were now craving some freezing cold cervesa (which we bought), clean showers and the buffet lunch/dinner that we were promised. We didn´t return to La Paz until nightfall, but it was an awesome, exciting day, probably one of our favorite day trips of all South America!

Carnival was a major event happening in South America (and all around the world) while we were in La Paz. The streets were crazy with kids in costumes, everyone armed with foam cans or giant supersoaker guns, prompting rain slickers and plastic eye covers for most people wandering the streets. We spent a fair amount of time dodging friendly sprays from kids and got nailed a few times in the face and ears, but it was usually good fun with most of the Bolivians. There were however, some malicious Bolivians that would try and spray our faces or cameras and usually yell out something like ¨F***ing gringos.¨ Another bummer was that our friend Luke was carrying his iPhone at one point, and we got mobbed by a professional, middle aged, pickpocketing crew, resulting in his iPhone going missing in seconds and all of us wiping the foam out of our eyes and wondering what had happened.

Besides Death Road and Carnival festivities, La Paz has some amazing artisan markets with some of the cheapest prices you will see in South America. I now have my own partially alpaca wool sweater that I bought for about $13. We will spend more time getting gifts for family members here when we come back through. Another attraction is the San Pedro Prison, which lies in the middle of the city and is one square block of 3-story high, solid cement walls. Jon and I were particularly interested in this since we had read the book Marching Powder about a guy from London who got caught smuggling cocaine in Bolivia and spent almost 5 years there. Besides these attractions, La Paz has to offer good, diverse cuisine and some breath-taking miradors to hike to. Definitely a city worth a few days of exploration and shopping. And we will for sure be returning to have more of the Saya Ambar brew when we are coming back north in a few weeks.