Friday 4 October - Saturday 5 October

La Paz and the World's Most Dangerous Road, Bolivia

The journey from Copacabana involves a fairly sketchy looking ferry system which transports vehicles of all sizes including buses and trucks across a section of Lake Titicaca by means of old wooden barges. Safe to say though that passengers must get off the bus and have to take another passenger boat to meet up with the bus on the other side. Any problems? Nah! Been doin' this for years gringo.

The road into La Paz takes you through the upper suburbs on the plateau called El Alto. Its desperately poor, enormous and very busy. And, not for the first time on our travels, the humbling realisation and appreciation for everything that we have and take for granted, grips us as we make our way down into the valley.

We arrive at our hostel, probably only 400 metres from the bus station, after a tense moment involving directions between Dons and I which, if you've ever watched The Amazing Race, you'd understand completely. Only for us, we don't have a deadline to meet.We often have these little moments and think of that show and how utterly useless we'd be, then laugh the situation away. I must admit though, she does have a better sense of direction than me.The Adventure Brew B&B was our choice of hostel because, well, they offer a free beer every night. First though we had to arrange a flight to the Amazon from the tour operator next door just before they closed at 6pm. With that done and our Death Road mountain biking day confirmed for the morning, we headed up to the sky bar at the top of the hostel for some dinner and of course beer. In the tour operators office whilst booking our flight, we couldn't help but notice the advice/warnings about having an easy night before doing the Death Road biking tours. We took that onboard and responsibly agreed to dinner and 2 drinks each. This was THE death road we were talking about here, no nonsense. As it turns out though, Friday night is Poker night, and our cement arms can not and will not be bent......unless of course there's free shots and a chance to take home some cash. I made it to the final 2, I had him on the ropes chips wise, but I was on the ropes myself, shots wise. Dons and I agreed ALL-IN at about 1am.....and the rest is history. I wasn't sure if I'd won or not when we crawled out of bed 5 hours later at 6am for a cold shower and a day mountain biking the famous Death Road.

We picked up some Irish fellas on the way out of the city who were joining us on the ride who also didn't heed the advise to take it easy. This made me feel a bit better about myself, though not much. The ride starts off about an hour out of La Paz into the mountains and it was freezing, misty and even snowing and raining a little. Our guides decided to start a little further on down the road where it was a bit clearer and less dangerous. This was going to be a tough day. We suited up with the gear provided by Altitude Biking and started off down the tarred road with not too much hassle. Then the rain came down harder and harder until we couldn't see too much and discovered that the suits we were wearing were the opposite of waterproof. We managed to make it to the breakfast stop without incident but this was fast becoming a bad idea. We had done no real mountain biking, we were soaking wet, freezing, hungover and too far to gone to turn back. Luckily after that cup of coffee and an avena (warms oats in a plastic bag drunk through a straw) the ride did get more pleasant and exciting. The mist however did not lift until we were right down in the valley so the views were less fearful as we responsibly made our way bouncing and winding along the narrow gravel road once used as a main transport route for buses, 18 wheeler trucks and cars. A new tarred road nearby means that this road is mostly used by tour companies for the Death Road experience, but its not blocked to traffic, and we passed maybe 8 cars in total on our way down. Luckily they hoot before rounding the corners but its still a bit sketchy when you're on a bike going downhill and have to take the cliff side to let the car take the mountain side when passing.

Dons had a little slip up on a stretch of road which was flat, straight and empty. We call it a ghost hole. Over she went with a short slide to get her overalls dirty and a bruised hip and toe for her troubles. Luckily she did decide to chuck her bike, otherwise she was headed straight for the cliff's edge. Danger averted and giggling fit over and she was back in the saddle again. I care less to talk about my little mishap where I was careening down the last 1km stretch to the finish. No one saw so it didn't happen. Death Road survived!!!

Back in La Paz having run out of time to do a city tour, and tired of seeing church after church we instead went and saw the infamous San Pedro Prison in San Pedro square which is right slap bang in the centre of La Paz on very expensive real estate. Tourists used to be allowed into the prison on tours that were conducted by an English drug trafficker, Thomas McFadden, who had been caught with 5kgs of cocaine at El Alto airport in 1995. He had been sentenced to six years in San Pedro prison and the book about his experience in the strangest prison on earth, called Marching Powder, is an excellent read. San Pedro is not a prison as we know it, it looks rather innocuous from the outside, more like an apartment block, and the only thing that tips you off that it may be a prison is the guard towers on each corner. The prison guards are corrupt and if you don't have money or a way of making money on the inside, you will not survive in San Pedro. Prisoners are expected to buy their own prison cells and provide their own food. Many women and children live in the prison with their husbands, as they cannot afford to live on the outside on their own. There are little shops and restaurants set up by prisoners inside the prison and different sections where you can live according to how much you can afford. The women and children can come and go freely and the prison is the best place to obtain Bolivia's purest cocaine, which is made by the prisoners from ingredients that have been smuggled in. Prison tours have been officially banned now, so we were not able to go in.