La Paz - Day 46 - 14/11/2012 (Wednesday)
The bus to La Paz had to be the most random and weirdest bus ride ever. 10 metres after leaving the bus station we made our first stop. We can only assume to pick up people who were paying the driver directly. However there were no free seats so they had to sit on the stairs of the bus. I felt a bit bad for this one woman as she sat there for several hours. The bus driver also took the toilet door handle for no reason and when we asked he out it back. We had to drive back to Potosi even though it was the wrong way. I can only assume it was quicker. We also spent the whole night going way to fast and over taking on blind corners. About 2am the bus broke down. I was woken up by the driver chucking water over the engine to cool it down. About 3 he got it going again only for it to break down about 5. It wasn't until half 6 that we got going again.
We finally arrived into La Paz about 9am. To quote Jeremy Clarkson "La Paz is the worlds highest and worst capital city" and to be fair I have to agree with him. It was a dump. But people love it here and I did start to like the place by the end. We jumped in taxis to the hotel and as no one had really slept we had a nap until 12 and then went out for a wander. We were staying right by the witches market. They had all manner of things from idols to potions. One that caught my eye was to control my monthly cycle. I had no idea what this meant but it was tempting to buy. We walked through the market and then found this place that looked nice to eat. We were the only ones in there but it took almost 2 hours to get served. This gave us plenty of times to take in the very weird carvings on the walls. Some of which resembled imagines you would only find in adult magazines (or so I'm told).
After lunch we needed to book the part of the trip that has to be the most nerve racking; mountain biking down death road. We went to one place and it looked great. They had amazing bikes but the girls insisted on checking out a few places so we walked all over only to go back and book at the first place called madness.
Sarah then wanted to do some shopping with the girls so I left her to it.
That evening we went out again for dinner and I am sure they are all in competition to see who can be the slowest. We waited over45 minutes for our drink even though the place was dead. We got an early night as we had an early start for death road.

La Paz - Day 47 - 15/11/2012 (Thursday)
Before I begin going through the day I have to give some background on death road and what it means. Anyone who watches Top Gear would have seen this road on TV. Basically it's 40km of steep single track mud road. So what I hear you say? This road was a 2 way road and at one point was the main road in and out of La Paz AND in places if you were to go over the edge it would be over 2000m down before you'd find a surface. So many people lost their life on this road, upwards of 10 a week. If you don't suffer from nightmares go to youtube and search for death road bus crash. It's rather horrific. Anyway I digress...
We had an early start and walked to the bike shop to get kitted up with helmets, gloves and overalls. From there we jumped in the van and climbed out of La Paz. About half way out the town we stopped for some breakfast (cake) and then continued to the top of the mountain. At this point we got off the bus and tried out our bikes. You'll be glad to hear these cost about 2.5k USD each so they were really good bikes. To get used to them we'd be driving down the main road for about 20km. We soon got used to the bikes and were over taking lorries and vans. The scenery was out of this world. It was a little cloudy so that added to the views. However as we went down we started entering the cloud and then the cloud became rain. We could nearly see the person in front so had to slow right down. We eventually hit a check point where we had to stop as the next 8km was up hill. So we got back in the bus and set off. I really want the bus drivers glasses. They allowed him to see through the fog and over take on corners. We throughout we were going to die before even getting to death road. Luckily we made it and we got off the van. It was still foggy and raining but we set off anyway. We could see the edge but we couldn't see down over the edge which I think in hindsight was a good thing. It also meant we'd go slower. For the first hour or so we kept stopping for pictures (all of which I will upload when I can as they were taken by the guide and we got them on CD. Who uses CDs in this day and age??). There were some really cool waterfalls, some of which came over the road as the rock above over hung the road. We reached a corner called death corner (imaginative). This is the corner where the most accidents have happened. It's right on the edge of the cliff on a steep blind corner. We had some pictures which was a good thing as it meant we went really slowly around it. As we cleared the corner the cloud started to lift and we could see the magnitude of how crazy we were. We could see right over the edge and right down the valley to where we would end up. That's when the adrenaline kicked in! One thing I forgot to mention is that a new road has been built so the only users of the road should be the bikes and the vans that follow them down. However going around one sharpe corner I soon found out this wasn't the case. 2 buses packed with locals came flying round the corner. All I can say is I am glad the bike had good brakes. We continued down for a couple of hours stopping for photos and riding through waterfalls. Just over half way we stopped for a drink and a snack and at that point it really warmed up which was good as it dried us out.
The whole way down we only had one near miss. One of the guys was riding down the drainage section of the road. No idea why. All of a suddenly it stopped so he had to jump out. However one of the girls was beside him on the road. She had to move right to the edge to avoid him. She did so well to stay on the track and neither of them got hurt.
Towards the end the road surface got better and in places it became 2 way. This meant we could go a lot faster. Just before the end we reached part of the road that had a river running over it. The only way through was to go round the corner at speed and then hope that's the bike had enough speed to make it through. I went 2nd, I made it through but got very wet feet. Sarah went and got through to. In fact everyone made it through. Not long after that we reached a village and the end of the bike ride. We made it :D
On a high we grabbed a beer from a local bar while they loaded the bus back up and the. We drove to a hotel to clean up and have a late lunch. We went for a swim first, had lunch and then showered. Before we knew it we were in the bus back to La Paz. The sign on the road said 90km so I was thinking just over an hour. How wrong I was. It was all up hill along the new road they built to replace death road. It was so much further than the old road but at least it was 2 lanes wide. As we climbed we got back into the cloud and the bus driver out his magic specs back on. 3 hours later we were back in La Paz and in the bike shop they gave us our "death road surviver" t-shirts.
Today marked the end of the 3rd part of our trip so we were saying good bye to our guide and one of the guys. Everyone else is coming all the way to Lima. To celebrate we went out for a nice Thai meal and a few cocktails.

La Paz - Day 48 - 16/11/2012 (Friday)
As this was our last day in La Paz we had to do some sight seeing. First up was the Coca museum. This went through the history of coca a d was quite interesting but we had to read everything from a badly translated booklet. Next we went to the market and we got some "Alberto Pants". No idea what they are called but we named them after our first guide who wore them all the time. We collected the CD of pictures from the bike ride and then went for lunch. Again this was a rather slow affair but the food was really nice. The place was run by a guy from Texas and he came out to say hello and even gave us a cocktail. After lunch we went to the prison. This will have no relevance to anyone unless you have read the book marching powder (a very good read if you didn't youtube death road and aren't having nightmares). The prison is sat in prime real estate right in the centre of the city. Once inside you have to buy your own cell and feed and live by your own means. The English guy that the book is about used to run tours of the prison and we'd of liked to have gone but it's not safe since he got let out. Opps ruined the end of the book for you. Sarah tried to take a photo but the guards shouted at her over the road so we quickly walked off.
Next we went to the cathedral and had a look round there before going back to the hotel to relax for a bit. The 4th part of the tour started today so we meet the new people in reception and then went out for dinner and to get to know them. After dinner we ended up in this empty club with a band playing to no one. They weren't great so just had a couple and headed back.