Today our adventures took us from La Cumbre to Coroico where we took on the challenge of mountain biking the death road. It just so happens that the one day we decided to do the ride was also the only day it’s decided to rain in La Paz since we’ve been here (which meant it was snowing at La Cumbre). Even so we had a great time and are still alive to tell about the death road experience. Sadly enough, the death road receives its name and is famous all over the world due to the great number of people who have died while traveling on it (most of them in buses). One time a bus with 100 people fell off the road and everyone was killed. The road is really only wide enough for one car and was supposed to have traffic going in one direction one part of the day and another direction another part of the day, but this was rarely followed and with straight drops up to two thousand feet on either side of the road; many deaths occurred yearly. People here often describe how in the attempts of the buses to get around one another part of a wheel would be hanging off the edge of a cliff. Fortunately, Bolivia made a new paved road three years ago and the death road is used far less frequently for daily travel.
11,000 feet of vertical descent!
Stephanie and Jayson,
ReplyDeleteI'm a follower of your blog. Yay! These Death Road pictures are amazing!! I'm glad your trip on it was a safe one. Steph, I laughed SO HARD at your daily mishap post. haha. That's really too bad about the sink!I'm sure your familia loves just the same. :)Steph, I also heard that you snagged yourself a job upon your return to Utah.Congrats! That must be a good feeling.
Sending my love from Denver and hoping that when you return from your foreign adventures you'll want to trek across a couple states and pay me a visit!