We're in La Paz! The airport is at 4100 meters but parts of the city are as low as 2700m - wherever you are it's still quite difficult to walk up hills/stairs! The city is set between valleys and looks huge from the road running in from the airport. We stayed at Loki hostel which is a party hostel in the centre but the first night was a write off because I was feeling so weak from being sick all day - will make up for it tomorrow!
The next day, Saturday, we went on the city walking tour which took us through the main Plaza San Francisco, through the Witches Market and down to San Pedro prison. In the Witches Market all of the stalls sell dead baby lamas (seriously!?) which are used in a ritual when moving into a new home where the baby lama and some candy are burned and the ashes buried in the foundations of the house. They are really superstitious people, it sounds like a horrible idea to me! At the prison we learned that this is the prison documented in the book Marching Powder. It is entirely self run by the prisoners, there are rich and poor quarters and they even have their wives and children living in there with them. It's hugely overpopulated and is well known for producing and selling cocaine by throwing it over the walls to dealers!
After the walking tour we went for a few happy hour drinks before heading back to the hostel bar where we met up with Grace, Irene and Max for a very messy night including a lot of beer pong! Managed to drag Ben to bed at 2am as we have to be up at 6:30 for our ride down Death Road!
Felt horrendous the next day. Up and out by 7am for the hours drive to the Worlds Most Dangerous Road. We booked with Barracuda and our guides, Noel and Willy, were awesome(funny joke about UFO's being sold on roadside - unidentified fried objects!). The ride starts at 4400m and goes down to 1100m. It was officially named the WMDR in 2006 when an average of 26 cars used to plunge 400m over the side every year. Since then a new road has been built but there is still some traffic and as cyclists going down we have to stay on the outside edge the whole way! We're given helmets, gloves, overalls, a safety briefing and then we're off. Maybe it's the hangover but I felt like I was out of control...I spent the entire day at the back of the group going what I thought was high speed...obvs not! The view was beautiful but I didn't get much chance to look at it as I was concentrating on the road so hard! Ben sped off at the front of the group - no regard for me whatsoever! Funny considering he said he didn't even want to do the ride...typical