August 4 - 8 - La Paz, Bolivia

I took the morning bus to La Paz and arrived there around 1pm. I decided to head to a hostel called Wild Rover which had been recommended to me by a friend. To get there I first tried grabbing a cab. When I got in another man got in right after me to share the cab which made me uneasy. About 30 seconds later, the cab driver stopped to pick up another man in plain clothes who claimed to be the police and demanded to see my passport. Luckily I always travel with my bag in the back seat with me and had heard about that particular scam where they show a phoney badge and procede to rob you off your passport. I immediately got out of the cab with my bag and after about 10 minutes of walking was able to find another taxi to take me to the hostel.

Cholitas wrestling

Once again I arrived right in the middle of some sort of celebration/holiday and the taxi had to drop me off several blocks away from the hostel because of a parade. I had to make my way through the parade and crowd to get to the hostel. Luckily when I got there they had a bed for me and I was finally able to relax. I met the girl sleeping above me named Lauren who was from England. We talked for about an hour and then I went upstairs to the bar in the hostel to check my emails. Lauren met me up there after about an hour and we started talking about our plans for the next week. She had planned on staying a few days in La Paz, doing the Death Road tour and then going down to do the Salt Flats tour. Seeing as that was exactly what I had planned, we decided to travel together. We spent the rest of the day and night in the hostel at the bar and went to bed a little late and a little drunk...

The Death Road

The next day we wandered around and looked for a place to book the Death Road bike tour. After booking it we decided to join some of the guys from our dorm to a Cholita wrestling match. Basically it was like the WWE except with fat old Bolivian men vs traditionally dressed Bolivian women. It was quite ridiculous and slightly entertaining because it was so ridiculous but wasn't as great as everyone had told us it would be. That night we hung out at the bar for a bit but didn't drink and went to bed early so that we would be ready for the morning.
The Death Road was the most dangerous road in Bolivia, having an average of 26 vehicles per year veering off the cliffs, until 4 years ago when a newer and safer highway was built. It is now used almost solely for biking. Riding down it we could see why it was so dangerous. The first part of it was very narrow, sometimes only wide enough for one vehicle,and it was rough and gravely with a steep cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other. The bike ride took about 4 or 5 hours in total and was really nerve racking but also a lot of fun. After the ride we had dinner and a swim and then bused it back to La Paz. We spent the evening once again in the bar with everyone we had met at the hostel.

The Death Road

The next morning we went to book our tour of the Salt Flats. We were not very productive as we were both hung over. After we booked it, we went back for naps and then once again back to the bar in typical Wild Rover style.
The last morning we packed up our things and checked out. The hostel let us store our bags there since our bus wasn't till 7pm. We went to the Witch's Market with some friends but didn't buy anything even though we needed warm clothes for the Salt Flats tour. That evening we had to say bye to everyone we met and headed to the bus station. We didn't actually see much of La Paz, which I'm not too upset about because I'm not a huge fan of cities. I met a lot of cool people and had a great time at the hostel. It was good to have some fun after the few days of shit that I had been through before. It got me somewhat back into the mood to travel and got my mind off of the tragedy that happened back home.