Breathing Practice in La Paz
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La Paz is the highest capital in the world at 3,650m (depending where you are) though Sucre is also a capital of Bolivia so not sure how that works. Either way, it is a very high city and you notice it every time you climb a step or walk up a slight incline.
Our first few days here were with Mace who was with us in Sucre and would soon be heading for Lima to meet Ash. We spent these days wondering the town, checking out the witches market, finding the best coffee around, and attempting to catch a chilotas wrestling show (without success).
A few days later we left Mace and La Paz for a week in Rurrenabaque. Upon arriving back in La Paz we booked in the death road ride for the following day.
We woke the following morning for collection at 7:30 though there was no indication of a bus until 8 when a lady found us and invited us down the road for breakfast. The bus was stuck in a queue for fuel.
We had heard of this issue previously from our salt flats driver though we didn’t realise the full scale until La Paz where these queues are so long and ever-present that it’s easy to assume they are just heavy traffic. If you look carefully enough though you’ll notice they go 5-10minutes without moving an inch.
After a light breakfast and tasty maize drink called ‘api’, we were finally in the van and en route to the death road. As we headed into the Andes, the sky darkened and became thick with rain clouds. “It’ll clear when we drop into the tropical jungle” we told ourselves. It did not and instead pissed down the entire ride and even throughout our ‘relaxing’ poolside drinks and dinner.
Nonetheless it was a worthy experience and despite the lack of views, there was enough visibility to appreciate the sheer cliffs we were riding along.
The waterfall corner where a rider fell to his death 8 months earlier.
Bonus zip line ride mid way down!
With two days between death road and our Huayna Potosi attempt, we mostly relaxed and practised breathing, with a few outings to explore the city further. We did also attempt again to watch some Cholitas wrestling without success.
The day before our ascent though was special as Kenzie turned 26! We started with presents before heading out for a nice brunch to start the day. We then attempted to head out to Valle de la Luna though after 30mins of waiting for the right colectivo it started raining so we pulled pin.
We instead had a relaxing evening ’tapering’ for Huayna Potosi. We did mission out for dinner though to an Irish pub which proved to have a distinct lack of beer on tap though the chocolate brownie desert made up for it.
The following day was day 1 of Huayna Potosi.
We intended to head to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca the morning after arriving back from Huayna Potosi however protests foiled this plan extending our stay in La Paz another day. We spent this days sleeping in between ventures out for food and another attempt at chilotas wrestling which we again hadn’t timed right.
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