We arrived at La Paz by bus (via the river - which was an incredibly bizarre experience, see the picture of the floating bus) in the incorrect place. We thought we could walk 2 minutes to the hostel but then realised we were at the opposite end of the city. We happened to bump into a German couple (Timo & Susan) who were also going to the same hostel, so we shared a taxi which was a scary 15 minute ride that included scraping the paint off a passing bus.

We got to our hostel, the Adventure Brewery and we were lucky enough to be able to check in a night early. This place was like The Ritz for backpackers, the best shower so far, a microbrewery on site which included a free beer each day and an "all you can eat" pancake breakfast! We ended up playing drinking games with our new friends plus a few others and 6 of us headed to a bar in town called RamJam (yes 6 in a 4 seater taxi, anything goes in Bolivia). The bar was good, but we were disappointed that the highest "Oxygen bar" in the world had no oxygen left.

Our first day in La Paz was spent inside San Pedro prison (aka Marching Powder)! This was one of the most surreal experiences ever, there were no guards inside, just 30 police on the outside of the prison for the 1300+ inmates. Our guide was Daniel who had been given 8 years for drug trafficking. He appeared to run part of the prison and had a nice (for prison) three-floor apartment with internet, kitchen & lounge (this was just one of his many apartments in the prison). We were shocked to see that women and children live inside the prison with the convicts. They are free to leave as and when they please and some of the children go to school daily. We got a tour around the prison by Angelo (one of Daniels "b****es" as he described him) who was "coked-up" and didnt really give a great tour. During the tour we saw the restaurants, shops, gym, pool room and church (where people actually marry). Then Sebastian popped his head up into Angelo´s pad and asked "anybody want any chopp?" The room went silent, then one Swedish guy piped up, "10 grams please". So we all left in a hurry and he stayed to get his "fix", nobody knows whether he got out of the prison with his purchase, or whether he got a similar 8 years to Daniel. Mind you, this place was probably the safest place to buy drugs in the world, the police on the door seemed to have too much to lose, should they stop the drug trade from inside the prison, as they get a cut of the trade and they get a cut of the cash that we pay to illegally visit the prison.

Next day we rode "The Worlds Most Dangerous Road" with Gravity. This is a 60km bike ride on mostly gravel, where the average drop off the side of the 3m wide road, is 400m and certain death. At times the drop reaches 700m, its very scary! We went on the ride with Timo & Susan and Adam & Katie (from London who we went to the prison with a day earlier). On the bus ride up, entering the road, the sign showing the death toll since February this year showed 42. Then the guide pointed out that this figure did not include the 9 people that had died the week before. The panic set-in, Lisa wasn´t exactly convinced about the ride before this, but now the fear was worse. We arrived at the top of WMDR, had a quick briefing and introduction to our amazing bikes, were told some horror stories (of which there were plenty) which can be viewed on You-Tube, then we set-off. The first part was easy, on tarmac and decent visibility. After a couple of stops for everyone to re-group, we hit the gravel and the poor visibility. You struggled to see more than 5 yards in front of you and at speeds of 40kmph and drops of 400m it was rather daunting. Halfway down, Ben´s goggles steamed up and he was unable to see his hands on his handlebars, so after slamming the breaks on, he removed his goggles and was shocked to see he was around 6 inches from the side of the cliff, close shave! Up next was the toilet break, Lisa and a few of the girls went into the Ladies (1 Boliviano for roll) and were shocked to see around 6 holes in the floor with a 3 foot mini-wall in between each hole with no door. So the girls crouched to do their business whilst laughing hysterically at the situation, and the previous occupats were washing their hands, stating "I´m not looking in the mirror" which gave them a great sight of the crouching girls. We stopped 17 times in all, the boys at the front and girls at the back and all 15 of us made it down alive, despite two of the girls falling and carrying minor injuries (proudly, not Lisa). W each then got our free t-shirts, which were glued to us for the next couple of days. I think everyone in our group felt that it was one of the most enjoyable things we had ever done, it really gave you an adrenalin rush and we would highly recommend it!

We visited the witches market (where there were llama fetuses. weird) and the Black Market where your advised to take nothing due to the number of thieves. We tried to book a bus ticket out of La Paz but couldn´t for three more days as there were no buses (either leaving due to the impending demonstration or sold out). We were pretty disappointed as we´re now struggling for time in South America, but the plus point was that we loved La Paz and the people we have met here were also in the same situation.

On our penultimate night we went to see the Cholitas wrestling which if you search on "you tube" you can see. We were told it was rather barbaric with women beating one another up (whilst in their traditional dress) and had heard it was on BBC news back home due to the violence. When we got there we soon realised it was much like watching a cheap, very funny WWF style wrestling with mainly men dressed as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, or Spiderman etc jumping around in tights feigning injury. We were then slightly shocked when a woman fought a man, smashed a 1 metre long light bulb over his head around a yard in front of us (glass covering us) and then threw a bucket full of water of him and the crowd (your camera is not replaced if its broken). The guys bought some masks to look the part (see the photos) and were nearly thrown out when caught with beer which is not allowed inside the stadium, but a good night was had by all and we would recommend going if you can take it for what it is (tacky, cheesy, fake, soap-style wrestling)!

The next day, there was a huge demonstration in the centre of the city where it was suggested that 10,000 farmers had marched from Oruro (around 5 hours by bus) to La Paz taking a few days. On the morning, we were woken up by drums belting and people shouting, looked out the window and we just stared at the sheer number of people who were taking part in this protest/demonstration. We then spent the day in amongst these people who appeared very friendly and peaceful in their protest. There were around half a million people from the provinces and many of them had been walking days to get to La Paz, women and children in tow. We really got a sense of how much these people had given up to take part (what with the loss of income etc which they cant really afford).

Also Lisa bought a new camera (pictured) which is now named Candy and has been getting a lot of usage already!

On our last night we wnet to the "highest British/Indian in the world" at over 4,000m, calles "The Star of India". Was very good, but during the night Ben got a real bad stomach and spent the full next day on the loo. Not ideal for a 12 hour overnight bus journey to Uyuni. The journey is best described as the roughest massage chair your ever likely to lay on. My god we were stinging afterwards due to the sheer shakeability from bumping up and down like a pneumatic drill for 12 hours, no sleep whatsoever! Good news for Ben was that the immodium were working!