The Most Dangerous Road in the World

Hi --

Please don´t get mad, those of you who know us and/or worry (which I guess come to think of it is everyone who reads this probably) but on Tuesday we set out on another adventure -- this time to mountain bike down the ´most dangerous road in the world` .... also known as the `death road`. In truth it´s probably not the most dangerous road in the world anymore (at one time it was) ... they built a new safe paved road on the opposite side of the canyon from it, so now all of the busses and trucks go on that other road, and it´s only crazy white people on bikes who go down this road anymore. Ok ... backtracking ... the road connects the top of the pass outside of La Paz (altitude 14,000 feet) with the jungle valley containing the town of Coroico, altitude (3600 feet) ... So the vertical drop is OVER 10,000 feet in just 40 miles. Over that distance, the landscape changes from snowy altiplano to humid jungle, with cloud forests in between. It´s absolutely stunning. The downside is that there are some places where the cliffs are 3000 ft straight down and the road is about 10 feet wide. Huge busses and trucks used to ply this route, and would have to honk loudly as they came around blind corners. An average of 26 people per year died on the road.

So that is the scary part ... the nice part is that now it´s relatively safe .. we went with great equipment (Rocky Mountain Bikes made in BC and big helmets) and good guides who ride the road every day. We did not feel afraid, really, just totally amazed at the scope and beauty of what we saw.

Like I said, at the top it was frozen. Here´s the start:

By lunch time we were lower, and finally got to the exciting bit of the road. The vegetation was lush, the humidity started to close in, and there were butterflies and flowering trees everywhere. Plus there was this cliff (imagine large busses going along here!):

As we continued to descend, the heat got more intense and we started to find ourselves in a real jungle. Finally, after crossing two rivers (that was fun) we ended up in the sleepy little town way down at the bottom. Here we are at the bottom with our group:

To our moms: we decided to not tell you about this in advance so that you wouldn´t worry. Please know that it´s really not as dangerous as it sounds, and that we are not taking lots of crazy risks. In fact, Britt and Betty, we kind of think you´d have tried it too if you were down here!

- ML MP