World´s most dangerous road

Two days ago we woke up early in La Paz to meet up with a guide and a group to go mountain biking down the "World´s Most Dangerous Road". This lovely moniker was given by the Inter-American Development Bank due to the narrowness of the road, it´s proximity to sheer cliffs, and it´s not being paved. Until recently (when a safer road was constructed) 100s of people per year died on the road, mostly in cars and buses but a few on bikes as well- in spanish, the road is called "Camino de la Muerte". The bikes still go down the old road while most, but not all, auto traffic takes the safer new road. We took a bus to the top of the of the mountains and mountain biked down the old road. Luckily, we survived the ride down and had a great time. Besides being the most dangerous, it is also arguably the most beautiful. The ride is about 40 miles long through lush green rainforest and under waterfalls, mostly downhill, on cliffs that have up to a 2,000 ft drop. Jeff´s not a big fan of heights so it took a little convincing to get him to go. We picked the safest company we could find, tested the brakes on the bikes and set out for some fun. We had great guides that gave us lots of tips on the terrain and once we got over the initial fear of biking on an unpaved cliff road, we had a blast.

Stopping for a snack part way down the road.

I think I had my mouth in a goofy grin almost the whole 4 hours. I must have swallowed at least half a dozen bugs and my fair share of dust as well. On the few uphill parts, our altitude training came in handy. Since we were now much lower in altitude, having descended about a mile in elevation on the ride, it was much easier to breath. Jeff passed up everyone in our group and I wasn´t far behind.

This is one of the few pics from our camera. The guides took lots of pictures and we don´t have them yet. I´ll post more later.

The ride concluded at an animal shelter and Jeff and I decided to stay there for the night.

The one downside to staying there was the sand fly bites. We thought they were bad in Aguas Calientes but the sand flies in Yolosa put the AC fleas to shame. Since the place we were staying was an animal shelter, we weren´t allowed to use repellent with DEET becuase it´s poisonous. They sold us some non-deet repelent which I think was just a placebo. Placebo repellents don´t work on sand flies. Within an hour my legs were covered in bleeding bites which later blossomed into giant nastry red lumps, some twice the size of a quarter, some bleeding, some oozing. NASTY and so so itchy!

This photo is on day 2 of 4 in the rainforest. My legs look even worse now.

Everything else about the shelter was great! There were 3 kinds of monkeys (squirrel, spider, and capuchin), parrots and lots of other birds, an Andean spotted bear, dogs, cats, spotted hens, geese, and coatis. Besides the bear and a few of the adult monkeys all the other animals roam freely around the grounds and interact with the guests and volunteers. The young capuchin monkeys are especially friendly and if they like you they´ll climb all over you. They liked me. Well, maybe they liked my sarong skirt which they seemed to think was a fort.

My skirt turned fort.

3 or 4 of them that were climbing on my lap shoulders and head, and running under my skirt. At one point things got a little wild and one of them was swinging from my hair. It was pretty painful and I was afraid I´d be coming home with a bald spot. Lucky for me, the monkey eventually let go and didn´t take any of my hair with him. Later one of the capuchins, Kimbo, was playing with my skirt and decided to start eating my flip flop. I thought that probably was a bad idea so I tried to take it away. Kimbo got pretty feisty about then and climbed onto my lap and slapped me on the chest. Then he started to eat my shirt. When I tried to stop him he smacked me again. It was pretty funny but also a little scary so I tried to walk away. He grabbed onto my shoe and wouldn´t let me go. I took off my shoe and held it in the air and he just hung there eating it. One of the volunteers helped me get him loose and Jeff and I went back to our little cabana. The next day when we visited the monkeys again they were obsessed with getting our Bolivia travel book out of Jeff´s pocket.

Now we´re in Coroico, a small, quiet mountain town with gorgeous jungle mountain views everywhere you turn. We´ve been taking it easy, walking around, swimming, and enjoying the warmth of the lower altitude here.

Tommorrow we are hoping to ride horses then head back to La Paz. One night in La Paz then we fly to Lima, LA, then home. I´m sad our trip is coming to an end but it has been a lot of fun and I do miss my family, friends, kitties, and food from home. Jeff is the best travel companion- always game for almost anything, puts up with my whining about my bug bites, has an almost endless tolerance for 20 questions, crossword puzzles and gin rummy, and enjoys Simpsons in Spanish as much as I do.

See you soon!