LA PAZ BOLIVIA
The World´s most dangerous road...

It used to be called the world´s most dangerous road, and the death toll annually from trucks and buses sliding off the 300 foot cliffs numbered more than a 100 annually. These days, there is virtually no traffic as they had finally opened a bigger and better road to cover that pass, leaving the descent from the mountains from about 4400m down to the valley at about 1000m exclusively for the use of adrenaline junkey backpackers...

Our motley crew with the help of foulmouthed guide Erin consisted of myself, a duo from Holland, some English folks and a couple of yanks, plus an entertaining Canadian-Emirate dude who has traveled more than me.

The weather was plain awful... rain all the way down, slippery wet roads and mist, mostly obscuring the amazing views to be had as you go down. This theoretically meant we would go slightly slower for safety... fat chance! On my nifty dual suspension bike, I stuck close to the guide as we hurtled down at speeds of about 40km-h or more...

Despite getting soaked to my bones, I had a thoroughly entertaining day. The mists cleared up eventually affording some stunning views, and we had a great buffet lunch to end off the adventure... then on the bus for the 3 hour trip back to La Paz!

The bus ride back was almost as exciting as the bike ride itself... our driver playing chicken with various oncoming trucks, buses and pedestrians and us wooping an hollering slightly nervous support from the back...

Dead tired by the end of the day, a fitting end was hunkering down under a blanket in front of the telly and getting stuck in a evil governments discussion with some Australians which turned into a morality debate on the nature of good and evil... tomorrow I will chill out, take stock and figure out my next moves. Spanish school or the salt plains... depends which roads are open, the Bolivians are always bloody striking...