Today was mainly spent travelling. We got the bus from Puno - Cobacabana, at the border we changed our money, walked to Peruivan Immigration to be stamped out then across to Boliva to be stamped in. I'm quite sad to be leaving Peru, I have fallen in love with the place. We stopped in Cobacabana for lunch then got the bus to La Paz, which has to be the s***test dirtiest city i've ever been to.

08/08/2009

We Visited a pre-inca site. Then went to the moon valley, which is lots of small mounds which look like the moon, it is really surreal. I've booked to do the death road on a mountain bike tomorrow. This was the last day of our tour sp we all went out for dinner. Bruno, the person who had given us the lessons on how not to get robbed, has his Ipod stolen while walking around in La Paz... That just shows had crap this place is!

09/08/2009

I walk to the Madness office at 6:30am down the deserted streets of the worst city in the world. I'm absolutley crapping my self... I wonder if it is wise for a girl who can hardly ride a bike and is scared of heights to attempt mountain biking down the World's most dangerous road! So there are 10 of us attempting not to die... four french guys who ride 600km in 4 days for a laugh, two Polish brothers who have been mountain biking since they were 15, a Polish girl who likes in Paris and spends her days dodging traffic on her bike, a BMX crazed Irish lad, a Canadian bloke who rides a lot at home and me, the girl who falls off her bike when stationary. This is going to be fun!so they kits us out in what lokks like a dustmans outfit and we drive for 3 hours to 'death road'. They wean us in gently by allowing us to ride on the tarmaced new road for 30 mins, where coaches and HGVs are dodging around us, we are on the cliff side so one swive and i'm a gonner! My lack of cycling experience becomes very apparent at the point, the French guys appear to think this is the Tour de France and everyone is keeping up! I'm left chocking on their dust. I'm wondering how much worse it is going to get once the tarmac turns to dirt and gravel and the drop grows a few 1000 metres! There are 3 guides and two buses on the tour. Two guides at the front and one doing snail pace with me. Then one bus at the front and one behind me. So we get to the dirt track and i'm absolutley bricking it! The guide with me keeps asking if i'm ok, I think she is more concerned that I could have walked faster than I was riding! After about 30 mins she suggests it might be best if I get in the bus just to catch up with the others as this was the worst part of the road. So I get in the tin can with the newly named 'michael schumacher' and drive as fast as we can in attempt to compete in the Tour de France... I am now wishing I was still on my bike! Just before we catch the other racers up, the girl who was with me was lying in the gutter and her bike was across the road. 'Michel' gets out and has to pick her up as she can't walk... now i'm wondering what the safest way back down is! This girl has ridden the track 100s of times and still managed to fall off! Once we catch the rest of the group up I was allowed to continue the race. This part of the track, although still high with a drop, was a lot wider and less steep so I was feeling slightly more confident. Well I managed to finish in one piece and I even got a T-Shirt... woop woop! Tonight is my last night in the s*** city so I'm saying goodbye to Marg and Don :-(