So the bus trip to La Paz was only 9 hours which by now for us is a "quck" journey. It was however once again up sone of the winding roads hanging off cliff edges, when I say hanging off I mean literally in these countries there is no safety barriers to hit first ….nothing just the cliff edge tried to do a wee video (see below) b ut I don't think it really captures the height your at or how deadly it is or that the movie is the wrong way around haha!!

First night in La Paz we were all set to party, we had been at 2000m in Cochabamba for a week and didn’t get altitude sickness when we did our salt flat tour so we figured we were fine to get stuck into partying at 3600m … ..that didn’t pan out well I was in bed for 10pm and Marc was throwing up at 6am….although he did stay up drinking so I claim it’s a hangover but he refuses to admit he was hungover even though we were floored all day and didn’t move from bed.

Let the partying begin….

Either way after a few days rest the paryting began, we hooked up with our mate Rob who we had met in Buenos Aires, and so it began….. for the next 2 weeks we just livd off cheap rum & whisky from the local shop to save cash and had the time of our lives haha

We had a private room at the Wild Rover, the bar is more geared towards “Magaluf” style activities e.g get urself naked for free shots - so us old farts ususally partied on in the room with other like minded people that we met. There is however no heating in the rooms and the toilet was outside so by god it was cold – I hate the cold it was awful running to the loo in the night but we stayed there cause we had a nice outside terrace to sit in the daytime and noone bothered us at that side of the building so it was all good .

The Vindaloo Challenge

So after not having an Indian for over 3 months we were craving a curry bad so one night we headed out for curry and it was delicious. There is however a “Vindaloo Challenge” where if you can finish this curry you get a t-shirt – so after me complaining that I couldn’t find a curry hot enough even in India it was enevitable that I was going to have to try this. So on the 2^nd visit myelf and Rob deicided to take on the challenge….the point here is that Rob had actually completed this before but several years ago and had clearly forgot how painful it was.

The potion itself was huge but after 2 mouthfuls of what can only be described as a bowl of god knows how many chopped chillies with a slight curry taste I seriously though no way can I do this. I had the cheek to order rice and a nan aswell. Rob had had a fair few mouthfuls and was now red in the face, sweating and powering on so it was do or die !!!   I was literally putting it in and not chewing and washing it down with beer, by the end I was not only full but in serious agony, my last bite was a potato and I literally had to swallow the sick back down me!   We both finished as the rest of the restaurant looked on we got the approval and our T-shirts – I truly now feel like I have achieved in life . Needless to say it wasn’t long before Rob was in the loo removing some curry and sorry for the details but withing an hour it started and I spent at least 7 or 8 times that night with the vindaloo runs of sheer utter ring sting like you wouldn’t believe !!!!!!!!

It’s time to leave

We did venture out for the day to the witches market, nearly killed ourselves walking there as its all hills and the altitude really makes you soooo out of breath its horrid. They have all sorts of llama clothes and loads of colourful bags, scarfs and the usual tat at markets, however they do also have llama feutuses for sale, which we found out are used in the foundations when building a new house to bring good luck, rumour has it in the old days they used to use some drunk off the street knock him on the head and stick him under the house !!!!!!!

We had to drag ourselves from La Paz it was easy to get stuck there with Rob and we made great friends too with Anna & Lee who we spent loads of time with before we all had to leave. Next was the mission in getting to Machu Piccu before my birthday, it was going to be some mission as we should have left La Paz a day earlier to recover.

Costs

Private room in Wild Rover shared bathroom - £13.80

Bottle of local rum - £1.38

Bottle of local whisky - £2.77

Bus from Cochabamba – La Paz - £6 each

Cost of a vindaloo curry - £4.15