Today I decided to overcome my fears and conquer the world's most dangerous road - or that's what the tour agencies would have me believe. The "death road" is a 64 km long stretch of road connecting La Cumbre and Coroico, with an altitude difference of 3500m. As most of the road is closed to traffic, it is an excellent opportunity for downhill mountainbiking.
In reality, the tour hardly deserves to be called most dangerous - which doesn't mean that it isn't a great and really fun tour! The road earned its title back when it was the main connection between La Paz and Coroico, with cars and trucks using it in both directions. Nowadays, there is a new road, and the old one is used almost exclusively by mountain bikers going downhill. The only real dangers are therefore stupidity and recklessness.
In the morning, we were picked up by a van and driven about an hour north, gaining 1000m of altitude, to La Cumbre at 4700m. There our bikes were unloaded and we received all necessary equipment: protective clothing, full-face helmets, gloves.
At first, it was really cold - no wonder with all the snow!
A little further down, I started noticing drafts of warm air and immediately felt better :-)
This is a nice view of the death road. The steep drop on one side is probably the cause for its name - any small accident can potentially end badly.
Of course, the cliff didn't stop the people from posing at its edge:
The guides took a whole bunch of pictures and videos and promised to give CDs to everybody - but so far, this hasn't happened :-\
The scenery continued to be stunning - and changing rapidly as it got warmer. There were several waterfalls along the way; once we even had to cycle through one.
On the way back in the evening, there suddenly was a traffic jam. We all went to the front to find out what was happening - and they told us that the road was temporarily blocked because the president was coming through.
How exciting! Catching a glimpse of the Bolivian president! When he finally came, however, it was just a series of Jeeps, some with police lights, some saying "seguridad presidencial", some plain black - but all going way too fast for the state the road was in ;-)
Finally, a little later, we got a nice overview of the death road from the other side of the valley:
Quite impressive, isn't it?
In reality, the tour hardly deserves to be called most dangerous - which doesn't mean that it isn't a great and really fun tour! The road earned its title back when it was the main connection between La Paz and Coroico, with cars and trucks using it in both directions. Nowadays, there is a new road, and the old one is used almost exclusively by mountain bikers going downhill. The only real dangers are therefore stupidity and recklessness.
In the morning, we were picked up by a van and driven about an hour north, gaining 1000m of altitude, to La Cumbre at 4700m. There our bikes were unloaded and we received all necessary equipment: protective clothing, full-face helmets, gloves.
At first, it was really cold - no wonder with all the snow!
A little further down, I started noticing drafts of warm air and immediately felt better :-)
This is a nice view of the death road. The steep drop on one side is probably the cause for its name - any small accident can potentially end badly.
Of course, the cliff didn't stop the people from posing at its edge:
The guides took a whole bunch of pictures and videos and promised to give CDs to everybody - but so far, this hasn't happened :-\
The scenery continued to be stunning - and changing rapidly as it got warmer. There were several waterfalls along the way; once we even had to cycle through one.
On the way back in the evening, there suddenly was a traffic jam. We all went to the front to find out what was happening - and they told us that the road was temporarily blocked because the president was coming through.
How exciting! Catching a glimpse of the Bolivian president! When he finally came, however, it was just a series of Jeeps, some with police lights, some saying "seguridad presidencial", some plain black - but all going way too fast for the state the road was in ;-)
Finally, a little later, we got a nice overview of the death road from the other side of the valley:
Quite impressive, isn't it?
