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Death road
Easy to see whyBefore we headed for Peru, we were keen to check out the "Yungas" - lush, sub-tropical valleys teeming with butterflies, colourful birds and monstrous spiders. The best was to get the 70 km to Coroico, it seems, is by mountain-biking what has been dubbed "the worlds most dangerous road", as a result of the amount of road deaths that occur each year. Luckily for us, most of these were in vehicles, when trucks or buses plunged off the narrow single track dirt road and down the 400m cliffs. This fact was not lost on us, as we tore down the mountain track and had to take evasive action more than once, as a result of a truck magically appearing around a bend, or where part of the road was missing due to the waterfalls cascading over them.
The ride started at a pass outside La Paz, at a frigid 4800m. Chewing cocoa leaves for the altitude, we paid the ritual blessing to "Pachamama", or Mother Earth, with some of the miners 90% proof alcohol. It seems you cant do anything in Bolivia without having a swig of that rocket fuel first thing in the morning! Fortunately, we had really good
bikes and equipment, cause we were gonna need it.
Our descent was that interesting mix of adrenaline and terror that always makes for great fun. We descended to 1200m over about 4 hours, thats a 3600m vertical drop! But we survived, relatively intact and absolutely filthy, and chilled out at this lush hotel with awesome views over the valleys, lazy hammocks and a refreshing pool. Three days later we had to practically tear ourselves away from this lush paradise and return to the frigid altitude of La Paz.
Our last stop before Peru was Lake Titicaca and a chilled little hippy town called Copacabana, which we used as our departure point for the Isla do Sol, the Incan Island of the Sun and fabled birthplace of creation. The island was pretty fascinating, rising out of the endless, glassy waters of the Lake and affording fantastic views from the top. We spent the day hiking from one end to the other, visiting incan temples, sacrificial altars and museums, and then retured for our next leg into Peru...
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