Leaving La Paz

We have now had two days in La Paz and are now travelling toward Potosi, worlds highest city, where we’ll celebrate Christmas.

Right now we have left La Paz behind and are currently waiting in queue to get some diesel, not the easiest task it seem. We have tried four gas stations so far with not much luck.

It’s been an interesting ride so far, at the checkpoint outside La Paz the bus overheated and we got a boiling radiator.

Time to recap my time in La Paz.

The first day was spent riding the road of death. We were picked up from the hotel at seven and rode the buses to our starting point at 4200 m.s.l. There we got bikes and got a bit of time to test it before we started the downhill. The first part of the ride was on asphalt so we were able go fast. At our first stop I realized that I had no back break, but I managed to stop safely and a bit of tightening solved the problem. All in all I was lucky and got a good bike. Even if it was stated that the bikes was in perfect condition most lacked the ability to change gear, not a big issue since we went mostly downhill, and there was some bikes with bad breaks.

After riding a while on the road we had a break, got some snack and the bikes were loaded on the buses. As one of the bikes was lifted on to the bus the back wheel feel off, safe…

We rode the buses for a while since it was uphill and «dangerous». When we stopped it started to rain and there was heavy fog, but we were at the top of the death road and ready to go. We all said that we would take it slow, but ended up doing it at mad speed. Didn’t think much of the madness until we travelled up again with the bus a few hours later. Then it had cleared up and we could see how step it really was.

We had two people falling of their bikes and a few flat tires but except for a few bruises nobody got hurt. So all in all the day was a success and everyone was happy when we were back at the hotel around eight.

Yesterday I spend just relaxing in town. I went to the witches market, got some presents to bring home. Went to see El Choco, the prison and had lunch in Mira Flores.

Marco tried to arrange a visit to El Choco but this time it wasn’t possible. I’m not sure I would visit anyway, but I guess we’ll never know.

We’ll soon be in Potosi where we’ll celebrate Christmas