Time to Travel: Folklore, fun and fear in the world’s highest capital

During our month in Bolivia, we repeatedly returned to the capital La Paz, 3650 m above sea level, nestled in a bowl-shaped valley and surrounded by towering, snow-capped peaks. The steep walls of the valley are completely covered by a sea of two-storey, ochre-coloured brick buildings – the higher suburbs for the poor, the lower for the more well-to-do. The lowest point of the valley is the centre of town, meaning if you get lost wandering the narrow, winding streets of the crowded city, all you have to do to find your way back to the main square is walk downhill J. The inner city is a bustling, colourful mixture of tradition and tourism, where women dressed in the customary colourful frilled skirts mingle with young business-women in sharp suits and high-heels. You can buy everything from coca leaves and dried llama fetuses to the latest touch-screen phones and North American fashion. You can eat a two-course lunch in a tiny little hole-in-the-wall joint for 5 bolivianos (50 euro cents), or live it up in one of the expensive clubs, drinking cocktails for 40 bolivianos. The city is full of contrasts and surprises, and enthralled us from the start. We got to know so many sides of the city – we went to some great parties, we learnt about the historical and cultural importance of coca; we found out how the woman tie their colourful bundles; we explored colourful markets and discovered how to deal with the crazy traffic (the secret is that no-one ever gives way, just honks and hopes – as a pedestrian you just have to learn to dodge).

Endless sea of houses lining the 'bowl' of La Paz

Sunset over the San Francisco square

Llama fetuses for sale at the Witches Market

Music on San Francisco square

Echoes of the colonial past in the side alleys

Scary architecture

Learning about the importance of coca

The past and the present faces of coca

Wonderful textiles everywhere....

You can shop till you drop

Crazy traffic

The trick is to just walk and hope for the best

Inspecting the wares at a local market

Fresh fruit - yum!

So many colourful goods

Very useful armband from our hostel :)

And last but not least, we experienced the city’s greatest thrill – riding down what is known as ‘Death Road’. It is a 61-kilometre stretch of narrow, winding dirt road leading down from La Paz to Coroico – from an altitude of over 4000m to 1500m, from bleak alpine territory to lush tropical rainforest. The track is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it the ‘world's most dangerous road. ’It is estimated that before it was replaced by the new, much safer road, 200 to 300 people were killed yearly along the route – and you can see numerous crosses marking the spots where vehicles have fallen off the cliff. These days very few vehicles travel on the road, leaving it free for thrill-seekers like us to mountain bike down, down, down, slipping and sliding on the loose gravel, rattling over the rocks, splashing through the rivers and under the waterfalls that roar down the mountains towards the valley more than 1000m below. And despite the lack of traffic, the road continues to claim victims – at least a couple of bikers a year. But of course not us J Despite torrential rain and almost zero visibility, we survived ‘Death Road’ – we made it to the bottom soaked to the bone and covered in mud, with aching shoulders and bruised behinds, but grinning all over our faces. A perfect end to a wonderful month in beautiful Bolivia.