Death road

I had to be up at 6:30am since my tour left at 7:30am and I had to walk across town to the meeting point. I really hadn't been worried about the tour at all (although I had heard plenty of terrifying stories) but I was definitely worried that I'd sleep through my alarm and miss it. Apparently Alyssa was also worried that I would miss my alarm since she woke me up 15 minutes before it went off to make sure I wasn't running late, lol. I headed out the door with plenty of time and got to our meeting place early. Since I was there already, I decided to grab some breakfast and wait for the other bikers. Slowly they trickled in until there were 11 of us in total. We piled into a van and drive one hour up to the top of the hill where the new road began.
The North Yungas Road (or the Death Road as it's marketed to tourists) is a 69km(43 mi) road leading from La Paz to Coroico. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank named it the "world's most dangerous road". Approximately 300 travelers were killed annually along the road until the government decided to build a new, safer road for cars (although this road charges a toll and is often closed for construction so not all vehicles use it). This is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest of northern Bolivia to La Paz. Upon leaving La Paz, the road first climbs to 4,650m (15,260 ft) at La Cumbre Pass, before descending to 1,200m (3,900 ft) at the town of Coroico, transitioning quickly from freezing Altiplano terrain to hot rainforest. The single-lane road has no guard rails and cliffs with heights of up to 600m (1,830 feet). The rain and fog can severely impact visibility and the water runoff turns the road into a mud pit with no traction and tons of rockslides. The local road rules specify that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road (which is also true for bikes). Unlike the rest of Bolivia, vehicles on this road are required to drive on the left side of the road to give the driver a better view of the vehicle's outside wheel so that they don't misjudge the distance and teeter of the cliff.
We unloaded our bikes at the top of the hill and were issued extra pants and jackets to cope with the extreme cold I had on three jackets and felt like a marshmallow but it was worth it!). We then got a short tutorial on how to use the bikes and what the terrain would be like. It has probably been over 10 years since I've ridden a mountain bike (beach cruisers in Santa Monica do not count) but it all came back to me instantly. We got into formation, making sure not to follow to closely, and began our ride.

The first part of the ride would be down the new, paved road that we could cruise down until we reached the entrance to the old dirt road. Since this road was paved we were all flying down it, trying to lean forward and flatten out to have less wind resistance. We quickly reached a little town along the way where we were supposed to get into the bus and drive up the 8km uphill section (it is awful so they don't include it as a part of the tour). Ironically, there was a big bike race up the death road that morning (I can't even imagine riding UP the death road), so the police had shut off the road to cars from the town on until all 300 racers had passed through. Since we had only seen the first two racers pass by, we knew it could be a while. We all decided that instead of waiting, we were going to bike the uphill section. Talk about a workout! The altitude does a number on me already but pedaling uphill on bikes that are only meant for downhill for 30 straight minutes could have been enough to kill me. But I made it, no problem.

We recollected the group at the mouth of the old road so that we could stick together. Since the race was going on at the same time and many of the racers were not from Bolivia and didn't know the rules, they were taking up both sides of the road, making it hard to anticipate which side we should be on to avoid cars and racers as we flew downhill. Our group leader stayed out in front and blew his whistle whenever a car was approaching but it was hard to hear over the strong winds blowing up from the canyon.

Although they warned us a lot about the terrain and the "baby's head" sized rocks that took out most people, I thought since I was in control of my speed and maneuvering that there was no way I would crash. I couldn't have been more wrong. All of a sudden as I came around a corner, there was a rock right in front of my front tire but there was nothing I could do to avoid it since the bikes end up creating trenches as they go through the mud which are impossible to maneuver out of quickly. The front tire hit the rock bringing it to a dead stop which forced the back tire up in the air and the bike to flip end over end. I really had no time for a game plan but somehow survival instincts kicked in (keep in mind, I'm on the edge of the cliff you see in the picture above) and I decided to roll with the bike. I followed its trajectory and rolled like a ninja, landing on my back with my legs tanglelled in the bike. My immediate worry was that the bikers behind me that were coming around the corner wouldn't see me in time and would crash into me or fly off the cliff in an attempt to avoid me. Luckily no one came for at least 10 seconds so I had time to hysterically laugh at the situation and pull myself out of the way before they came around the bend. Everyone was really concerned but miraculously, I didn't have so much as a cut or bruise. In fact, I had no pain whatsoever! It was really amazing and I was proud of my self-preservation skills. We continued on with the ride and though I really wasn't scared that I might fall again, I was definitely paying extra close attention to the road since I knew I wouldn't escape so lucky a second time. When we stopped, my guide took an extra hard look at me even though I insisted I was absolutely fine. He said that just within the last week, he had 5 different people on his tours who had gone off the road, breaking ribs, arms and legs. He then proceeded to recount stories of the bikers he knew who had died. One tour group was cycling in the fog and so they were following their guide closely since they couldn't see in front of them. The guide took a wrong turn, flying off the cliff and all but the last 3 people in his group followed him resulting in 10 fatalities. It was clear that this was no joke to him and he wanted to make sure I wasn't hurt before we continued.

The rest of the ride down was without incident and we got to see so much beautiful landscape. From the huge mountains, to the waterfalls, to the jungle, we got a piece of everything Bolivia had to offer. It was really a spectacular thing to see and I was glad we stopped often to look around since I was trying not to take my eyes off the road.

We finally made it down to the bottom and celebrated with some congratulatory beers. By the end of the day, we had all become good friends and it was great to just sit and have some drinks after the exhausting ride down. We headed to a restaurant located at a local animal sanctuary so that we could swim in the water and have some dinner before the three hour drive back to La Paz. Overall, it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it!

Once back into town, I cleaned up and then Alyssa and I went to the bar for our free hostel beer. I had eaten only a few hours before so we went to "Sol y Luna" so that Alyssa could get a drink and some dinner. The waiter recommended a drink of Singani (which is the local Bolivian liquor) and coca leaves which was supposed to be similar to a mojito...I don't recommend it, lol.

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