The Death Road
The road from La Paz to Coroico has been dubbed the "world's most dangerous road" primarily due to the high number of fatalities (a few hundred per year) along this 65km route. The road is only about 3m wide in places, drops some 3600m in altitude over this distance and has vertical drops (yes, really!) of over 1000m. And do not forget the buses and trucks...
We decided not to take public transport, but rather go down this road by mountain bike! We went with a company from La Paz called Gravity Assisted Mountain biking. Just before you enter this road, all vehicles are checked for roadworthiness and a list of passengers are submitted to the police.
The 1st 21km was very fast on good tarred roads. It was here where my bike's pedal fell off! Then the death road followed with incredible views and the adrenalin of riding 1m away from a 1000m drop. The road is carved out of the side of a mountain and we crossed a few rivers and passed under a few waterfalls as well. The trip ended in Coroico, a beautiful mountain village where we spent 3 days in our own private cabana with hammocks and amazing views...
Culture shock: showers are heated with an electric apparatus (with lots of wires) connected to the shower head - some showers even have a switch on the inside; food is served whenever it has been prepared, ie your meal may come in no particular order and drinks may only come after the meal; once we were the only people at a restaurant and the cook had to send someone to buy ingredients while we wait; we also saw a sheep running into the kitchen!
We decided not to take public transport, but rather go down this road by mountain bike! We went with a company from La Paz called Gravity Assisted Mountain biking. Just before you enter this road, all vehicles are checked for roadworthiness and a list of passengers are submitted to the police.
The 1st 21km was very fast on good tarred roads. It was here where my bike's pedal fell off! Then the death road followed with incredible views and the adrenalin of riding 1m away from a 1000m drop. The road is carved out of the side of a mountain and we crossed a few rivers and passed under a few waterfalls as well. The trip ended in Coroico, a beautiful mountain village where we spent 3 days in our own private cabana with hammocks and amazing views...
Culture shock: showers are heated with an electric apparatus (with lots of wires) connected to the shower head - some showers even have a switch on the inside; food is served whenever it has been prepared, ie your meal may come in no particular order and drinks may only come after the meal; once we were the only people at a restaurant and the cook had to send someone to buy ingredients while we wait; we also saw a sheep running into the kitchen!
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