BOLIVIA- La Paz- Dicing with the Death Road and Cholita wrestling

We arrived at la Paz airport after 2 flights and an extremely uncomfortable attempt at sleeping in an airport, and were suddenly transported back into chaos, noise, traffic and ladies in massive skirts and bowler hats. Hello Bolivia.
We were far away from the accommodation we had booked, and after asking at the tourist information desk, were directed to another collectivo minivan system, called 'trufis' here. This would take us to at least the city centre. They chucked our bags on the roof, and off we went, collecting anyone else on the street who looked vaguely interested in going the same direction. And when we got out at the last stop we just had to walk 10 metres and managed to get another trufi to the area of town we wanted. It turns out, the crazy traffic in la Paz is mainly a result of the sheer amount of trufis on the road. There were roads of traffic consisting of entirely trufis. An extremely cheap and convenient way of getting around (30p per person), you just wave it to stop when you want to get on and shout 'this corner' to get off. And everyone uses them, from policemen to market sellers.
Our trufi dropped us off about 3 minutes walk from the apartment, but it was enough to leave us breathless with our bags as we were back at altitude at about 4,000 metres. We were greeted by the owner of the apartment, Erica, who had left us lots of supplies and even put a bar of chocolate for us on the bed. This was definitely the place we wanted after a few weeks in dorm beds!
We had a message from Erica the next morning checking if everything was okay and did we want her to take us on a tour of the city. We had originally planned to take a walking tour anyway, so a private tour seemed like a great option to take up. She picked us up at 2.30pm, and first drove us to a viewpoint before dropping off the car and taking us on the cable car system. As la Paz is a mess of buildings built on the sides of mountains, the cable car is the quickest way to get around and is a lot quieter than the congested streets. We went all the way to the highest area, El Alto, which Erica explained was where most of the Bolivian immigrants lived but more recently people with money were building massive colourful blocks and decorated them lavishly for those who could afford it to have events.

Not the easiest city to build on

Feeeelllll the altitude

El Alto- the highest area of La Paz

Next we went to the area of the witches market, with stalls filled with bizarre remedies and lots of llama fetuses hanging up, which people believed were good luck to put under the base of a new building (apparently animal sacrifices are still occasionally used too). Finally we went to a huge temporary marketplace, which had been set up to sell minatures. From the 24th of January for one month, people bought minature versions of anything they wanted for that year- houses, cars, food, money, babies, laptops... They then placed them around a model of a crazy looking man and made him smoke a cigarette, and their minature versions would be a reality. An interesting idea, although surely spending money on buying minature money to wish for more money defeats the point...
La Paz also hosts the unique Cholita wrestling. This is where ladies in their full traditional costumes take each other on in a wrestling ring, because of course long plaits and big skirts are the perfect wrestling attire.
We were expecting weird, but this was really weird. The women, aged between 14 and 40, many who were missing teeth, paraded around the ring to get the crowd hyped up and then started flinging each other around, dragging each other by the plaits or feet, putting each other in headlocks, spitting water at each other and throwing each other into the crowd. Then the referee would join one side and start beating the other one up, and then the women would both start attacking the referee. Various men joined  in too, and everyone seemed to switch alliances many times. It was clearly played up, but they were still being fairly brutal, and we had to dodge when one of the male wrestlers shot the contents of his nose into the crowd. It was definitely a unique experience.

Elegant....

...Ladylike...

...and with only two teeth.

Our views 80% of the time

Ref is on the phone while the Cholita's are making a pretzel

Love a fair and impartial referee

Front row is a dangerous position

For some bizarre reason, I thought it would also be a great day out to cycle down the famous 'death road', the most dangerous road in the world (aka the naughtiest road for Paul and Audrey). We arranged this with a tour company, who provided full gear for us, guides, and the drive to the beginning of the road. It couldn't be that bad, could it?
It was fairly cold in La Paz anyway, so we had hoodies and coats, and had been advised that at the end it would be warmer due to the lower altitude and to pack swimming costumes as we would end up in a hotel with a pool, but we also forgot that we were starting at a higher altitude so it would be colder. As we drove uphill, snowflakes began to fall, and soon everywhere was covered in snow. I immediately started apologising to Jonno, this might not have been the cleverest idea to cycle in this. We stopped in a cabin for a breakfast of Oreos, luminous yogurt and banana bread, and the guide said we would wait a bit to see if the snow stopped.

What a lovely day for a cycle

As we were gearing up, Jonno began to have a migraine, really not ideal at all. With no way of returning to la Paz, he had no choice but to sit in the bus and try and sleep it off, not easy on the bumpy roads. The guide told the rest of us we could try and start riding but if it was too bad we could get back on the bus and drive further down to start.
I was already shivering before we started, and it didn't help being pelted with snow. Within minutes, my hands and feet were completely numb and I was breathing heavily just to try and keep warm. As soon as we stopped 10 minutes in and given the option to get back on the bus, I took it, and so did everyone else. We drove until the snow had disappeared, and then got back on the bikes. The start of the ride wasn't bad at all, but that bit wasn't actually the death road.

Once the snow disappeared it was a lot more pleasant

We reached the start of the death road, and immediately the road (if you can actually call it a road) became extremely steep and was covered in large, loose rocks. We stopped at various points for the guide to point out the most treacherous parts of the road, including skid marks down the sides of the mountain where buses had fallen, a bus poking out of the trees which had gone off the side and everyone inside had died, and various crosses on the roadside to commemorate people who have died. Some of the parts of the road have been named after the nationalities of the deceased, and it wasn't reassuring when the guide patted me on the back and said "we already have one English corner, we don't need another one", the perfect thing to say to someone already nervous.
We got back on the bikes, me feeling more and more apprehensive with each corner and feeling the skid on the wheels when I applied the brakes.

I wouldn't be smiling for too much longer..

Jonno's video from inside the van following us

After a few stops, Jonno emerged from the bus, still feeling dizzy but the worst of the migraine over, and about an hour from the bottom decided he felt okay enough to try and ride the rest of it, determined not to miss out. With my fear and Jonno a) still not feeling wonderful and b) not wanting to leave me, we were the slowest in the group, but eventually we got down, me breathing a sign of relief that it was over. And now I know extreme downhill mountain biking is not for me.

Oh how nice, a bus that has fallen to it's death with everyone on it

Reassuring gravestones along the way

Here comes Jonno!

So very safe

At least the scenery was pretty

Glad to be finished, taking comfort in a nearby pup!

Been there done that got the t shirt.. now lets go

We had one more day to enjoy our nice apartment in la Paz, in which we unfortunately smashed one of the lampshades so had to go hunting for a new one and the only place that had something similar recognised we were desperate and increased the price twice. Jonno also was in desperate need of a haircut and beard trim, luckily we found a street full of barbers where they all saw the dire situation and were practically dragging him in.
Bolivia was already an eventful place and we were less than a week in!