I was a bit terrified to do this as I am more of a causal biker. I enjoy going along the nice, flat, Chicago lakefront at a slow, casual pace. I also enjoy going fast in cars and such, but only when I am not driving. Anyway, it appeared I would be an independent woman yet again.
We met at the meeting point, loaded up in the vans and were off. Along the ride, we saw heards of llamas. Way more than Peru, which was a total surprise.
The night before I was instructed to layer, so I was wearing two pair of pants, a tank, a long sleeve top, a sweatshirt and a North Face Fleece. It was quite toasty in the initial van! After about an hour of driving, we loaded off the van and were given our gear. Gear consisted of another pair of pants, a jacket, a scarf type thing, gloves, a helmet and a bike. The layers were needed as we started near snow covered mountains. My bike was named Oso, or bear. I was happy I had a bike with a cute name.
Do I look ready to ride?
After given a brief intro of how to ride the bikes, we were introduced to Paccha Mama. In the native language, it means Mama Earth. We were instructed to pour some on the ground, some on our bikes, and some in our mouths for safety on the trail. It tasted like rubbing alcohol. The only positive thing I can say about it was it warmed my insides.
The first part of the journey was absolutely terrifying. It was not on the official Death Road, but on a paved highway with guard rails in a few select places. The bikes were some sort of fancy bike, apparently made to handle any speed and terrain at a fast pace. The retail value of these bikes is $2,500 usd. For comparison, I have a decent road bike that was $700. Anyway, this bike Oso was speeding so fast. I was white knuckle driving the entire time with the bike in the highest gear and basically riding the breaks the entire time. That, combined with cars, trucks, busses, other bikers, and semi trucks passing by made for quite an experience. I honestly thought I would swerve off and be a goner.
We stopped after about 10 minutes, I somehow managed to start breathing again, and one of the guides pulled me aside and helped me calm down. He reassured me the bike knew what it was doing and the calmer and less shaky I was, the smoother the ride would be. That barely helped. After we took off again, I managed to do some yoga breathing, which kind of helped. I was repeating to myself over and over again, "just breathe, too young to die". That also barely helped. After fifteen more minutes, we stopped again. I was just able to catch my breathe and we were off again. Thankfully, at this point there were two other girls in my same position and we huddled in the back.
During this ride, my guide thought a semi truck in front of me was going too slow and wanted me to pass it. If I had any breathe left in me, I would have screamed "are you insane?!?" We were already going around 35mph and he wanted me to go faster on a curvy, twisty, foggy road. No idea, why, but I did it and it was such a rush! I was finally getting in the groove of the freeway, albeit a slightly slower groove than the rest of the pack.
After that exciting adventure, we had to bike through drug patrol. This consisted of no inspection and just walking through. For some reason, I was expecting more.
Anyway, after a bit more freeway and narrow escapes from buses and cars crushing me, the freeway part was done. Which, by the way, Bolivians apparently find it sport to honk and yell at tourists along the road. Somehow, I didn't like this game. We then made it on to the gravel.
The gravel was insane. If you sat, your body shook and was in pain. They recommended standing, which put more pressure on my wrists and hands. I did a combo most of the way. Thankfully, the bikes were made to handle large rocks and stones.
The view along the way was absolutely gorgeous. We biked from around 9-3 with several breaks. It was mainly cloudy, through waterfalls, downhill and very curvy. I was pretty terrified the whole time, but towards the end I was getting a bit confident and speeding along and zipping through the curves. It was definitely one of the times I have been most proud of myself. Two girls bailed after the freeway, and as much as I wanted to, I didn't bail. Often times when in awkward or challenging situations, I cry, flirt or sneak my way out of it. This time, I faced it head on!!
A little bit about Death Road. It is 40 miles and is mainly a dirt road with gravel. It has no guardrails and an estimated 300 people people died annually on the road. Bolivia is in the process of building a new road, but cars still use the old road as well. The road is around 10 feet wide and were instructed to ride cliff side to avoid cars.
There were two stories the guides told us that I found interesting. The first was during the period of a dictator, there was to be an election. The dictator ordered all opposers to the road and gave them the opportunity to jump or be shot. They all jumped.
The second story involved a bus crash. Around 30 people died. The husbands of some of the deceased quit their jobs, moved to the road and took turns waving flags to signal safety. They survived off donations from travelers on the road.
After the bike ride, it was zip line time! I did it "super chicka" style where you laid spread out like superman and it felt like I was flying. Simply amazing.
Overall, the biking was an amazing experience. Definitely a top ten life day for me.
Today, was much more relaxed. I went to a witch market (will post photos tomorrow), had a margarita and booked my jungle trek and salt flat tours. Less than two weeks til I am home, gotta make the most of it!
Adios!
Kendra
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