Bolivia part one

We got out of Sao Paulo as quickly as we could. And arrived into La Paz ready to carry on with the 'travelling' part of our trip. We got to la Paz late Monday evening and were met with some weird sights, firstly the women all wore traditional clothes. A puffy multi coloured skirt, a shawl come knapsack, and a bowler hat. Crazy. The traffic was as wild as Lima. And the whole city was built in to a mountain. La Paz is 3600 metres high, and is the worlds highest major city. It was a shock to the system, because of the altitude and the people. For the first time since we arrived in Lima it felt like we were in a world that was different to the one we knew. But they did have a curry house in town, and a pub, a proper pub not an Irish pub, and the hostel we stayed in gave us free beer every night we stayed there. Excellent. Bags got dumped and we were off to The Star of India, billed as a traditional London curry house. They sell the worlds hottest curry there, it was hot, I couldn't finish it, we ate it for dinner the next day with half a bottle of yoghurt. The rubbishness and expensiveness of Sao Paulo was quickly forgotten as we ate curry and had beer. Two popadoms, two starters, two mains, two rice, three beers each £23 plus tip. We were going to love La Paz.

Still recovering from El and Sas's visit we had a lie in the next day, but we had stuff to organise. First of which was 'The World's Most Dangerous Road' and then a trip to Lake Titicacca and after that the salt plains. We organised the WMDR for the next day, so we ate at the hostel, had our free beer and had an early night.

The Worlds Most Dangerous Road is bloody brilliant! If you go to La Paz do it, it is lots of fun. We met our group leaders in a lovely cafe where we had excellent bacon and eggs. I say tour leaders, i think they had been let out of school for a days work experience, they were young. In fact one of them was on work experience. We started off 5000 metres above sea level and cycled 60 odd kilometres, down to 1300 metres, all along the WMDR. I wish there was some kind of theme music for you every time you read the phrase WMDR, a bit like in scary movies. Most British people who know about the WMDR (insert your own theme tune here), do so because the Top Gear guys drove in on one of their challenges. It is truly a killer of a road, there are memorials all the way down to dead people, a bus drove off the road once killing over a hundred people, so we listened to the safety talk. We were doing it with a company called Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, and they were excellent. The bikes we great, we had safety gear and the guys were trained in first aid (I think they do it in school nowadays) We started off on tarmac, and pointed our bikes downwards, we didn't do much peddling on the way down. We reached speeds of 50kph (could possibly be mph) on the way down, it was thrilling. We stopped a couple of times for the group to catch up and at some of the more poignant memorials. Soon we were on the untarmaced part of the WMDR. At points the road was barely a car width wide, and because the top part is in a rainforrest there are loads of landslides, and for the most part you are riding on slippery gravel. It was dangerous..... but lots and lots of fun. We cycled through streams, waterfalls and the clouds. At one point I may have accidentally followed someone through an open sewer. The views that whizzed by were amazing. All to quickly we were at the bottom.

Did I mention that the WMDR was incredible fun?

At the bottom the tour leader told us a few stories of the accidents people had had while cycling. The one I remember, which if you could laugh you would, was the story of a guide who was taking a group picture. The guide stepped back to get everyone in the frame and then promptly fell off the cliff, dead. Not remotely funny.

At the bottom, and included in the tour price, we went to a nature reserve for some dinner. I am not bothered by that kind of stuff and I got bit by a load of sand flies so i wanted out asap. But the monkeys were cute. We got back to La Paz, by the new road they had built because the WMDR was too dangerous, and had tea in the pub, Olivers Travels, lovely fish and chips for me and a pie for Lisa. Few beers and home for a rest.

Up early next day and off on another tour, this time to Lake Titicacca the world's highest major lake. We met our tour guide, Jorge, and we were off, the three of us to see a lake. First stop Copacabana which is on the side of the lake, literally means town by the water in a local language, and the town after which the Copacabana in Rio is named. It has a lovely cathedral, but not much else. Then we went to Sun Island, where we saw more Inca ruins, which were great. We sat on the sun terrace of the hotel we were booked into and watched the sunset and tried Singani, a white spirit, with Sprite and fresh limes for the first time. It might sound a bit council but it was lovely and refreshing. After sharing a bottle of that with Jorge we stumbled to bed. There is lots to do at Lake Titicacca, I am not sure that we did it properly, there is lots we didn't see but the lake was lovely and Jorge was a knowledgable guide. Boat ride and bus ride back to La Paz then out for Thai food.

But the high life was taking its toll and we had to rest, a big few days ahead starting with England winning the grand slam the next day.