La Paz, Bolvia

The driver slowly but surely arrives into La Paz. We were on the outskirts of La Paz. This was the grungy style part, full of people selling random things and going about their business. This took us about one hour just to get through. Finally started to zig zag down the streets and before you knew it, the hidden valley popped up. Inside this valley was the entire city. First glance everyone started to go “ooo” and “ahhh”. It was so breathtaking no one could say any real words except giggle in excitement. Across the valley were snowy mountains that shot straight up into the clouds. Each hill you could see were brick houses on top more brick houses. No real piece of land could be exposed due to the population here. The city was high up in the mountains over 4,000 meters. Without even getting out of the car I was out of breath.

Soon enough the driver just decided to pull over and say this was our stop. Even though we told him to take us to our hostel. He refused and also refused to take more money. What a chump. Then he decided to raise the cost for the drive from 15 to 20. What a chump. I pulled out a 20 and it ripped in half and gave him that. So in fact I gave him 10 bolivianos. We found some other taxis and hired them to take us to the hostel. My taxi definitely was not a licensed taxi but we got in and chatted with the guy. This was, I think to this day, the best Spanish I’ve spoken with a driver. The whole 15 minutes was us chatting back and forth about his city and his and my family. All of which, I didn’t have to search for words like I usually do. I was impressed with myself and most of the time never works out like this. Well it usually doesn’t work out like this.

Arrived at Wild Rover hostel. I knew right away I didn’t like this place and I was the one who reserved it. An amazing hostel but filled with English kids with there British accents. I knew I was about to get dumber and party way too much. At this time I was also started to get sick and knew trouble was just around the corner. The dorm room was a large 16 bunk bed room. It was about 6 pm and the hostel was already blasting shitty radio music. Though complaining, I ordered some food and drank beers with the gang. The set-up for this bar was long and narrow, looking exactly like an Irish Pub. People just smoked inside and the whole bar filled with smoke. No idea why they allowed this, but no one apparently complained to the owner about this. This night got pretty rowdy.

Next day we signed up for “the deadliest road on earth”. This was a tour that you mountain bike down the world scariest roads. We got to the top of the mountain and got geared up like we were on a NASCAR team. Fully decked out in gear I felt like we were an assembled team from around the world to beat some world record. After some minor briefing, we heading straight down this road. We were going so fast we were passing other cars. Luckily, this beginning section wasn’t the deadliest but merely an introduction to get used to the bikes. We pulled over, had breakfast and then took a detour onto some gravel road. This gravel road was the beginning of the real deal. The guide explained that if we say a car we needed to be on the left side of the road (overlooking the 1000 ft. cliff, rather than be on the safe side). This was because the width of the car was the width of the road and easier for a bike to manage.

We jetted off and road extremely fast. Not ever scary for me, me and two other friends would stop and wait for everyone to go by, and then race as fast as we could to catch up to the front. Some of the sections were a bit steep. At times it would randomly ran and you had to ride you bike over waterfalls that landed on the road. This whole exertion lasted about 3 hours and we descended about 2 or 3,000 km. Easily the best part of Bolivia I experienced!

Got back to the hostel that night. At midnight it was Lise’s birthday and was party time. I was in fact feeing quite ill and needed to go to bed. Only problem is, I had a headache that could here everything from a pin drop to a sneeze and was living in a 16-bed dorm. Lots of things happened that night. Ask me later.

Next day, not feeling any better, we walked around the city. Tonight the plan was to eat some amazing steak, go to a women’s wresting match and go out into the nightlife. All but three occurred that night. Amazing steak, check, nightlife, check, but wrestling was on Sunday, not Saturday. This helped us opt out for some other activities that words can’t describe.

Next day, get the hell out of Wild Rover (worst hostel I have been at this whole trip) and move south to Sucre, Bolivia.