La Paz…..another high altitude city to contend with (3660m). It literally takes your breath away, the city's buildings cling to the sides of the canyon and spill spectacularly downwards. We spent 3 days here wandering round the many alleyways and sidewalks, looking at various markets, not to mention the witches market /9mercado de Hichiceria) full of oddities such as shrivelled llama foetuses, which locals bury under the porches of their new homes for luck and good fortune. We also headed to the notorious La Paz prison made famous by the book "marching powder", ,whereby an English inmate began giving tourist tours of the prison/cocaine factory. We were dubiously hoping to be approached by the new tour guide "Kenny", however due to the soon release of the Brad Pitt film it has become very difficult to get inside the prison like you used to. Instead we wandered past and had the rowdy inmates shouting and waving at us….which kind of made us grateful that we did not get approached!

The main attraction in La Paz is the world's most dangerous road (made famous by top gear!). Many agencies offer the La Cumbre to Coroico mountain-bike plunge, with a gravel road just 3.2 metres wide with precipitous cliffs with up to 600m drops and few safety barriers. Lonely planet states that 15 cyclists have died during the 64km trip….looking back at it, how more people haven't died we don't know. Many of the corners are named after the nationalities of people who had died there (England, Bolivian, American etc). Our guide told us that they had their worst accident a few months ago where a bus went over the edge and killed 100 passengers. Due to the gravel road, you can easily lose control and skid…..I (Jodie) started to skid, and yes it was towards the edge…I had to quickly put my feet down, hitting my privates on the cross bar, NICE! We had a group of 4 cocky English boys, who had many near encounters….one involved a boy going too fast round the corner, falling off his bike (luckily not near the edge) but his friend couldn't slow down and just run over his leg. The camera man caught this all on video. Thankfully, the company we went with had great equipment so the suspension meant he didn't break his leg and he was soon back on the bike, still not going as safe as he should! Lewis was having a great time….i however can safely say that I did not really enjoy it the whole way down, my body ached all over where I was holding on to the handlebars so tightly. The ice cold beer at the end of the track was welcomed with open arms…..especially by our guide. After stopping at a bar and local swimming pool to cool off, our guide clearly had enjoyed himself! We got into the car to go back to La Paz and he was clearly twatted. After stopping at the shop to buy 2 litres of cubre libre and coke he got into the back of the van with us and managed to spill it over us, while then falling asleep all the way on Lewis' shoulder, with his eyes still oddly open. At least he wasn't drunk at the beginning of the trip. We would have recommended the company up until this point as we seemed to have the better equipment, smaller groups and what we thought Guide compared to the other groups. Overdose for those interested.

So, After receiving our "we survived the most dangerous road" tshirts we thought we would treat ourselves to a curry as Lewis has been craving one for weeks. The "star of India" recommended by lonely planet was not a touch on English curry….especially when trying to gain an "I survived the worlds most hottest curry" tshirt. Lewis thought he would go for the double and attempt to eat the 40 chilli curry. After 5 mouthfuls and 3 trips to the toilet, he admitted defeat. Greatly regretted this after another 30 visits to the toilet that night.

Off to the Amazon Basin next to be one with nature

xxxxxxx