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(post by Mike)
What in the world could convince us to wake up at 6 AM and walk across town to lurk in a quiet coffee shop? In this case, it was our long-anticipated day tour with Gravity Bolivia (highly recommended) to bike down what Jess has renamed "The World's Most Exciting Road". We met Dave, our English-speaking guide from North Carolina, and Javier, our Bolivian guide, and loaded onto a bus headed to the mountains outside La Paz.
After being given a warm jacket, pants, and a well-maintained mountain bike, we began biking down a paved road to get used to the bikes. Jess and I were a bit worried about whether the day would be too physically demanding, but 95% of our day was spent biking downhill. Eventually, we got to the gravelly section that indicated we had reached the beginning of the "Most Exciting Road". The rest of our day was spent pumping the brake, with great instructions and service from our two guides, while we took in the beautiful views. Truly, some of the most amazing landscapes I had ever seen (Jess has photos to prove it!).
We biked through waterfalls, a couple of
shallow streams, and many hairpin corners - fortunately, since a bypass of this road was completed in 2006, very few cars were to be seen all day.
After a celebratory beer at the bottom, it was time for Jess and I to amp up what had already been an action-packed day. We bravely put on some harnesses and sat in a pickup truck as we were taken to a series of three giant ziplines stretching across the valley. Our two Bolivian guides for this portion had lots of experience and showed us how to safely use a zipline. On the second line, we reached speeds of over 85 km/hr! We finished the experience filled with adrenaline and impressed by how safe and controlled the whole experience was. One person in our group even had some minor food poisoning and still managed to make it through the ziplines with a huge smile on her face.
Our last stop of the day was at a nature reserve situated right at the valley floor. Inside were wild turtles, tropical birds, and dozens of different monkeys! After a delicious buffet dinner served by an English resident of the reserve, Toby, we proceeded
to enter the area where the monkeys live. There were Capuchin, Spider and Howler monkeys all living in a house they had taken over. We had a chance to see the monkeys using tools, communicating with each other... and scheming to steal the contents of our pockets and our cameras!
As the sun set, we had our bus take us back to our hostel in La Paz. What an action packed and exciting day.
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Becca
non-member comment
SOUNDS SO FUN!!
I looooove monkeys!