Back in La Paz we spent a day catching up on sleep and relaxing after our time in Uyuni. We also managed to book ourself in for the bike ride down the ´world´s most dangerous road´. We headed off early with 12 other nervous tourists. We drove 45 minutes out of La Paz until we reached the snow clad peaks that mark the start ofthe "death road". We were given our safety briefing, took a swig of some alcohol to honor the earth mother and then we were off.
Our 70km mountain bike ride took us down 3,000 metres in altitude. We started on sealed roads, where we kept to the right which also happened to be the side with the 1,000 metre drop. A bit nerve racking but we were so busy focusing on what was ahead you didn´t have a lot of time to admire the scenery. We sped down the hill at about 50km an hour without even having to peddle.
Every so often we would stop and the group would regather so our guides could make sure we were all still alive. The guide would then keep us nervous by telling us the many tales of the many people who had lost their lives on this leg of the the road. At one stage they were averaging 1.5 casulities a day. Lots of crosses to remind you that this road really is dangerous!!
We quickly made it to the unpaved section, which was a was where the fun really begins. If you fell off the penalty was you had to buy the guide a piece of cheese cake. He ended up with 4 by the end of the ride but none from us. Anna did manage to get her bike stuck a couple of times once in river, but we happily made it down in one piece.
We ended our ride in an animal refugee (La Senda Verde) where we had lunch and a shower. We ended up staying here for a couple of days with an Australian couple (Tony and Shannon) we met. It such a nice place to relax as it is definitely a more tropical climate than we had experienced so far in Bolivia. We also had some great food, there was a French run restuarant in Coroico the small town above La Senda Verde which is apparentnly the best restuarant in Bolivia and I think we would have to agree. A huge meal with drinks and desert for $12 a head, amazing Llama steak and chocolate filled crepes. Yum.
La Senda Verde is only 75km ( 3 and half hour drive) away from La Paz but it feels like it is a world away. It was created as an animal refugee for injured and abused animals.
They have two spider monkeys and 1 howlermokey which we were lucky enough to get a cuddle with. They also have an wild cat, wild pigs, tortises, cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, guinea fowl and many different colourful parrots. It was so nice just to be able relax and see all the animals up close. There were a couple of friendly battles puppy vs spider monkey and spider monkey vs mawkaw but none got hurt.
We went back to La Paz on the new road, which shouldn´t have felt as scary as the old road. The new road was meant to curb the death rate but with the combination of Bolivian engineering and driving I thinkthey have onlysuceeded inmakingthe worlds second most dangerous road. Our driver was crazy, no need to check what´s coming the other way when passing around here. The ride up was more scary the ride down!!
No comments:
Post a Comment