We arrive in Bolivia – La Paz and Death road

We arrived into La Paz at dusk, it sits in a basin and sprawls up the surrounding hills. From the approach it looks impressive and when you arrive it’s a very busy, bustling, overpopulated city. Every road was a mix of queueing cars, stall sellers, food merchants, dogs and people!

We didn’t get to roam the city too much as most of our group decided to do a mounting biking day trip to “death road”, the most dangerous road in the world. It has taken many victims, mostly in cars and lorries, but also, most recently, some cyclists.
The ride was pretty awesome, it started at 4780m altitude, at 6°C, among ice strewn mountain peaks and plateaus. It descended down to a river at 1500m – a decent of around 3400 metres! En route, the climate got warmer, ending up in a 30°C tropical jungle. We passed lorry corpses, waterfalls, shear drops, passing vehicles, a cloud forest and many other cyclists. After most of the group being tentative over whether to do it or not, we were all glad we faced it! At the end of the ride we had lunch in a wildlife sanctuary.

An example of the sheer drops

A view of the road ahead

Another view

We made it!

La Paz