6-17
Today I did the bike ride woth the "Death Road" or "World's Most Dangerous Road" I did it with 8 Israelis an 3 Germans. Of course the Israelis had a big flag they carried with them and I had to laugh in my head at the group pictures with 3 germans, an American, and the Israelis waving their flag.
The death road goes from 4700m to 1050m (15,400ft to 3,400ft), thats an amazing 12,000 feet of descent. To put it in perspective, the bike ride that bro used to guide from the top of trail ridge was from 12,200 to Estes at 7500. It would be like he went from Trail Ridge to sea level. Even Mt Evans at 14 thousand something to Denver at 5,200 cant quite compare.
The road is called the death road bc up until 2007, it was the main road down to the jungle and on average 26 cars (cars, not people, you know how bolivians pack cars and buses) used to disappear off the road (at places there are sheer 3000ft drops into the mass of messy jungle below). The road is a narrow one lane road, so it would have been crazy when a big bus met a big truck going opposite directions. I think I heard over 10 years, 300 people died. Now the road is mainly used for bikers and tourist cars. Still some people die biking. I think my guide says about 3 people per year die while biking. But in truth, for bikers, it is not that dangerous. It's a road wide enough for a bus and it's not super technical nor super steep. As long as you are good on a bike and control your speed, you dont have to worry about flying off the road. The truth is, I have been on much gnarlier dirt road passes in Colorado in a car and on a bike than this, that were more narrow and more exposed, but we probably drive a bit less crazily and have better upkept vehicles so accidents are less. Although it wasn't too technical nor singletrack, it was still tons of fun. I mean descending that much is going to be great. The scenery was cool starting in the alpine and snow, going through cloud forest and ending in jungle with banana trees and papaya trees. The road does have crazy cliff drops that make it cool and a few times waterfalls come crashing down onto the road and onto you as you go biking by. And it was definitely fun to go cruising down this road with a pretty nice bike with nice front shocks and good hydraulic disc brakes. They also outfitted you with full knee and elbow pads, a motorcross helmet, and riding pants and jacket and gloves.
Once we reached Coroico at the bottom, we had a big buffet lunch and went swimming in the pool. It was then a 3 hour drive back to la paz on the new road which features a few tunnels. At night, I found a place to get a steak for a buck fifty.
Today I did the bike ride woth the "Death Road" or "World's Most Dangerous Road" I did it with 8 Israelis an 3 Germans. Of course the Israelis had a big flag they carried with them and I had to laugh in my head at the group pictures with 3 germans, an American, and the Israelis waving their flag.
The death road goes from 4700m to 1050m (15,400ft to 3,400ft), thats an amazing 12,000 feet of descent. To put it in perspective, the bike ride that bro used to guide from the top of trail ridge was from 12,200 to Estes at 7500. It would be like he went from Trail Ridge to sea level. Even Mt Evans at 14 thousand something to Denver at 5,200 cant quite compare.
The road is called the death road bc up until 2007, it was the main road down to the jungle and on average 26 cars (cars, not people, you know how bolivians pack cars and buses) used to disappear off the road (at places there are sheer 3000ft drops into the mass of messy jungle below). The road is a narrow one lane road, so it would have been crazy when a big bus met a big truck going opposite directions. I think I heard over 10 years, 300 people died. Now the road is mainly used for bikers and tourist cars. Still some people die biking. I think my guide says about 3 people per year die while biking. But in truth, for bikers, it is not that dangerous. It's a road wide enough for a bus and it's not super technical nor super steep. As long as you are good on a bike and control your speed, you dont have to worry about flying off the road. The truth is, I have been on much gnarlier dirt road passes in Colorado in a car and on a bike than this, that were more narrow and more exposed, but we probably drive a bit less crazily and have better upkept vehicles so accidents are less. Although it wasn't too technical nor singletrack, it was still tons of fun. I mean descending that much is going to be great. The scenery was cool starting in the alpine and snow, going through cloud forest and ending in jungle with banana trees and papaya trees. The road does have crazy cliff drops that make it cool and a few times waterfalls come crashing down onto the road and onto you as you go biking by. And it was definitely fun to go cruising down this road with a pretty nice bike with nice front shocks and good hydraulic disc brakes. They also outfitted you with full knee and elbow pads, a motorcross helmet, and riding pants and jacket and gloves.
Once we reached Coroico at the bottom, we had a big buffet lunch and went swimming in the pool. It was then a 3 hour drive back to la paz on the new road which features a few tunnels. At night, I found a place to get a steak for a buck fifty.
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