THE DEATH ROAD - COMPLETE ADRENALIN RUSH

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Ok, last time I said we were going to try and book the boke ride again.

What a nightmare trying to book this bike ride. I will keep the story short.

Even though we tried our hardest none of the agencies could guarantee we could get home in time for the cheap bus to Uyuni which we were desperate to get on. So, we would have to go on the expensive one if we did the bike ride or stay in La Paz one more night which we really didnt want to do. Then when we agreed to get the more expensive bus we found out that it was full.

We eventually agreed to stay one more night and do the bike ride. I felt so guilty because Nik wasnt even keen on the bike ride but was doing it for me, bless her!!

After the stress of booking that tour finally and buying our bus tickets to leave la paz the day after we felt like we needed a drink.

We arranged to meet up with our Israeli friend Stav, from the Salkantay trek. He bought a friend a long called Ofer. Wr had some drinks in their hostels bar and then would you believe they wanted to go to the hard rock cafe for dinner. It was mostly full of Israelis.

Forgot to say, Nik and I had been staying in an Israeli hostel because it was cheap but we have found that many of them are very clicky and not very friendly so we dont really fit in. You win some, you lose some, their loss. Although, I will add that there are also some really lovely Israelis that we have met as well. We are still a little bitter that they get everything cheaper than all the other travellers though just because they are Israeli and theres so many of them, but we will get over it.

Moving on. The night was really good but I got a little carried away with the wine. Nik went home when she got tired as the hostel was only across the street but I carried on drinking and dancing the night away with our friends. We were not out too late because Stav and Ofer were doing the bike ride at 7am so we went home around 2am I think. Felt really sad to say bye again as Stav´s a really nice guy.

THE BIKE RIDE - Thank god Nik and I decided to start at 10am instead of 7am. I felt a bit fragile.

Our group consisted of one english girl and Israeli guy, one english guy and australian girl, 4 german exchange students and a german man. All nice enough.

We got picked up and I was feeling the effects of the wine. Took about 2 hours to get to the top of the road.

The road is called the death rode because it sees the most fatalities annually. We start at cumbre which is 4670 metres and go down hill for 63km until we get to yolosa which is 1120metres.

As we got off the bus I was sick but felt much better.

They supplied us with waterproof stuff etc. The bikes looked a little dodgy but the brakes worked which was most important.

Once we got going it was freezing as you will see from the pictures. The road was mostly down hill so we went so fast and it was so misty so just hoped the passing vehicles would see us. Luckily they did. I looked at Nik at one point and thought she was going to kill me for making her do it.

After a while we went off the main road onto a dirt track which is so bumpy with massive roacks. If you hit a rock with your tyre you skid all over the place and if you see the cliffs its bloody scary but its such an adrenaline rush.

At first I was constantly on my brakes but as I got more confident I hardly ever bothered because it was more fun. It was abit sad on a couple of occasions though because we went passed a couple of memorials of people who had died whilst doing the bike ride. They lost control and rode off the cliffs. When you do the ride you can see how easy it would be to do because its so slippery and the corners can be really sharp.

Bless Nik, she made me laugh so much. We had to stop alot which was annoying but I understood that it was to make sure everyone could catch up and to ensure everyone was still there. However, my heart would pound everytime we waited for the last people because it was always Nik and she would take ages to appear. Bless her little face eventually coming round the corner.

She did enjoy it but just isnt a big fan of bikes. Put it this way - I was gutted when the guide told me we had finished after 5 hours, Nik was relieved. Im very grateful to her for doing it though.

We went to a hotel afterwards in Coroico, which was lovely. They let us use their sauna, then we had showers and a nice dinner and got the bus home.

We got home around 10pm and our bums were so sore so like the grannies we are we got some chocolate, sat in our restaurant and finished the night with a cup of tea before bed, lovely!!

The next day we just dossed around,picked up our cd´s and t shirts from the bike ride and went to catch our 7pm bus.

This bit gets a little freaky. When we got to the bus station we spoke to some people and found out that the bus from the night before (the one that Nik and I were trying desperately to get on so we could leave La Paz a day earlier) had a major accident. We dont think anyone died but most of the passengers were in hospital. It just made us think that could have been us.

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Comments

[cathie gass]

hey warly
Hey Warly, live dangerously why dont you, bike, cliff,sore arse springs to mind but good fun ay,I have posted loads on your site but cant find any of it so I feel sorry for the poor person who has probably received them with my strong scouse vocabulary(cant spell that) and humour.Anyway how much of a good time are you to having,Ive cringed a few times as I suppose your mum and dad have but you know carly, lets just do it.Not long befor your home now and back to the old grind, wont that be a shock,lol,weather freezing,drab and dreary,town is empty just loads of trafic jams loads to look forward to, england out of the euros,but do hurry home.Any way you keep enjoying it, you only get one crack at it but be safe. Take care I am looking forward to your next little diary. lots and lots of love Cathie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx