After a world class/dirt cheap breakfast at a French bakery we were on our way back to the airport to catch our plane to La Paz. The plane turned out to be a flying tin can, hotter than the damn jungle!
Anyway we made it and headed for Wild Rover, the party hostel of the capital city. As soon as we got through the door a guy in a gimp mask was pouring shots down our necks! Happily our roomies turned out to be some Californian girls we met in Arequipa and a couple of nice Danish chaps. We went out for a steak dinner to line the stomachs then started on the beers! The hostel was fully decked out for Halloween so we decided to get in the spirit of things and had our faces painted, whilst queuing we got chatting to a group of pretty messy Irish guys who were up for a big one to say the least, a very friendly teddy bear and Andy, a guy for Oldham who has been travelling for about 6yrs, funding it by going back to the UK now and again to participate in medical trials!
The bar was heaving, disclosure tunes were pumping and we had a bloody good dance, despite Dans dicky tummy. After a bit a roomie drama over who was snogging who we eventually called it a night.
Slightly hungover we went out for breakfast, a chain called Alexander’s, possibly the best coffee yet! After a quick nap we headed back out and Dan got his first salteña, it was delicious so I’m told. We then did a bit of shopping and went to book Death Road, a 64km mountain bike ride down the worlds most dangerous road so it was an early night in preparation for that bad boy.
Up early we drove to the snow covered top, donned the gear and set off! The first section is tarmac so pretty easy if a bit chilly! We then got on to the gravel track and it was bloody terrifying, I will admit I’ve never been the best on a bike…
Dan was a blur up ahead having a whale of a time while I did my best not to go of the cliff, there were a couple of near misses! It was certainly a rush with some spectacular views, we passed through waterfalls, rivers and jungle, 3 hours later we made it to the bottom in one piece. No thanks to our guide who was useless.
After a beer we decided to give the zip wire a go which consisted of 3 wires zigzagging across the jungle, we did it superman style which was awesome, you really feel like you’re flying! Next up we stopped at Senda Verde which is an animal sanctuary and the stars of the show are the gorgeous monkeys who have all been rescued from unsavoury circumstances. We came up close and personal with some capuchin, spider and howler monkeys, the alpha of the howlers even started to howl while we were there, what a noise! He can be heard 5km away.
We then hopped in a cab up the steep and winding road to Coroico, a nearby town set on the hillside over looking the jungle valley. The weather was grim so we headed straight for our hotel Sol y Luna where Dan tried his first trucha (trout to you and me).
Next day weather was glorious so after a walk around the huge and very tropical grounds and a top notch breaky it was a day of sunbathing, woop! We walked down in to town that evening for tea via the cemetery where the whole town was celebrating All Saints Day with lots of music, beers and food.
In the morning we decided to give yoga a go which was pretty good, definitely the perfect setting for it. We debated leaving but decided another tough day of sunbathing and hammock time was a better idea. We finally finished watching Lost, which was rather emotional! The next day we really did have to jump on a bus back to La Paz to catch our overnight bus to Sucre, the nations capital.
If you like Piña Coladas... 