Worlds Most Dangerous Road

(in name only)

09.08.2011 60 °F

So I officially began my training for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro today. I figured lets start by seeing how my body reacts to high elevation.

Dave and I flew into La Paz 1 day earlier than Katie and the kids with the express purpose of mountain biking down the Most Dangerous Road, just outside La Paz. We start our adventure at close to 15,000 feet and hurled down the Andes almost 10,000 feet of verticle drop in 1 day. While Wenger could probably make it down this bump without even touching his brakes, I was pretty much white knuckling it the whole way down. Rented bike, something squeaking in the rented bike, loose gravel and 1,300 feet to the valley floor if you missed the next turn. It didn’t help to hear the countless stories of people careening over the edge for one reason or another.

The ride itself is innocuous with scenery that will blow your mind. The cliffs around the road have insane drops that will kill you if you miss the turns. I am not saying I wish I took Abby, Lucy and Jake on this ride but as long as you are not a complete moron you can make it down this ride. There are a couple of points on the road where it is extremely narrow. I am talking inches outside the tire tracks with 1,000 feet plus of straight down. Yes, I chickened out and rode on the mountain-side of those narrow patches. Contrary to what Zimmerman says, I am not a moron.

At the bottom we hit 3 zip lines that traversed these massive canyons. The ride back up took us 3-1/2 hours by bus on the WMDR. It is truly a day I will not forget any time soon. We quickly cleaned up, enjoyed a dinner at Angelos and picked up Katie and the kids at the airport.

Needless to say they were pooped as their plane landed at 11:30pm. Jake was being carried and the girls were zombies with the altitude already getting to them.

I am fortunate as I have not had even the inkling of a headache. Perhaps I will be able to make it up Kili after all in January? While I have no headache, even going up a few small hills in La Paz has left me winded and thinking I was going to die from lack of oxygen.

Katie tells me about their flight from Santa Cruz to La Paz was unlike any she has ever experienced. They arrive at the airport to find several families with white flowers. Katie is thinking “How nice, they are there to greet their relatives.” Not quite. They are there to greet their loved ones, corpses. A BOA (Bolivian Airlines) flight went down in a storm in the Bolivian Amazon region the day before killing all but 1 person aboard. Katie is literally seeing people claim coffins as she prepares to take off in a storm from Santa Cruz. Katie is not a nervous flier but this flight was an exception.