After arrving in La Paz from the horrific bus ride we decided to have a quiet day to recover! We went back to the Adventure Brew Hostel, notable for having the highest microbrewery in the world and offering a free beer every night, including an Enlish Ale - well it is quite similar in taste, however, pretty fizzy and cold!La Paz to look at is a beautiful city (especially from a distance or at night) as it is situated in a big natural basin, it almost feels like you are in the middle of a gigantic stadium beacuse of the slopes in all directions.

The following day we decided to go and see the city sights as well as booking a trip mountain biking down 'The World's Most Dangerous Road.` As I hadn't shaved for about a month I decided that it would be good if I had a haircut and cut-throat shave at a barbers, something i have always wanted to do. I came out looking at least 5 years younger with cheeks softer than a babys bottom! At the end of the shave my masochistic barber took great delight in covering my face with pure alcohol, this burnt like hell! He did a good job of both the haircut and shave, I do miss having a beard though now it is gone and I have got white patches where it used to be! To ensure we didn't drink the night before our bike ride we went to see Harry Potter in the cinema - we really enjoyed it, even in the old school cinema with the 7 minute break halfway through!

Yesterday we went down the World's Most Dangerous Road, which we thoroughly enjoyed, a highlight of our trip. We started the day at about 4700m above sea level, 64km and a few hours later we had dropped to just 1100m! The first 25km or so were on a new asphalt road, you could not pedal fast enough to keep up with the speed you got from the slope.Coasting down and cornering at high speed on this road was great fun, we even managed to overtake a lorry and a bus!!

Then we made it to the start of the World's Most Dangerous Road, which would take us all the way down to the bottom. Since March this year a new asphalt road has opened significantly reducing the amount of traffic on this steep, single track dirt road, with drops of up to 600m vertically down only centimeters away from the trackDespite this we still had to watch out for oncoming traffic, who have have the right of weigh(!!!) whilst cycling down the left tyre track (the one closest to the edge) as when the larger vehicles come down this road they need to have the driver closest to the edge for a better view to ensure they do not stray off the track.A couple of centimeters wrong could literally mean the difference between life and death!We did see the remains of quite a few vehicles that had gone off, this was also shown by the amount of crosses on the side of the road - generally indicating a whole bus of people that had died.

We did start off quite nervy and slowly on the dirt track, especially Sarah who had not particulalrly enjoyed the fast road but the further we went down the more confidence grew and the faster we went. Sarah started at the back on the first few sections but by the end of the day she was speeding down somewhere in the middle of the group!!

At numerous stops we were told gruesome stories about what had happend to riders, generally from other companies, who hadn't listened or were going too fast, it did highlight how dangerous the road could be if you lost concentration or tried to go beyond your means. Thankfully our group all made it down to the end safely, apart from an Irish girl who went over her handlebars only 50m from the very end!!

We finished at an animal sanctuary where we got the free beer that by then we were absoluting gasping for!! We were also treated to an all you can eat free meal which was fantastic, although some cheeky monkeys stole the garlic bread from our table!! The whole day was definatley one of the highlights of our trip so far, first bit of excercise too!!

Today we are going to have an English day, with a group of English guys from our hostel.As the new football season has started we have found a traditional English pub in the middle of La Paz showing some of todays games, I am well happy about this!! I just hope they show the Wolves game. After this we are going to take a trip around the coca museum which is meant to be fascinating.Before a big night out tonight!

Tomorrow we head off to Lake Titticaca for our last few days in Bolivia, as we have get up to Cusco by next week for our Macchu Picchu trek and Sarah's birthday!!

Be in touch soon, miss you all loads

Love Andrew and Sarahxxxx