Back in the Saddle

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Welcome to Bolivia!

Having fully recovered from my biking accident a while back, I decided it was time to ´get back in the saddle´as they say. And what better way to get back into the world of two wheels than by a nice confidence building peddle.

And what more terrifying way to relive past glories than by powering down the WORLD´S MOST DANGEROUS ROAD (as dubbed by the Inter-American Development Bank in 1995. Totally raving. Its a 60km descent, starting at a freezing 4,700m/15,400 feet. The first 20km is on a relatively tame tarmac road, giving you a chance to get used to the equipment, which to be fair was the best bike I have ever sat on. (Sorry, Rich is getting upset, the second best bike.)

Anyhows, after cruising through a drug check point, past the site where a truck went off the edge last week, killing 6, we hit the dirt section. After a safety brief, including being told we had to cycle on the edge of the track, which was only 3m wide, on the side of the sheer drops, we began. No cliff hugging here.

I can honestly say, this was absolutely terrifying. Sheer vertical drops of 1000m plus, inches to my left, with trucks pushing us closer to the edge as they appeared at random round blind corners, had me ´darn near s******g my pants.´I cannot emphasise enough just quite how scary it is to be blasting downhill with unbelievable drops on your side, all the time remembering what happened last time you took a right bend too fast. Luckily, Rich had promised beforehand to stay with me, and dont worry honey, its not a race. Well, I think I saw him once or twice when they stopped to let us folk trailing catch up. Thanks!

The good thing about the ride is that I was so focused on the road, I didnt see all of the crosses which are in abundance all the way down. We stopped at the statue of The Martyrs of Democracy. Here some oppostion members in one of the first democratic elections here were shot and pushed over the edge. Later, the commemorative statue was also sent overboard by a crashing truck.

There were some pretty unique things on the road. One was the presence of ´Human Traffic Lights´. The first one we met had lost his entire family there in an accident in 1995, and since he has dedicated his whole life to preventing accidents at that blind corner. He sits there and holds up a green or red sign so that drivers know whats coming.


Anyways, after being afraid for 60 whole km of downhill we arrived at the end. Through waterfalls, and dust clouds, the whole team had made it down to 1,100m. After a refreshing beverage and a bite to eat we headed back to La Paz, which was almost as scary. After getting a tyre blow out in our jeep, and then watching the wheel get attacked with a pick axe, my nerves were running pretty high. I had cleverly chosen to sit on the drop side, and there were points you couldnt even see the bottom (or the road ahead with the dust kicked up by wagons in front!).


The great news is, there are no photos, we could have bought a CD from the agency, but the one pic of me was one of abject fear, so sorry guys, you´ll just have to imagine!


Finally we made it home. It was quite literally a ´been there, done that, got the t-shirt´adventure. Although I enjoyed it, I am defintiely not gonna do it again, theres only so much luck I can have, and getting down that road alive used a hell of a lot of my reserves!

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