Christmas in La Paz and the Death Road

The Parador Santa Maria is an old 18th Century house that has been turned into a hotel, and very nice it is too. The town of Sucre itself is very laid back and very rich in the Spanish architecture that shows the history of the region to its best. Unfortunately for the first day I was there I got the first attack of gastro, which laid me up and made sure that I didn’t make it very far from the very nice bathroom I had!!


Main Square in Sucre


The hill at the back of town


Krusty burger anyone?


The View from the top floor of the hotel

While I was there the first rain fell, which made me ask some serious questions about the road to Cochabamba. It ‘s apparently 50% tarmac and 50% dirt which made me reconsider the wisdom of trying to achieve 350km in one day with it raining. I decided to backtrack to Potosi, and then through to Oruro, a hundred km further but all tarmac. One night in Oruro was enough, an old mining town where the mine has run out. If you’re coming this way I suggest you avoid it unless it’s a one-night stopover like me. So instead of spending Christmas in Cochabamba I ended up spending it in La Paz.

La Paz is huge, I came in “the back way” from the top of the mountain, but the traffic soon started to live up to its reputation, the last 20 km took me two hours to do. There are hundreds of small vans that act as buses around the city. They all stop as and when they want so it seems and the resulting traffic jams is a nightmare!! They all use the horn to signal their presence, so the cacophony of tooting is ever present (like India) Apart from that because its built on the side of a mountain it doesn’t seem to have a centre, or heart of the city. Christmas trees and decorations were everywhere and the children were just as excited as anywhere else in the world.


The Christmas Eve market in La Paz


The women don't wear this dress for the tourists


The flowers street was very popular

With Christmas day over I decided to try to book one of the bicycle tours of the “Death Road” that are run by many companies in La Paz. After searching I found one that looked “professional” enough, but they didn’t think they would have enough people to run the tour on the Sunday. After hearing nothing I decided to get the Wombat out, rain or shine, and go to find the road myself. On the road to Coroico 54km north east of La Paz there is a turning to the right, just past the crest of a hill. I 'stoped there initially, but couldn't decide if it was the right place and carried on for another 20km until I asked a woman at the side of the road where the Camino de Muerte was? She indicated it was back the way I had come and at the top of the mountain. When I arrived back at the original spot, a family had stopped to take photos and confirmed that yes this was the start of the death road, and felt confident that I would be able to make it on the bike. I decided that would start down the hill, and if it was bad then I would turn around, at least being able to say that I had ridden some of it. I kept going. Half way down there had been a landslide and a van with some Colombian tourists were stuck, trying to decide that if they turned around they would meet anything else coming down!! I told them there were some cyclists on their way, but I didn’t know if the support vehicles were going to follow them. Their driver seemed to think I’d have no problem getting over the pile of earth that was blocking the way, so I turned on the video and gave it a go. It was softer than I thought, and when the back wheel started to spin and slide towards the edge, I thought I was going to be in trouble. The van driver and his passenger managed to keep me on track and I finally made it across. There was no more traffic until I reached the end, where the support vehicles for the cycling tours had obviously taken the alternative (new) road to collect their charges.


No room for mistakes





I left La Paz the next morning, a little sore after the exercise of the previous day, but satisfied that I’d done one of the things on the bucket list. The ride out of the city was very easy, and I thought that I’d wait until I reached the outskirts before filling with fuel. But each gas station that I passed had a very large que outside, and it wasn’t until I stopped at one of the last stations that the policeman that was there told me there was no gasoline and I would have to go back to one that did have some. It turned out that overnight the government had put the price of petrol up by 83% and the price of diesel up by 76% there are now transport strikes everywhere. I did get fuel, and cheekily pushed my way to the front of the que to get it. It was then a short ride through to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titikaka.

It was then a short ride through to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titikaka.


From my limited Spanish this was where they built the Kontiki Rafts


The South end of Lake Titikaka


The view from the hotel window

Unfortunately they could only give me one nights accommodation, and the next morning when we tried to find another couple of nights in another Hotel they were all booked up too. So the decision was made for me that I should move on round the lake and into Peru.