May 11 - La Paz, Bolivia
We arrived into La Paz at 6:30 am. Driving into La Paz at that time was a sight by itself. The city rests in a valley, with the walls of the valley clustered with houses and buildings of different shapes and sizes. The sun was just beginning to rise which allowed us to see the first of many views of the surrounding areas of La Paz and all the lights high up on the valley walls.
We arrived at our hostel, Wild Rover, where all the young things go to party, clearly our place to stay. We were tired and didn't have a room for another few hours so instead of sitting around waiting we decided to head out into the city. We walked around the hilly streets, puffing from the altitude of 3600 metres but enjoying stretching our legs after 10 hours in a bus. The city was big, busy and full of old mass polluting cars, bikes and buses, a change from where we had been the past few weeks.
We stopped in at the Church of San Fransisco and paid the $3 each to go in and see this amazing old church. No photo's are allowed inside so you will have to take our word for it that the huge stone ceilings, the courtyards, the architecture and detail in there were amazing. We took the VERY narrow stone stairs up to the roof, with only room for one set of Mia's shoulders or two of Brendan's. Once at the top you can look out over La Paz and the crazy markets below. We then stumbled into a guided tour of the main church areas including the crypts that were underneath, some very cool stuff.
We continued to wander the streets, passing many local street food vendors but not willing to risk the consequences as we were warned by some others. We found ourselves in the middle of a market and local eatery where hoards of people sat on small stools, eating their bowl of soup and plate of rice, fried chicken and veg for all of about $1.50. We wandered the streets watching the many different clothing styles that the Bolivian women wore, layers of different colours and materials all topped off with a strategically placed bowler hat on their heads.
Markets and markets of bright coloured clothing, llama wool jumpers and so many other cool Bolivian things and all for dirt cheap. Again, if we didn't have to carry it for the next 4 months we would have bought quite a bit more.

May 12 (Day 19) - Mountain Biking 'The Worlds Most Dangerous Road'.
Today was the day we rode 'The World's Most Dangerous Road'. We did some researching of mountain biking companies and settled on Madness Adventures (Don't let the name fool you ... Go Slow and Safe just doesn't draw the crowds or the US Dollars).
This now infamous road has come to earn its name from the many fatalities that occurred each year travelling up and down the road towards La Paz. The ride is approximately 65 km long and you drop over 3,500 m in elevation while navigating hairpin turns with roads that slope towards the edge rather than away from it, all with the possibility that there are cars coming up the other way! A new road has recently opened which has reduced the number of vehicles using the road however you still get a surprise when you round a corner and come face to face with a large truck taking up the entire road (read on for more info). There are now far fewer deaths, but still a few cyclists go over the edge every year ... the most recently was an Israeli girl some three weeks ago attempted to pull over to either take a photo, or clear her glasses but misjudged the distance when braking.
We met our group of keen Gringo's at 6:30am, all a little nervous but excited. We got kitted up with pants, jacket, gloves, helmet and a few instructions about the riding we had ahead of us. We were ready, well kinda. We jumped into the mini van and drove for an hour out of La Paz to the top of a hill at 4700 metres. We hopped out and the cold wind hit our faces straight away. We met our guide Hector and our trusty camera man and friend at the back of the pack, Eddie. After a few more instructions and a little test of the brakes we were off.
A little trivia from what we were told ... the record for downhill section is 1 hour and 35 minutes. Hector does it in just over 1 hour 40 minutes. An Aussie holds the record for the 100 km climb in a little over 6 hours ... not a bad effort considering the altitude difference and the climate. We both jointly agreed that neither record was a chance of being broken today.
The first 24kms was downhill on the paved road, the top section of the new road, so that meant there were going to be trucks and cars that we needed to contend with. Reaching speeds of about 50 - 60 km/hr, our eyes and nose were running and our fingers stiffened up from the cold but we were loving it. We passed an overturned truck only a few kms down the road, the driver trying to salvage his load into another truck and that was the first real sign that this was not the safest of roads ... passing on blind hairpin corners was also another.
