Dear All We are currently back in rainy La Paz having spent a couple of days in a nice small town Coroico, north of La Paz in The Yungas area of Bolivia. We travelled there by doing the 64k mountain bike ride down the world's most dangerous road which decends 3500m from above La Paz to Coroico. After we booked the bike ride it ocurred to me that I haven't been on a bike that wasn't stuck to the floor in a gym for a very long time. Although I'm sure there must have been a time since, the last specific time I can remember being on a bike was when Ruth, Lizzie and I hired some very inadequate kids bikes while on holiday in Norfolk when we were 17! Then the bloke explaining the bike to me really confused me with the different brakes and gears, but once we set of I got the hang of it fine. We started cycling through snow capped mountains and there was actually snow on the ground - it was freezing. 20 minutes later and a few meters lower it started getting warmer. The scenery all the way down was spectacular, not that I was looking much - I was mainly looking at the road and trying not to go off the edge as that would result in death due to dropping a few hundred meters! By the end it was hot and dusty and we got covered in dirt when trucks went past. There are human traffic lights on the road which are people with red and green flags who try to stop trucks, buses and bikes driving into each other on the very narrow road. Most of them are there becuase they knew someone who had died on the road. They don't get paid, do it in all weather and live on tips they get from drivers. Our guide said he thinks since they started in 1994 they have saved thousands of lives. It all sounds very dangerous but we had excellent safety training from our guides and they made sure there was no chance of anything happening to us, particularly with our own added caution. I was too much of a wimp to go very fast, but Simon was up at the front racing a Frenchman called Jean-Pierre! I don't think I'll be getting into down hilling, but it was an incredible experience and I'm very glad I did it and got the t-shirt. Coroico was really nice, or perhaps I really liked it because we stayed in a pretty posh hotel. Our room had an amazing view over the mountains we'd cycled through and there was a swimming pool with the same view, which we cooled off in when we arrived. Unfortunately on our second day there we were in a cloud but it was still a nice place to be. We made some friends so had company for dinner and by the pool which was nice. It hadn't ocurred to me that having come down the most dangerous road in the world, we would have to go back up it to get back to La Paz. I just presumed that there was an alternative and only mountain bikers and nutter truck drivers took the dangerous option. But no, the alternative road has been under construction for 10 years and still isn't finished. So we had to get a bus back up the scary road. The little bus was packed. One passenger must have had chicks in her bundle back pack thing as it kept cheaping. We made it back fine, and in plenty of time to get ready for a night out on the town! We went to a cool bar, Sol y Luna, then to Ollie's English pub again, back to Sol y Luna then to a club with the people we'd met during the evening. Tomorrow aparently Ollie's does a proper English roast which is quite an exciting thought! On Monday we are travelling over night from La Paz to Uyuni where you can do jeep tours of the salt lakes which sound amazing. From there we'll probably go over to North Chile, then North Argentina, heading towards the Iguazu Waterfalls via Paraguay before heading down to Buenos Aries. I can't believe 3 weeks has already gone. Hope all is well at home Lots of love Josiex