La Paz is another one of those towns that lived up to its reputations along with the nightly organised events at the well known Loki hostel. I had come here with plans to only spend a night or two, however ended up staying on for 4.. unfortunately being made aware on my last day of the easily accessible Wyana Potosi next door, a good chance to climb above 6,000m and shut those smug bastards up from the EBC outing once and for all.
My first coherent morning was spent taking part in the red cap tour, a 'free' walking tour of the city centre that relies on donations if you think they are worth it. We started at the famous San Pedro prison, its notoriety gained from the international best seller Marching Powder, which details the extraordinary prison life where inmates run the prison itself; purchasing cells on the open market, owing various business and producing some of the purest cocaine in the world. Although you cannot officially tour the prison anymore due to recent events and publicity, you can scour the small unseeing city block which looks nothing like a prison at all.
Next we toured a few of the market streets, each famous for their particular goods; whether it be paints, clothing, vegetables (there's over 1,000 types of potato!!) and the witches market where all kinds of bizarre ingredients from Llama foetus to plants which will cure any ailment can be purchased. Our last stop was the city square where a brief description of the violent political history was revealed, right under a light pole where the body of a murdered prominent political figure was hung.
For me the main draw card of this city was to mountain bike down death road.. of course I had my hesitations as I am yet to experience down hill mountain biking before, though how hard could it be. There are plenty of tour agencies around town with the most expensive Gravity being almost twice the price of anybody else. I decided with the middle tier Vertigo, they had a good reputation online and seemed would provide me a reasonable chance of no ending up at the bottom of the 600m drop that makes an exciting border alongside our single lane 'road'.
After being collected in the wee our of the morning, the van which was filled with riders from accross the globe,, with varying degrees of experience, dropped us at our starting point situated a little above 4,000m. Here we were given a quick safety demonstration in the light refreshing now snow (what an idiot I was dressed in shorts an a t-shirt). A few of the girls were definitely starting to show their nerves as I heard "scared shitless" mentioned a few times.
The first 20km section of the ride was on an easy paved road where all you had to do was glide in and out of the cars, stopping occasionally for the customary happy snaps. Things started to get interesting as we reached the first loose rock section of the track, my gears did not want to change and my front braked failed, not a huge issue as long as the back brakes still worked.. although I no longer had much confidence in this supposedly 'quality' bike. The support team made some temporary repairs which lasted a short while, not that I was going to let a few minor problems ruin my leisurely ride.
The death road is a dirt track barely wide enough to fit a car and is littered with loose rocks amongst its sharp turns, at least the company was kind enough to provide knee pads and a helmet incase I hurl off the edge (mandatory insurance cover to include repatriation costs for your remains). Its not really as dangerous as they make it sound with most of the deaths occurring in the early 1900' when the road was being built by Paraguayan slaves, although there have been over 20 cyclists deaths added to the fatality list.
We were off to a great star with a double collision on the first bend, surprisingly not including myself. The rest of the descent which required minimal pedal power was stretched though a luxurious green landscape. At times was passed through waterfalls and stopped to dangle our legs over the looming cliff side while waiting for some of the slower group members. A winding section at the end gave our group a chance to build up a bit of velocity with my single near miss being a fallen away section of the road that had escaped my line of sight while I was busy admiring the scenery.Finally reaching the end in a little under three hours, our team sat down for a buffet lunch to banter off the hype and swap a few travel stories.
If you have visited La Paz and were wondering why most of the houses seem unpainted, if not still look to be under construction; there's a lower tax charged for a house that is not 'completed' and leaves a rather unsightly architechtual theme.
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