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Published: September 22nd 2008
Drive up to the summit
Felt quite sick with nerves at this pointPolly:
We returned to La Paz for a night and hooked up with some of our friends from the GAP Adventure´s tour. Whilst looking for their hotel Ross caught some dude pick-pocketing me, but he only got away with a snotty tissue. Yucky! We couldn´t party too late as we had a big day coming up.
We´d signed up with Freebikes to cycle the "Death Road". That night I started feeling a bit sick with nerves as I´m kinda clumsy and don´t have a good track record with bikes. We got up early and were too tired to be scared, but as the minibus took us up to the summit, "La Cumbre", at 4700m above sea level, we were all eerily quiet. In our group were 6 Swiss and us. We had 2 guides and the safety van.
We got geared up with Trek and GT hard-tail bikes with Rock Shox front suspension and front and rear disc brakes, helmets, over-trousers, hi-viz vests etc. We then set off on the tarmac road, getting used to the bikes. Ross and I hung back as we´ve heard about these Swiss outdoor extremists, but in the end I think we gave
them a run for their money!
We picked up some speed on the tarmac and had to overtake lorries which was pretty hairy. There was still 2 way traffic at this point so you had to keep your wits about you.
We then reached the point where the lorries, cars etc take the new, improved road, and we follow the original "Death Road". No tarmac here just stones, gravel and the occasional puddle. At first we were all really cautious, but by the end I reckon we were caining it as fast as we were on the tarmac.
It´s amazing to think that this was actually used as a road. Every now and then you could see a fallen bus or car some 400m below in the valley.
As we descended we went from Andes to Amazon and the climate changed from snowy mountain peaks to hot and humid jungle.
In total we descended 3600m to Coroico and had 64km of downhill riding. We prised our knuckles off the handle bars and rubbed our newly found forearm muscles.
We stopped at a hotel in Coroico, Villa Verde, where people could have a dip in
the pool followed by lunch. The rest of the group then went back to La Paz, but Ross and I stayed the night there as we had booked a bus at 2pm the next day to Rurrenabaque. Villa Verde was at the edge of the jungle and full of huge birds, weird, brightly coloured flowers, a resident parrot and curious jungle noises. We chilled by the pool and had one of the most perfect days.
Unfortunately, such a great day turned into such a bad night as the sickness started. We had both got food poisoning and it hit us bad. The next day we had a bus to catch and weren´t sure whether to risk it, but armed with Imodium we got our rucksacks and sat on the road waiting for our ride. Sitting in the sun I was reassuring myself that any minute now a luxury, air conditioned coach, complete with toilet was going to come and save us from the heat. 2 hours later the bumpiest, smelliest, dirtiest heap of junk thundered round the corner. We checked the company name, and yes, that was our ride. No toilet!
Also, what we hadn´t realised was that
the "Death Road" didn´t end in Coroico, we had a further 4 hours down it on the bus. It was way scarier than on the bikes. When we got to Caranavi and stopped to get "dinner" we legged it to the toilet. These were holes in the ground on a roof top with dead birds scattered around. The smell was indescribable, and Ross proceded to break out in a sweat and vomit in the street! We managed to find bottled water, cream crackers and cookies, but actually didn´t brave them until we reached our destination. The next 10 hours was a blur of semi-sleep, nausea and buttock clenching.
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