New York

Went on our mountain bike tour down the world's most dangerous road. It should be called the world's most ridiculously dangerous road. We met the tour people in the morning in a cafe in la paz, and took an hour bus ride up to the top of the road, 4750m. On the way up we had an official sign pointed out to us at a safety check point that read that gave a tally of the number of people killed on the road this year......13. At the top we stopped in a freezing cold car park and got into all our gear. Was so so cold. I was wearing 4 tee shirts to begin with. Got 5 mins to get used to our bikes, which were amazing. We then all got in a circle and the tour guide did a kind of naff prayer to some inca god to keep us safe and passed round some turpentine that we all took a swig of and poured on our front tyre to keep us safe.....then we were off. Jenny was very nervous.

The first 20km were pretty easy going, all free-wheeling down a tarmac road to get used to the bikes.

Then we had to cycle up a pretty steep bit, ending up with everyone in our group getting off and pushing. Trying to do any exercise at that altitude is a joke, I tried to be the hardman and cycle up past a few of the others in the group and felt like my head was going to burst and that my lungs were filling up with blood.

Once we'd got up this the road split into two, the old road and the new road. Most of the trucks and buses etc now take the new asphalt road, although there are still the odd lunatic or two that choose the scenic route up/down the old road. Luckily we didn't encounter any trafic other than other cycling groups, which is just as well, because the road is a total joke. It is literally a dirt track, 3 metres wide with a cliff on the left side that at points undercut the road and fell away 800m, waterfalls falling onto it at points, cliff eating big chunks out of it, and littered with crosses all the way down, signifying where people have disappeared over the edge.

We were instructed to aim our wheels in the left hand tyre tread all the way down. Was so so much fun, and Jenny began to get into it the further down we got. Was so so dangerous though, and it didn't feel like it would have take too much to end up out of control and over the edge, especially as the competitive edge and confidence levels rise the longer you're on the bike. We were told a couple of horror stories on the way down, at the most dangerous points about cyclists who had ended up at the bottom of the cliffs, which was reassuring. But we both survived and it was all good fun, and we both got the t shirts to prove it. All in all we descended to 1100m, 64km, in about 4 hours.

From here we opted to stay ina little town on the hillside near where we finished, rather than take the van back up the most dangerous road, back to La Paz. We got dropped in the centre of the little town called Coroico, and promptly ended up in one of the hotel vans to be driven off to see what they had to offer.

Coroico is a really really pretty little place, perched on the edge of a spur overlooking a valley and then beyond that both jungle covered hills and snowcapped mountains in the distance. Very picuresque. The climate here was much nicer than La Paz too, although it transpired we spent most of our time in the clouds whilst there. Anyway, we got taken up the hill to a hotel which offered us the most amazing deluxe room with TV for Jenny, balcony with amazing view over the valley, pool, hammocks, and sauna, all for 6 pounds a night which was nice. So we ended up staying here for 4 days. Got a bit stuck. Was so nice to sit in the sun again after so long without it. Also the place was so cheap to eat in. I convinced Jenny to eat in a little local place down an alleyway, which was busy every night with locals. She wasn't feeling well and so got a plate of rice. I got a massive bowl of soup and steak, rice, salad and chips for 38 pence.....which was nice, and I'm still alive.

From here we took a bolivian "taxi",

to a small place that smelled of urine, and had the most disgusting toilets in the world, in order to take a nightmare bus to Rurrenabaque, where we are now, on the edge of the Amazon basin, in the middle of nowhere. The reason the bus was so bad is a combination of the fact that: it drove at 15 mph the whole way here picking up everyone and everything in its path; there was something in the luggage compartment (other than the bag full of chickens that was taken off when we eventually arrived) that absolutely stank of meat/fish/dung that smelled the entire 17 hour trip; the trip was 17 hours long; there was another selfish person who liked the smell of their own farts; and the road was the continuation of the world's most dangerous road so the double decker bus teetered its way along the same 3 metre road with sheer drops, coming face to face with trucks every mile or so and having to reverse back to find suitable passing places, edging closer and closer to the edge to do so. Jenny had the windo seat, and we were on the top deck on the cliff edge side, and was a bit traumatised by the whole experience, so we may have to fly back.

Arrived here safely yesterday, and have booked ourselves onto a 3 day tour of the pampas to hunt for anacondas, pink dolphins, monkeys etc. Should be good, apart from the mosquitos which have bitten us both to death already. Also not looking forward to the spiders/scorpions in the jungle, have seen some dried ones in a restaurant here and they look big enough to eat a dolphin.