Adventures Around La Paz

As planned we had one night in La Paz before catching a local mini van to Sorata. The hostal in La Paz was great as we could leave our bikes and unwanted bags there free of charge. We had heard really good things about the mountain biking in Sorata so we were both keen to get there. After a 3 hour drive with a very long and windy final descent into Sorata we immediately bumped into our German friends who had arrived a day before. They recommended a great hostal that had no vacancies the night before for them but fortunately for us we were able to secure a room for the next few days.

Views of Sorata from hostal roof


We had a day exploring the town, the landscape was totally different from the last few weeks, warmer and greener, as we were now 1500m lower than the altiplano region. On a clear day the town has great views of two nearby +6300m peaks. We also managed to book a ride with a local mountain bike company for the next day.

The mountain biking in Sorata definitely lived up to its reputation. We did two incredible runs in the surrounding hills, the majority of which was on hand built single track trails with some scree slopes and old farms tracks thrown in the mix. Both runs had approximately 2000 vertical meters of descent each. The full suspension downhill bikes were a nice change from our touring machines although all four people in our group managed to loose control of them at least once!

Unloading bikes at 4700m

Leanne at the start of the descent

Top of 2nd run

Scree slope

Leanne on the scree



Ben hoping this is covered by travel insurance

After a couple days recovering from the downhill expedition it was time to get back to La Paz. We had a couple of kiwi mates returning from the jungle so we caught up with them over some of the hostal’s brilliant home brew. A very last minute decision was also made that night to tag along with the German girls on a three day trek starting the next day.

Slightly worse for wear we meet up with the Germans the next morning and headed off to do the Takesi trail. Our attempts at finding a local bus to the start of the trial failed but we found a taxi driver willing to make the 1.5hr trip out of La Paz for a good price, his poor station wagon bottomed out a number of times on the very rough road but he did not seem too concerned.

Road to start of Tekesi trail

Heading towards the pass

View from summit

The trail climbed up to a 4500m pass before dropping 3000m over the next 2 days to the tropical Yungas valley below . Again the Bolivian scenery was awesome and the weather couldn’t have been much better for us. The first day was spent ascending to the pass then descending on an ancient inca path to a camp spot next to a river in the valley below. We were momentarily in the mist with the llamas and sheep but that disappeared by the time we reached camp.

Entering the fog with the llamas and sheep

Local village

Camp spot

Day two we continued walking down passing a couple of villages, a precarious river crossing and an aqua duct before arriving in a town with a hostal. The final day was a couple of hours walk to the ’main’ road where we waved down a bus headed back to La Paz. We all soon realised looking out the window was not such a good idea as the narrow, one lane dirt road, weaved up the valley with the drop to the side dramatically increasing in size every minute.

Everyone’s legs were destroyed from walking downhill with packs on as opposed to coasting down on bikes so the next day or two were spent relaxing in La Paz. Once the pain had dissipated I (Ben) was keen to hit up some of the mountain bike trails around La Paz. The guide who took us in Sorata recommended getting in touch with a local Bolivian who knows all the best downhill tracks and was someone he described as a very good rider. I meet up with Mauricio the next day and soon found out he was not just a very good rider but one of the best in South America and races on the mountain bike downhill world cup circuit! I had an awesome day riding with him trying my best to stay on his tail but inevitably losing sight of him until he waited up for me.

More mountain biking in La Paz



Sunset over La Paz

Staying in a very touristy hostal it seemed everyone who visited La Paz was either raving about having ridden down the “World’s Most Dangerous Road” or couldn‘t stop talking about how nervous they were because they were about to. We wanted to see what all the hype was about and figured since we already had our touring bikes in La Paz we could give it a go on them and save a bit of money by doing it ourselves.

So early one morning we waved down a station wagon taxi who was more the happy to throw our bikes in the back and drive us to the start of the ride about 45min uphill out of La Paz. We felt a bit cheeky getting dropped off next to at least 5 tour operators and 50 punters.

Initially we had a freezing cold 20km tarseal descent before stopping at a toll gate to buy tickets for the world’s most dangerous road. After a short climb it was onto the famous off road downhill. The scenery was spectacular, the road was narrow at times, there were some big drops off the side but to go off the edge you would have to seriously stuff up. Leanne and I rattled our way down on our touring bikes as groups speed past on nice full suspension downhill rigs. Although, it was satisfying beating most of the groups to the bottom as they all had to stop for their slower less experiences riders.

Start of "The World's Most Dangerous Road"













The valley below was stinking hot as we have dropped from 4700m to 1200m. There was an 8km uphill option to the town of Coroico where buses back to La Paz depart from. Being so hot we took a chance and followed the river downhill for another 6km to another town. As luck would have it a bus was making a toilet stop for its passengers, they had a couple of spare seats and room below for our bikes so we jumped on board for the 3 hour trip back to La Paz on the ’new’ road. We both agreed someone has done a fantastic job marketing the ride as a “must do” in Bolivia. It is nice to say we have ridden the world’s most dangerous road but in terms of “real” mountain biking it has nothing on the Sorata or La Paz trails, having said that, it is still a ride we would recommend for the scenery even if you had no off road experience at all.

Having spent at least 5 days longer in La Paz than we expected it is now time to leave. We have a bus booked heading 3 hours south to Oruro where we then board a train heading 6 hours further south to Uyuni. Uyuni is one of the gateway towns to the Solar de Uyuni (salt flats). Our plan to ride out and camp for a night. We’ll see if that is possible once we get there and no doubt our next blog will explain how we got on…