Mountain Biking down the World`s Most Dangerous Road
WOW!! Have just mountain biked down the ``World´s Most Dangerous Road´´ (as dubbed by the Inter American Development Bank in 1995 - an accident (sometimes fatal) occurs on the road once every 2 weeks) from La Cumbre to Coroico!!
Initially had a few concerns before signing up but the team at Gravity Assisted were excellent and I thoroughly recommend them for their professionalism and top notch bikes (not that I´m an expert but apparently the bikes were wicked (where the hell did that come from!!)). Also, they had only ever lost one person a year off the edge, so it was all good.
After an offering to Pachamama (Incan Earth Mother) we began the ride at 4,700m and rapidly descended 3,600m for 65km down a twisting, dirt road barely 3m wide, with 1,000m sheer drops to our left, and passing through waterfalls, streams, a drug checkpost (!!), tiny villages, llamas, alpacas, pigs, car and truck wrecks and spectacular amazonian jungle. Everything went superbly apart from a minor incident where I was enjoying the scenery and didn`t see a van coming straight towards me. The bike had great hydraulic breaks!
After 5 hours we reached Coroico for some delicious cold beers, lunch and a shower (we were covered in mud) before we loaded ourselves into a van to return to La Paz again via the WMDR in complete darkness and thick fog! Very freaky and way too many trucks coming downhill but we eventually made it back to La Paz where we then headed off to Mondos for dinner and a couple of drinks.
Observations whilst hurtling/plummeting down the WMDR:
1. Downhill traffic sticks to the far left and must give way to uphill traffic. Very freaky as the left side is where the cliff just drops vertically down.
2. The man with his red and green flags. He lost his wife and 2 kids on this road and now voluntarily stands at his post everyday to watch the road and assist drivers. There are now a few men stationed throughout the road who do this voluntarily.
3. Some horror stories: The guy who was looking at the scenery and flew straight off the road; the french girl who got off her bike on the left side of the bike (not the right) to give way to a truck and fell off the road; the israeli girl with the faulty breaks who plummeted off the cliff.
4. A large number of accidents occur on the road due to disagreements over right of way and drunk truck drivers.
5. Time to buy a wicked mountain bike!
Some pictures taken by Gravity during our ride
(there are loads of photos (not only of us) and they will only be on the site for 60 days. View from page 10 onwards. Password to view is: photos).
Initially had a few concerns before signing up but the team at Gravity Assisted were excellent and I thoroughly recommend them for their professionalism and top notch bikes (not that I´m an expert but apparently the bikes were wicked (where the hell did that come from!!)). Also, they had only ever lost one person a year off the edge, so it was all good.
After an offering to Pachamama (Incan Earth Mother) we began the ride at 4,700m and rapidly descended 3,600m for 65km down a twisting, dirt road barely 3m wide, with 1,000m sheer drops to our left, and passing through waterfalls, streams, a drug checkpost (!!), tiny villages, llamas, alpacas, pigs, car and truck wrecks and spectacular amazonian jungle. Everything went superbly apart from a minor incident where I was enjoying the scenery and didn`t see a van coming straight towards me. The bike had great hydraulic breaks!
After 5 hours we reached Coroico for some delicious cold beers, lunch and a shower (we were covered in mud) before we loaded ourselves into a van to return to La Paz again via the WMDR in complete darkness and thick fog! Very freaky and way too many trucks coming downhill but we eventually made it back to La Paz where we then headed off to Mondos for dinner and a couple of drinks.
Observations whilst hurtling/plummeting down the WMDR:
1. Downhill traffic sticks to the far left and must give way to uphill traffic. Very freaky as the left side is where the cliff just drops vertically down.
2. The man with his red and green flags. He lost his wife and 2 kids on this road and now voluntarily stands at his post everyday to watch the road and assist drivers. There are now a few men stationed throughout the road who do this voluntarily.
3. Some horror stories: The guy who was looking at the scenery and flew straight off the road; the french girl who got off her bike on the left side of the bike (not the right) to give way to a truck and fell off the road; the israeli girl with the faulty breaks who plummeted off the cliff.
4. A large number of accidents occur on the road due to disagreements over right of way and drunk truck drivers.
5. Time to buy a wicked mountain bike!
Some pictures taken by Gravity during our ride
(there are loads of photos (not only of us) and they will only be on the site for 60 days. View from page 10 onwards. Password to view is: photos).
posted by W at 4:55 pm
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