La Pazzzzz

I arrived in La Paz two days ago and am finding it more tiring trying to chill out here than cycling! I was hoping on just spending a day here, but because the city sprawls so far and as there´s a 500m vertical climb out of the valley (over a couple of kms) I thought I needed an extra day to plan my escape!

I cycled from Potosi with the two english guys, which for the first three days was over pass after pass, dropping down to just over 3000m and then climbing up to well over 4000m. The road then reached the plains at an altitude of around 3800m where the riding became loads easier, although after a couple of hours of totally straight and flat riding it became a bit boring.

The villages that we passed through were shockingly poor. At the entrance to each village there was a sign listing the organisations that provided food, water, sanitation, health care etc for the people. The list was huge, listing the WFP, UNICEF, USAID, PLAN and so on. It seemed that the villages would find it hard to survive without their help.

Cycling through the suburbs into La Paz took a couple of hours. La Paz itself is built in a steep sided valley, but the suburbs climb up the valley sides and spill out for miles onto the plains above. The view of La Paz was pretty spectacular though as the road dropped steeply into the valley.

I´ve now cycled 6900km and am hoping that my bikes going to survive the next couple of thousand kms. From here I´m cycling along the southern shore of lake Titicaca to Cusco and then dropping down to the coast. I just hope that I can get out of La Paz in one piece!!