I´m alive I´m alive I´m alive

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A bike ride down the world´s most dangerous road. Start at 4750 metres freezing in the snow. Finish at 1100 metres sweating in the jungle. Speeds of nearly 50mph/80kmh on a really really crappy road surface with huge drops down the side. 11 biker deaths, and scores off buses and other traffic accident deaths off the cliff. Pretty much the most exhilarating thing I have ever done. If I ever come back to Bolivia, this is the first thing I´m going to do.

For some lunatic reason the traffic coming uphill on this road gets to drive on the inside cliff-side of the road, so anyone going downhill, including us bikers, have to drive on the outside drop-side of the road.

So you are going about 2 feet from the edge at some points. If you fall on this side, its a long long drop, and a sad day for the rest of your family. If you fall on the cliff side, its some bruises. I fell on the cliff side.

The top of the road is now paved for 10km so you can really really speed, and it gives you a good time to get used to the bike and turning at speed. There´s a lot of turning technique involved like knee positions and head positions, sort of like Moto Gran Prix racing, which pretty much saves your life on the crappy 55km of dirt road.

The other cool thing is that its downhill pretty much all the way, theres about 2km of uphill, and like steep downhill. This ensures you are going so fast, that you cant even peddle, since you are going faster than you can peddle - a weird sensation.

The most recent death was an Israeli in March who was apparently trying a stunt when riding through one of the numerous waterfalls. Our two guides were brilliant however, and I felt pretty safe throughout, even after skidding on a turn and smashing into the cliff wall.

All in all, the scenery is rather gorgeous, but spend too much time not watching the road and you´ll float right off the side. Apparently an avid bird watcher did just that a couple of years ago.

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Photos

Proof
The tshirt you get, when they count people at the bottom and find you are alive.