Close
your eyes and imagine rocky roads, passing under heavily cascading
waterfalls, 1000m sheer cliff drop offs, on a road just barely wide
enough for a truck to drive it, with no extra space for a slip of the
tire or an animal to pass. Yes, we decided to venture out on the
journey from La Paz to Coroico to tackle the famed "World's Most
Dangerous Road" with a top notch company - Gravity Assisted Mountain
Biking. The name of the company comes specifically from the fact that
we're speeding downhill most of the ride, dropping more than 3600m in 4
hours, through 64 km of winding narrow mountain trail. We start at the
all time high altitude (for us) of 4700m.
Arriving
at the start, La Cumbre Pass, we are greeted with fresh snow blanketing
the ground and surrounding mountains, fresh from the storm that passed
through last night. It's freezing here. We opted for the supped up
package for $75, which includes not only our full suspension, $2500
value high performance mountain bike, but also full gear, helmut,
goggles, riding jacket and pants, buff to cover our face in the frigid
weather, and riding gloves. We suit up and are personally introduced
to our bikes and given detailed riding lessons by the New Zealand owner
of this company, Alister. His job is to scare the shit out of us so we
don't do anything stupid on the trail, and then coach us back with
confidence in our ability to execute the skills he teaches us on the
technically challenging portions of the ride.
The
first 20 kms or so are flat paved road, which allows us to practice the
skills we've learned. The road is slick, and wind strong and gusty.
Just one hour into the ride, three girls have had bad spills, one with
a scraped up face, another with broken teeth, bloody nose, and the
third who was following the second too closely, and ends up with a
bruised ego. Our company has two bus loads of people for this trip
which is good - one bus takes the three girls back to the hospital in
La Paz, setting them up with good quality medical care, of course,
costs all needing to be covered by the girls and their insurance
providers (you are not allowed to ride without insurance).
We
continue onward and start shedding clothes as we plunge into a hot
subtropical zone. There are guides in the front and back of the pack,
and the bus trails us, in case of more accidents or if someone is so
freaked out by the sheer drop off cliffs that they need to ride in the
bus for a bit. The scariest part of this ride is on the gravel portion
of the road (less than 40km distance); there's the steep sheer drop off
on the left hand side. On the trail exists a set of large thick tire
marks most the way. We are instructed to ride in the left hand tire
track, literally inches from the drop off, in the case of oncoming
truck/car traffic, we would be able to move in time of an on coming
vehicle. So the trail is challenging in itself, but the added fear
factor of riding just inches from the drop is frightening. We manage
to keep our treads on the tracks, even splashing through rivers and
under heavy waterfalls. I'm toward the back (because I'm going
painfully slow) and get the full on individualized coaching by the
guides which isn't such a bad thing until they scream at me to let off
the breaks or my bike well fall over. It's not until we drop down to
3000m and I finally get a big dose of oxygen and a sandwich break that
finally get up the courage to go fast - they tell us that typically
happens when we get to lower altitudes. Now I'm really having fun,
leaning into my turns and passing others, this is truly a thrill ride.
We make it to the bus, entering the town of Coroico, and little
children stand in the road with their hands out to give us a "high
five" as we ride by... this is the best part of ending our experience,
aside from the icy cold beer at the bottom of the trail at the animal
reserve lodge.
We
all decompress from a very long, adrenaline pumping day, driving,
eating and watching our video and pictures from the ride. We are
extremely lucky that the weather held out, and for the first day since
we arrived into Bolivia, there has been no rain. The drive back, our
original bus meets up with us after returning the girls to the hospital
safely, and we take the "new road" versus the old road that we had just
biked. The new road, despite thousands of dollars spent on the
project, is already falling apart, but still much safer than the road
we just rode down, and the entire way back is sealed with thick fog, we
can’t see in front or on the side or behind the vehicle. We are happy
with our driver who is a 28 year veteran of driving these roads. He
gets us back safely to La Paz. We crash out, and have never slept so
well at 4000m before.
For more information about the World’s Most Dangerous Road, and really impressive photos, check out their website: www.gravitybolivia.com. 