Death Road & NYE

Nilgun and I planned on spending 4 nights in La Paz before moving on to Rurrenabaque, the main backpacker destination for Bolivian Amazon jungle tours.  We had a lovely dinner on the last night of the tour (29th) but everyone was staying in La Paz until New Years Day so the tour unofficially continued until then.  On the 30th we all (except one) mountain biked down the infamous 'Death Road'.  They have built a new road which circumvents the most dangerous section of Death Road, which is now closed to normal traffic.  An explanation of the road's name is not necessary but it remains the deadliest road in the world, at times the road is no more than 3 metres wide with a sheer drop to one side which can be thousands of feet.  Approximately 15 tourists have also died cycling down this road.

The tour begins with a minibus ride to the highest point on the road, a few miles out of La Paz.  We were handed our full suspension hydraulic disc brake bikes, moto-cross style jacket and trousers, crash helmets, and elbow and knee pads.  I appreciated the hydraulic disc brakes but couldn't help wonder what use the elbow and knee pads were if I came off and flew over a thousand foot cliff.  The first ??? kilometres are all downhill on a tarmac session, I stuck with Nil as she was quite nervous.  To make things trickier the standard configuration for American bikes is to have the brakes levers the opposite way to what we are used to in the UK, so the left is your front brake and right the rear.  The road started off high up in the mountains with the clouds some way below, when not negotiating hairpin bends or oncoming overtaking lorries I was absorbing the magnificent views of the snow capped peaks, waterfalls and the ribbon of asphalt snaking down the mountain.  At this point I was wishing for my road bike as I would have been screaming down at easily 40-50mph.

Tarmac section completed we turned of onto the original death road.  When mounting your bike and looking down the road feels it lot narrower than 3 metres and the size and number of stones in the road took me by surprise - I was now grateful for the full suspension!  To begin with we were still in the cloud so we could not see anything over the edge of the cliff, as we came down out of the clouds you fully appreciate that if you get it wrong you are a gonna!  I have no idea how two-way traffic managed to operate on this road, there are not nearly enough passing points.

About half of the way down Nilgun's confidence began to grow and as the road began to widen she upped the pace, overtaking the rest of the girls and some of the boys too!  As we descended we entered the jungle, the vegetation changed, the temperature steadily increased and at every opportunity we were shedding layers that were vital at the top of the mountain.  We both thoroughly enjoyed the ride, yet another experience I won't be forgetting in a hurry.

The 31st was dedicated to New Years Eve preparations.  Fancy dress was the order of the day.  After much browsing of festive stalls I settled on a monkey outfit and Nil concocted 'Candy' with a shocking pink wig.  We had a fantastic night that begun with a slap up meal in a lovely traveller orientated restaurant - it was cheap too, a huge fillet steak with pepper sauce and veggies was just over 5 quid.  After dinner, a short walk across town to the bar of a backpacker hostel.  The bar was packed to the rafters, quite literally with girls (and Ross 'Cusco Kid' McQuinn) dancing on the bar.  After midnight the party continued at the night club Blue Bar until the sun came up.