Nearly a case of being a solo traveller

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After the jungle, we just felt like we hadn´t had too much action for the week so we decided to embark on mountain biking ´The World´s Most Dangerous Road´. We really are thrillseekers aren´t we!!!

However, luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, it is nowhere near as dangerous as it once was since the building of a new road. The old road still exists, and this is the one that you ride down, but all traffic now uses the new road, meaning that no longer do you have trucks hurtling down the road towards you etc etc. Still it was quite the experience.

We did the tour with a company called El Solario, and they were great. We paid around US$40 to do it, and that included your bike (which i subsequently screwed up royally -how the gear shift ends up in the spokes of the wheel i do not know), all food, drinks, transfers etc. Basically, you leave La Paz and head up to 4800m above sea level (which for those that havent been that high is freaking high!), and then just hurtle down a paved road for around 2 hours, going as fast as you possibly can. Then, you get to the start of the World´s Most Dangerous Road (before the building of the new road, an average of 100 people died on it each year, and 9 bike riders have met their maker on the road). It is a winding, narrow, rocky, bumpy descent for around 3 hours, with rocky cliffs on one side of the road, with waterfalls splashing down onto the track, and a straight drop off the other side which would result in certain death. The photos tell the story really!

It is great fun, although slightly scary in parts, as you realise that one mistake could be the end! Josh took a great tumble at one stage, grazing his arm, hands and chest, but luckily for him he fell off into the rocky side, and not the cliff side as i´d said i would have been travelling by myself if that had been the case. He´s OK now, but he also managed to screw his bike up in the process, as well as some of his pride.

Once you get to the bottom, which you are more than happy to make after having your arse pounded on the seat for around 8 hours, you end up at this spectacular hostel called Hotel Esmerelda. Although expensive for Bolivian standards (US$10 a night each), it was probably the most spectacular place i´ve stayed on the whole journey. We had a room, with a balcony with a hammock, looking out over the Coroico Valley. Spectacular! Very romantic for our honeymoon (only those at Stevey G´s wedding will get that one).

It was a great experience, and one i would recommend for anyone out there. It does get a bit hairy at times, but the scenery is just unbelievable, and it´s just a great laugh.

Since then, we have done alot in a very short space of time, and which i will need to update in the near future. Somehow i dont think i´m going to get totally up to scratch up i´ll try.

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Comments

[Ant Bray]

Ride
Nice tops ya fags!!!