The bus ride to La Paz from Uyuni was only 12 hours. Piece of cake, I thought. The service even came with dinner and breakfast. Luxury, right?
Nope.
The “road” that connected Uyuni to La Paz was most definitely not a road. I wouldn’t even call it a path. The bus was just traversing the open land, going through rivers, scaling boulders (at least it felt like that) and for some reason going around hairpin turns that couldn’t have been any more stable or smooth than just driving a straight line between the two cities. Apparently I’d been spoiled with my recent South American bus experiences.
Luckily, we made it in one piece. After crashing for a couple hours in my hostel, I set out to explore the city. Settled between mountain ranges at around 12,000 feet altitude, smaller and less developed than the other South American capitals I visited, La Paz holds a certain charm that makes it an enjoyable city to explore. Markets fill the city, ranging from typical farmers’ markets, to juice and food stalls selling 2 course lunches for about $1.25, to the “witches market,” riddled with everything from potion remedies to good-luck llama fetuses to souvenirs. It may be a bit grimy and dangerous, but La Paz doesn’t lack for character.
Feeling pretty content with life’s accomplishments after seeing the salt flats, I was basically playing with house money on my final day in La Paz. So, on the last full day of my trip, I went mountain biking down the World’s Most Dangerous Road, otherwise known as the “Death Road.” Since the skinny, rocky, curvy, uneven, blind-corner filled path wasn’t nerve-wracking enough in itself, the rain on top of the mountain made for a few slippery moments on the way down that needless to say puckered me up a bit. Luckily, some areas were heavily covered in fog, making it difficult to see that the edge I was riding next to was almost 1500 feet down in some areas.
Thankfully I survived the descent, unlike the 20-something bikers that have died in the past, and even have the T-Shirt to prove it!