Not So Peaceful La Paz and The Death Road

View of the city of La Paz from El Alto

I love La Paz. It is a reasonably small city for being the center of economical and political power of Bolivia (about 1 Million inhabitants) and it is niched, at 3700m, at the feet of 5000m to 6000 m peaks, including the Huayna Potosi (the snowy mountain on the picture above). 300 m above the city is the Altiplano, a high plateau shared between Bolivia and Peru, from where views of the city are incredible.

The pace of the city is close to mad in the 'centro', where the traffic of pedestrians, cars, micros (buses) and minibuses is incessant (quite literally: cars never stop at red lights), while residential areas like la Zona Sur are much more quiet and posh. In town, there are markets everywhere and street vendors sell about anything, from DVDs to shampoos, from alpaca sweaters to vitamins. Women in traditional indigenous clothing talk on their cellphones while businessmen in suits chew coca leaves. People watching is my favourite activity here. The nightlife is incredible too, it starts early, unlike in Argentina, and ends in the morning at a time most people go to work. On top of all that, it is a backpacker heaven because it is very inexpensive - lunch costs 1 to 2 dollars, about the same as a taxi ride. I decide to use La Paz as a center for other activities, including the descent of the death road on a bike and a trip to the Amazonian jungle.

The death road - camino de la muerte - is the name of a segment of the old road between La Paz and Coroico. It is named like this because many people died every year (about 200) when it was still used by autobuses, trucks and cars. It is unpaved and very narrow, which caused many trucks and buses to fall over - particularly during rainy season - and because the vertical dropoff on its edge is sometimes over 600m, there are not many chances of survival for their occupants. A new road exists since 2006 and only a few cars and trucks still use the old one, in addition to the mountain bikers. Many less people die on the road now since it is not terribly dangerous on a bike when it is dry and when one keeps their two hands on the handlebar and their eyes on the road. The best parts of the experience are the views, and the vegetation change along the 61 km: the ride starts from an altitude of 4700m (basically: no vegetation) to arrive at 1200m in the jungle. Surviving it - and getting the t-shirt to prove it - is quite nice too...

El Camino de la Muerte at San Pedro Waterfalls