Death Road to the Jungle

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The first leg of our trip to the jungle was by bike, along what is dubbed 'the most dangerous road in the world'. Here´s a little extract from a newspaper clipping from 2002¨:

'The single-lane mud-covered road is being promoted as an ideal spot for extreme mountain-biking, even before the trucks and buses heading between La Paz and Coroico get an alternative route. In the latest accident, a bus believed to have been carrying more than its permitted 45 people, slid off the road in early morning fog and plummeted 170 metres down a ravine.'

You descend 3600m over 4 hours down a winding, dusty, narrow, one way road. Of course it´s also unpaved and you're also sharing it with lorries and tourist buses hurtling round corners with nothing more than the usual alert system, a good long honk of the horn.

We were given some early reeassurance from our guide that the support wagon was there, should any 'normal' things happen along the way. For example, a flat tyre (fair enough, it was a gravel road with some rocks the size of footballs good to avoid those ones), or in case the brakes failed (oh good). Also, we should always pull over to the LEFT (edge) hand side to let vehicles pass, and that there is a big drop there (to the order of 700m in parts) so watch out for that. Also, that on these bikes the back brakes are on the right hand side which is the opposite of what many people are used to, so try not to get that confused either.´

´Vamos a la Playa!´

I started off in the slow-poke group, but after deciding that it was really pathetic of me I advanced to the fasties, and that cranked things up a gear. There is SO MUCH DUST. We were even given dust masks which looked pretty funny actually. It was impossible to be closer than 15 or so metres behind the person in front, and when a truck goes past you often had to come to a near stop because you couldn´t see more than 5 metres ahead.

On the really 'dangerous'corners they do have a somewhat upgraded traffic control system. Someone (usually an oldie, sometimes a kid) stands out on the edge with what looks like an oversized leaf, one side red the other green waving the appropriate side to up and downcoming traffic. I always made sure to shout 'grasias'as I rode past.

It was a thrilling ride, and you´ll just have to wait and see the propaganda video that was made for more on that.

Mum and DAd, I decided to tell you about this little bike ride AFTER the event. THought it was for the best.

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