Right, it was ready for the pavement to disappear and the dirt road to begin. Now for a few more instructions from Hector, some lessons on breaking and how to reduce the impact of falling off your bike (as if 350 m was ever going to be soft) if needed, as well as instructions on staying to the centre and left side so that if a truck comes we can move over to the left side for the truck to pass. Trucks / Vehicles travelling uphill have right of way.
Now this seemed logical until we realised that the left side was over a 600 metre drop at its largest point. Thanks Hector, got it. Stay on the right, screw the trucks and brakes are for pussies.
The scenery was just incredible. We started our ride above the clouds and slowly made our way through them. We were amongst enormous mountains, riding under waterfalls and staring down at thick jungle below. We dropped down to a more manageable altitude within no time. The ride was amazing to say the least. Our hearts were pumping the whole time and it wasn't from peddling. We stopped along the way a few locations, to gather the group up again, ensuring we hadn't lost anyone over the edge, as we had spread out amongst the road, to have a snack break and to take some photo's together. Each time Hector would check our brakes and how we were all going as well as giving us a reality check by informing us of 'Death' corners that were coming up. There was an Italian corner, a French corner, a fair few Israeli corners including one where 8 of them went off in a jeep. No Aussie corners though and there still aren't.
We passed crosses and plaques along the way and it all became a little surreal, although this was a tourist thing to do and alot of fun and adventure, this really was, 'the Worlds Most Dangerous Road' and one that you wanted to make sure you were on your toes for. We fortunately passed only a few cars along the way. Brendan was ahead of me by about 15mtrs and thought that I might have heard his warning calls of "CARRRR" through his full faced helmet. Well, no but luckily I had taken Hectors advice very seriously. The car came around the corner and I veered off to the RIGHT, landing my bike in a ditch between the mountain and the road, a better place than the cliff side I thought. Close but not too bad.
We stopped at some amazing points for photo's. The 600 metre drop below was a little confronting when we were sitting on the edge dangling our feet over but it was very very cool and hopefully the photos give you just some idea of the scale.
Within no time we had stripped off our layers and were riding through the hot jungle environment. The last few kilometres we actually had to peddle which was a nice change from using the brakes as well as being a welcome chance to do some excercise. We road through some creeks, down through some small villages and finally arrived at the bottom. High fives all round. We shared a beer and got back on the bus, ready for our final stop. A small hotel that offered a swimming pool, shower and a buffet lunch. At 1100 metres the air was warm and we were all sweaty and in need of cooling down. We sat around sharing stories of how awesome the day was for us all and ate alot of food, refuelling our adrenaline depleted bodies. Brendan was all keen for the bike ride up but unfortunately found out you could only do that every second day ... next time.
The 3 and a half hour bus ride home was beautiful in its own right. Brendan almost enjoyed the road up, as much as the road down. The 'New' Road up gave Brendan many opportunities to inspect the wall reinforcing / stabilisation (more reactive engineering than proactive in most circumstances) and the pavement. Again, the jungle and mountains were just beautiful and as Bob Marley played in the background over and over again (the driver wouldn't play anything else), we sat on the bus, acknowledging what an amazing day we had and that it was 6 months today until we got married on November 12.

May 13 (Day 20) - La Paz
Today was filled with running around organising the next few weeks. We wandered the streets of La Paz for most of the day. Brendan tried his luck at a local barber and got his beard trimmed, only with a few nick and cuts to go. We discovered a lady selling home made nut bars for 20 cents and we haggled our way through the markets and bought some of our first souvenirs as well as organising our up and coming time in Peru. We met up with some mates from Patagonia and decided to meet up again in Cusco and do some trekking together. After a long day of walking, we headed out to an Indian restaurant with our mates for dinner and splurged as it was our last night in La Paz ... Great meal for two with wine for $25. Back to our room to pack and get ready for our early morning flight to the Amazon.