La Paz and Biking to Coroico

La Paz is a great city. It was nice to be able to leave all our stuff in the hostal and just walk for hours. We headed along the main street towards the Student Plaza, although we had to go the long route because of a short lived protest that was going on. Having boycotted any and all museums after our overdose of Peruvian ones, we contentedly shopped and walked around all day. The black market is cool, it has everything you could want and is not the shady black market that comes to mind, rather it is just called El Mercado Negro. But I am sure you can find shady things there if you want.
Our hostal was right near the witches' market, which sells incense and wierd idols and, most disturbing of all, dried llama fetuses. The superstition is that you need to sacrifice and bury a llama under your new house for good luck, and if you don't have the money to do so, the fetus is good enough. We did not like walking past the witches' market.
The next day we went mountain biking, and it has got to be the most life-threatening thing I have ever done, it even tops the death hike that we did in Moorea. The ride is known as 'the world's most dangerous road', and wow, it is. It goes basically from La Cumbre to Coroico, about 60 km, and it is so scary. It is unpaved, with very loose gravel, and it is only one lane wide. The lane is bordered on one side with steep, unforgiving cliffs with waterfalls that flow onto the road and wash it out completely in the rainy season, and a 1000 meter drop off. So scary. Oh, and uphill traffic has the right of way, which not only means that it is downhill traffic that has to back up to find a bay in the road if there are two oncoming cars, but it also means that uphill traffic gets the side closer to the cliff, which means that you on your little dirt bike have to be closest to the dropoff. The road is scary enough without traffic, but then most of the curves are hairpined and blind, and it is basically only enormous trucks and buses, along with pickups and ambulances, that go on this road. And every 100 meters or so are little crosses, reminders marking where drivers did not make it. Needless to say, I was terrified of falling off the cliff and it is against every survival instinct to then be on the very edge of the road, so that you can fall of the cliff instead of being hit by a truck. Scary.
It was so beautiful though. We were in cloud forest for part of the time, and there were waterfalls and amazing trees and vultures that would sweep down close to you (probably not a good omen) and the clouds and sun were gorgeous. At the end of the ride we got beer and an all you can eat buffet and a shower, which was key because the last hour or so was so dusty that our eyebrows were covered and uniform with the dust on our faces. We have a great picture of the two of us, we look great.
But there was more scariness to be had: we had to drive on the same road back to La Paz. Yes, we had the right of way, which was nice, but it was after sunset (which was incredible) and so the black void that I didn't want to fall in was just right there, and I couldn't help but stare into it the whole time. We stopped for 20 minutes at one point because there was a pile up as 2 trucks met at a blind corner but then couldn't back up because of the line of cars.
Needless to say, we made it back with everyone we had started with. It was so cool, and the stars on the way back (it was a 4 hour drive back, so biking was all day) and then the sea of lights from La Paz was beautiful. More fun to be had!