So La Paz…this city could rank among the coolest big cities I’ve seen so far on this trip. It’s got an amazing feature in that if you start on the main street and walk in any direction away from it you start going up hill. The locals have to be in great shape around here. So we got in and spent the first night on the internet and eating pizza. We found this place that seels something called “The Interminable” which is the unfinishable. This is a pizza meant to feed twelve people and is 75cm in diameter. That’s about two and a half feet. We didn’t order that night. That would come later.
The next day was spent wandering around the city and preparing for the next day. That evening we went back to the pizza place and ordered “The Interminable”: a twelve person pizza to be eaten by just four guys. Even when you know the actual dimensions you have no concept of how large this pizza was until you see it. I’ve never seen a pizza this big, and trust me: I know my pizza. Julian and Fabrice each managed to eat one slice. I got down 1 3/4. Jordan managed to wolf down two whole slices. This resulted in him not wanting to eat much of anything for the next two days. He even has no desire to go near pizza at this point in time! After the pizza experience we went to the movies and saw Mission Impossible III. Could be my favorite of the series although I’ve never actually seen the first one.
The next day held our big adventure. Fabrice, Jordan, and I were going to tackle “The world’s most dangerous road on mountain bikes. This was part of an organized tour so it’s not like we were dashing off into something blindly. Still when you look at the stats this thing could be pretty darn intimidating to some people. The road goes from La Paz to Coroico. It’s an 80km road that drops over 4000meters. On average about 100 people die on this road every year. Our guide was awesome and very good at keeping us in line so we never really had anything to worry about. But it became pretty clear why the company is called Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking. When you’re squeezing your breaks for dear life on a bumpy treacherous road gravity becomes a rather harsh mistress.
We start out on a clear sunny mountain top and after equipement checks we race down the road at speeds well in excess of fast. We stroll through a drug check point and continue on. Then the dense wet fog hits and for the rest of the trip the road turns to bumpy dirt and gravel. This is fairly common on the ride but can cause a few problems. It makes the road very muddy and causes it to fly everywhere when you’re riding over it. For those of you who don’t remember: I wear eyeglasses, the only real reason being that I like to see stuff. But in this in case they were a hinderance as dirt and water kept flying on my face thus preventing me from seeing anything. The really need to invent eyeglass windsheild wipers or something. So with no real choice I took my glasses off in order to actually see. So I did most of the world’s most dangerous road in the fog, with fuzzy vision, on a slippery road, riding about two feet away from a 400 meter or so drop that would mean certain death if I lost my head for a split second. Was a nervous? Actually no. I was having too much fun.
So finally the cloud lifts and we can see the village of Coroico, our final destination. We get to the end, celebrate our survival with a round of beers, get our souvenir T-Shirts then climb into the van and head up to the hotel for a hot shower and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Jordan, sadly still feeling the effects from his pizza gorge the night before managed a piece of chicken, some jellow, and very little else.
We went back to La Paz in the company van, going back up the dangerous road. I must say the drivers are very brave going up and down this thing. Sometimes the road is barely wide enough to fit one vehicle and there are no gaurdrails. The locals often pray before going down. The next day was spent eating and playing Euchre. For a brief stint Julian wanted to go see the ruins of Tiwanaku: Bolivia’s most important archeaological site. Jordan, Julian, and I walked about a mile up a very steep hill and crammed into this very tiny bus with NO leg room for about an hour and got to the ruins only to find the entrance fee was 80 Bolivianos. Our guide book said it’d be less than a dollar. Not willing to pay that much we got back onto a bus, the driver joking this was the last bus back to La Paz.
We are still in La Paz but hopefully will be leaving today for Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. We’ve also loaded loads of different pictures in the Bolivia album that I know you’re just dying to see. Com’on, you know you are 
Peace to all and keep in touch.