We took the bus from Cochabamba to La Paz. It was a long way of which the first part very hard because of long climbs and the last part boring. And that information was right. From Cochabamba on the climb seemed never ending and the last part was indeed boring.

After a bus ride of about 8 hours, we arrived in La Paz. Then we had to try and find the Casa de ciclistas. That’s a place where cyclists can stay. Usually it’s in people’s homes where you get a room, can do the laundry, shower and use the kitchen. The one in La Paz is a bit different. The owner doesn’t live there (anymore), so it’s a place completely for and by cyclists.

When we arrived there, it was already pretty full with other cyclists but we just fit. It was a great group of people (men) and we got along very well. We had planned on staying maybe 2 or 3 days, but ended up staying 10 days… La Paz is a nice city, we had a great time and we met a lot of other nice people. Everybody struggled with leaving.

We met up with Mel and Chris again, since they were also in the city. We had lunch in a restaurant which is owned by a Dutch guy. There are many Dutch dishes on the menu and of course we had some of them.

We also did a walkingtour through the (center)city. Very informative. We were told that when people build a house, they need to do an offering to Pachamama (mother earth) to ask her permission to use the land. It is said that this offer used to be a human. Nowadays they use lamafoetussus. They can be bought at the witches market and then it’s buried underneath the new house.

But when somebody wants to build a large building, there has to be a larger offer. The only thing that’s big enough, is a human being and with very large buildings even 2 human beings; a man and a woman. It’s been said that this still happens. They find a homeless person and get him/her so drunk that they pass out and then they burry them (alive) underneath the house.

Close to La Paz, between La Paz and Coroico, there’s a road that’s called the ‘Death Road’. Up until about 7 years ago, that road was the only connection between La Paz and the town of Coroico and therefor the northeast of the country. The reason it’s called the ‘Death Road’ is because it’s a very narrow dirtroad with a high mountain wall on the one side and a very deep and steep ravine on the other side. The road is actually only wide enough for 1 car, but also all the bus and truck traffic had to use it. Of course they had to pass eachother once in a while and sometimes that went wrong… Quiet regularly, a vehicle (also busses with passengers) ended up in the ravine and there was nothing that could save them then.

They opened a new, paved, road about 7 years ago between La Paz and Coroico. The old road is only used sporadically by motorized traffic so they thought to make it into a tourist attraction and started organizing downhill biking on the old road. This means that you ‘do’ the road on a downhill mountainbike, about 64 kms (39 miles) including a paved part. The ads are spectacular and you get a t-shirt to prove you survived the road.

We could have done the road on our own bikes (many cyclists do that), but we didn’t want to. They don’t use full suspension mountainbikes for nothing. We didn’t want to risk our own bikes and also didn’t want to have to be so carefull not to damage them. That would spoil the fun. And our tires are not very good for roads like that.

And we were so happy that we weren’t on our own bikes! Now we were able to enjoy every single bit and race down that road as fast as possible without having to worry or think about damaging the bikes. The bikes were very comfortable, we almost didn’t feel the bumps, holes and loose rocks. The outfit was a bit over the top (motorcycle helmet, elbow and knee/shin protection), but that didn’t spoil the fun. And the guide was happy that finally he had people in his group who could keep up with him…

It was so much fun to just race down that road like that. We started at about 4800 meters (14.500 ft) where it was very cold and ended in the jungle at about 1200 meters (3600 ft) where it was very hot. Went back to La Paz after lunch and we had a great day.

A few others from the house did it on their own bikes and weren’t too happy about it afterwards. They couldn’t go faster than about 5 kms/h (3 mph) and didn’t get to Coroico till dark. They had to spend the night there and go back to La Paz the next day. Not nearly as much fun as we had.

Even though we had a great time and again it was hard to leave, after 10 days it was enough. We had to move on or else we would never get to Peru. And Peru was so close now…

So we left, for a 2 day journey to Copacabana (the famous beach in Brasil is named after this town). From Copacabana it’s only a few kms to the Peruvian border. But when we were only a few yards away from the house, Ron discovered his tire was very flat. So before we went anywhere we first had to replace the inner tire.

To get out of the city we had to climb 450 m (1350 ft) in 12 kms (7 miles), on a highway with stinking cars. Not very nice, but okay. Then a lot of flat and up and down.

That night we camped at the shore of Lake Titicaca, at the highest Marina on earth (3850 m/ 12.000 ft), a tip from one of our friends from La Paz. We had a great spot, right at the waterfront with a beautiful view. It got very cold, when we woke up in the morning there was a layer of ice on our tent and on our panniers. Fortunately, the sun caused it to warm up quickly so the tent could dry.

The last part to Copacabana is beautiful. The lake is beautiful and blue and enormous, it’s like you look at the Mediterranean Sea from above. And we had lots of opportunity to look down on it, because there was a lot of climbing to do again. Copacabana is very touristic, but it’s a nice town.

There’s a famous church in Copacabana. There have been witnessed miracles here through a sculpture of a Black Madonna. You can have your car blessed by a priest. There are many stalls where you can buy flowers and other decorations to decorate your car with. The priest comes by with a bucket of water and blesses the car and the people in it.

That would be something; have our bikes blessed. Especially Ron’s because he had 2 flat tires in the last 2 days. We bought some decorations and the lady we bought it from decorated our bikes with them and then called the priest over to have them blessed. He mumbled something and then threw water on the bikes and on us. So now we’ve been blessed for a good and save journey!

Copacabana is only 10 kms (6 miles) from the Peruvian border, so the last night in that town also meant the last night in Bolivia. We were going to have dinner with 2 others from the house in La Paz (Kristof from Belgium and Nick from Australia) who had also showed up at the hostal we were staying in. Bolivia wouldn’t let us go without a bang. As soon as we left the hostal there was a bright flash and right after that a hard bang; thunder and lightning! Right after that it started hailing, within no-time the streets were completely white. Later, the hail turned into rain and the water was running down the streets in rivers. Thank you Bolivia! Fortunately, the next day it was dry again so we could leave.