Biking the World´s Most Dangerous Road, Bolivia
We arrived at 9am at La Cumbre (15,400ft altitude), our starting point for the World´s Most Dangerous Road. We were surrounded by snowy mountains and a beautiful lake. After a quick safety talk and testing out our sweet road bikes, we descended rapidly down a twisting road among mountain peaks, grazing llamas and alpacas, tiny villages and a drug check-post.
At lunch we learned that there were up to 400 deaths a year (mainly vehicles) on this road. They recently created a paved road for trucks and buses, so we were lucky to have the road to ourselves. This infamous narrow dirt road is cut precariously into the side of the mountain and descends 6,500 feet. There were 3,300 feet sheer drops off to our left and hulking rock overhangs and cascading waterfalls to our right. We were riding solely on gravel, big loose rocks, and dirt and we were told not to brake because the bike would skid...
Other than internally bruising both my hands for my death grip on the handles (and the lack of nice gloves to take the shock) Trev and I both survived the road without falling or any serious injuries! We finished the ride at 3,600ft (for a total of 11,900 ft decline over 40 miles of downhill!!). Then we headed to a wildlife refuge center for lunch. Trev made friends with the howler and squirrel monkeys and the young ocelot.
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Matt Z