Back in La Paz and the same hostel mainly for the free beer a night, we were keen to do something other than shop, as that's pretty much all we'd done here previously. With death road on offer and me keen to take it on, Jen wasn't overly confident with that idea given her recent bike rides in South America so we opted for some quad biking instead.
Getting a taxi there as part of the ticket price (but left to fend for yourself to get back!) we turned up at the quad centre a bit out of La Paz, where we were met by its British co owner, who wasn't only British but was from Dartford, about 5 minutes away from Jen's home. Small world.
We got suited up looking the part...
And with me missing my Leicester shirt I just parted with, I was overjoyed (probably not that happy) to see that I had the foxes on my gloves.
With a few practice laps of a quiet road next to the offices, we thought we would be taken in a car or something to the dirt track but they had other ideas. We had to drive our quads up the busy roads and get there ourselves. With Jen feeling massively unconfident, we set off with our guide on a motorbike in front, Jen next with another guide on the back of her quad, and me at the back on my tod. Jen was going about 20kpm with me dropping back just so that I could speed up every once in a while cos she was painfully slow!
Anyway, we got there in the end and with the guide leaving Jen to it, we followed the guide on the bike around a dirt track high above the city. Didn't stop her from driving straight into a mud wall though which was hilarious, unfortunately I wasn't expecting it so no photo.
It was pretty cool, not just for the fun of the quad biking, but for the view you could get from up here. And the non English guide speaking was determined to get a photo of us standing on our quads for some reason. He won though.
Told you the view was pretty decent......
More views as we nervously walked out onto the small path you can see on the right there.
Here we are on that path, posing for a picture, trying not to look down to a certain fall to our deaths. Get the photo and get outta there was Jen's game.
Coming back down we stopped at the lake you can see from the picture above to see a wedding taking place nearby and they had got the wedding party out on the lake in a boat.
That will do for an adrenaline rush.......for Jen anyway! Back to La Paz and it's time to up the ante. Remember that 50ft wall I told you about in the first La Paz blog? Well it was time for me to be one of those nutters and don the spiderman outfit....
.....clever Jack has to go and put it on backwards though so time to redress.
Now I look like spiderman!
Had to have a bit of a practice indoors on a tiny wall, as they gave me their advice on how to operate the rope and I was all set. It was then that I regretted wearing my primark £3 plimmies which offered next to no grip whatsoever.
But we have to live with our decisions so it was time to strap up and face the music.
All that strapping you can see above is obviously for safety, you have a break which you can operate yourself, there is a guy at the top operating a safety break and a guy at the bottom who also has a safety break. But there was a problem, the guy at the bottom was still at top. I was kitted up with a rope and a safety rope, this guy only had his rope, and the nutter without hesitating leapt out the window and took all of about 4 seconds to descend to the bottom.
I peered out and realised it was going to take me somewhat longer! Its pretty un-nerving when you peer out for the first time and realise you immediately regret your decision, Ron Burgandy style.
But being a man, we cannot back down and I slowly lowered myself over the edge, with a little poo trying to make an appearance but luckily I managed to hold it in, you can probably make out the clenching there.
In the training indoors on the miniwall we were told to try and keep straight, as soon as you get out there, you forget all that and you're just going for it. The nervous feelings disappeared and adrenaline kicked in.
Now this may look like I'm a pro and I'm running down the wall, but all it actually is, is me slipping off the wall in my £3 primark plimmies, trying to regain my horizontal position miserably.
Finally getting back on the wall I kinda got in the groove and made my way down until the best bit comes around, the 20ft free fall (which you can opt out of it you don't fancy it). Letting go of your rope, leaving the breaks in the hands of the instructors, I pushed away from the wall and they let go off the breaks, sending me plummeting to the floor, which was an awesome rush, I'm guessing only equalled by bungee jumping or sky diving. Either way it was wicked and I'm really glad I did it.
With our last night in La Paz and with me feeling like we should treat ourselves after successfully scaling a 50ft wall, we went out to a steakhouse. Given that we had both eaten dinner and had a drink for the total cost of a pound previously it was a bit extravagant splashing out 30 quid on this meal for two, but it was so super worth it.
We got a shot of tequila to start with (but they ran out so we had a shot of rum which we mixed with coke) along with a bowl of cheesy nachos, followed by a massive meat platter consisting of a huge burger, pork ribs, jack daniels glazed steak, and a kebab with chicken, alpaca, blood sausage and normal sausage, all complimented by chips, a bottle of wine and a free unlimited salad bar. You'd happily pay more than that in England and the standard here was top.
It was however, way to much and we had to take home about a quarter of it in a doggy bag, which still filled this box up.
One more night in the hostel and, finishing of the steakhouse leftovers for lunch the next day, we jumped on a bus to Oruro, where we would get a train to our next location, Uyuni, home to the world renowned salt flats.
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