Thursday 18th October

Arriving in La Paz at 6am in the morning, after the worst 12 hour journey of our lives, we headed to our hostel by taxi, which took about 30 seconds!!!! We stayed at the high brew hostel, and found out that we couldnt check into our room until 11.00am!! Dam it!!!! Lisa was still feeling very ill so she slummed on the couch with our bags whilst me and Nikki went and booked coached tickets to Puno for 20th October. (England World cup final day)!!! After that me and Nikki headed off to the gravity shop to get confirmation of our booking for the death road tour we were doing the following day. La Paz itself is a very very busy town with so much traffic. It was like going to central London in Rush Hour! On the way back we stopped off at a supermarket to get some food and to get Lisa her requested Sprite and Soup that she assured us would make her feel better. Our taxi driver got lost going back to the hostel so we got out and decided to walk. Its amazing how many local taxi drivers dont know any of the local streets. When we got back Lisa had got us our room so we emptied our food into the fridge and made lunch. Soup and bread..... yummy!!! :o) Oh yeah Lisa boiled her Sprite as this is supposed to be good for a bad tummy! Although not a miracle cure after having severe gastrointeritis. Shocker!!! lol We all got showered as we were starting to attract far too many flies and headed out into the market to look for the infamous Lama wool stools. We took it slow as Lisa wasnt feeling great, so after about 2 hours of walking round and not finding the Lama wool (s***) we headed back to the hostel. We relaxed for a little bit and decided that we were hungry so headed off to Olivers bar (english pub) for toad in the hole and steak and ale pie. Probably not the best idea as the doctor told Lisa to eat plain food for 5 days (Crackers, bread & soup). We left Olivers bar and got instructions from the bar man on how to find the Lama wool stuff (great)! Lisa started to get a bad tummy (how strange), but it miraculously went as soon as we found the shops. (Miracle)! We spent about 1 hour in the lama wool shops all buying presents for our friends and family. We headed back to the hostel for some well deserved sleep. Night night!

Friday 19th October

Death road day!!!! Oooooo scarey!!! Oh I forgot to mention that as Lisa wasnt feeling too good so she didnt partisipate in this activity so we left her on her own for the day! Sorry Lisa!!! Me and Nikki met a Scottish and American guy at breakfast who were travelling together, and it turned out the American guy lived around the corner from one of Nikkis ex´s in America!! Small world! However we walked to a local cafe to meet the guides and then got on a bus that took about an hour to get us to where we were to begin the days festivities. We were all kitted out with our bikes, helmets and gloves etc etc then the fun began. We all started by sipping on pure alcohol which was supposed to bring good luck. Going down the death road drunk... YEAH GOOD LUCK GUYS!!!! The entire trips route on the bike is 65km. The first 30k is downhill (mostly) on tarmacked roads which is to get you use to the bike and how to take corners etc etc. I think I will quickly add that the part that was uphill lasted 3km and I was the only one to cycle without getting off my bike. Yeah yeah bragging I know but I have such skinny legs I was surprised myself!!! :o) The tarmacked part of the journey took about 1.5 hours and was really good fun to get up some good speed. (about 35 mph) Once this was finished the fun/shiiting yourself really did begin. Before we headed off the guy checked our bikes over again to make sure everything was ok. THANK YOU!!!! Now... the death road.... and f*ck me I know why they call it this. The whole 35k of the death road is gravelled and bumpy. You to ride all the time on the left hand side of the road which is about 2ft from the edge of a 400ft drop. No safety rails no nothing. Just sheer cliff face drops!!! I have to say Im surprised they let tourists with no experience of a bike ride down this road. Many people have died doing this (hence the name) so that is always on the back of your mind. The instructor told us if you remember one thing remember this "always look 20 feet in front of your bike and dont turn your handlebars. Look the way you want to go and the bike will follow"!!!! Its funny cos one fella years ago got distracted by a pretty bird and followed the pretty bird off the cliff. Only thing is this bloke couldnt fly! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! God knows how but this man survived but he did thank god! To cut a long story short, I had the most amazing and most scarey experience of my life doing the death road. You can take the death road at your own speed as there is a profeesional guide at the front and back of your group, but you cant overtake the front guy for obvious reasons! However the front guy travels at about 25-30 MPH and me being a wally followed him at this speed the whole way down. Nikki surprised me and was a proper adrenaline junkie and was never far behind me. Oh yeah forgot to mention that I fell off once but I wont go into that as I dont wanna scare my mum and dad :o) At the bottom we had a buffet lunch at this kinda mini zoo (but not a zoo) place!! It had parrots, tied up monkeys etc etc!!! However three little monkeys were playing in this little tree so a few of us went to play with them too. One monkey bit my finger, ran onto my shoulder and bit my ear. I cant complain cos his teeth were not sharp and it didnt hurt. very cute I have to say! We now got on the bus and headed up the death road, which is scarier then the bike ride going down as you put your life in the drivers hands who decided to go faster then I liked round the corners! Not at one point can you see the edge of the road from the bus window which gives you a rough idea how narrow this road was. At one stage the bikes on top of the bus got caught on vines so the driver had to climb the bus to untangle tham. pretty scarey!!! As we were getting to the top of the death road it was getting very very misty and no joke I could not see the road in front of us. I have no idea how the driver could see the road but he got us up safely so I was very relieved. We finally got back to the hotel and caught up with what Lisa had done for the day...... Over to Lisa......

basically, i got up late, had pancake for breakfast with a really really tall dutch girl, went back to our room and read my book about evita for 3 hours, had a shower, pampered myself for a while, manicure, pedicure, wax etc etc.. then realised i hadnt eaten and as it was about 4pm i was shaking badly, so ate sweets and chocolates, but that didnt work!!!! i headed out in to town with my list of chores to do, post cards, pressies, get money etc etc, and after getting in the middle of a street riot and running from the fireworks they were letting off i found a cafe to have a toasted ham sandwich. After i went to a place we had been recommended to buy a new waterproof jacket (mine was stolen in argentina) and to my surprise they had a lovely one in my petite size for $90 :o) the guy laughed his head off when i produced my debit card from my bra to pay for it... well, i didnt want to get mugged and if i did they wouldnt find it in there!!!!! On the way back i brought a load of little pressies to finish our last bolivianos off, and also cos it was dark and very late by now and i didnt want to be carrying money on me through the crazy street market on the way home!!! i got home in time for tom and nikki to return and i ordered indian takeaway while they died on their beds!!!! i ate a few spoons of rice and naam bread