El camino de la muerte - Death road

The North Yungas road is one of the very few routes that connects the Amazon with Bolivias northern region, and its capital La Paz. It was built in the 1930s by Paraguayan prisoners and was in 1995 named " world's most dangerous road" killing an average 2-300 people every year.

Lately the road has been modernized quite heavily with a new route that bypasses the northern most stretch which is considered to be the most dangerous part. This part, however, is still operational and has become a popular attraction for thrill-seeking mountainbikers like us.

Well aware of the fact that this road claims the lives of truck drivers and mountainbikers alike (last one just 3 years ago) we read the following on wikipedia before joining up for the trip: " During the rainy season from November through March, rain and fog can severely hamper visibility, and water runoff can turn the road into a muddy track, affecting traction. In the summer, rockfalls are common and vehicle dust limits visibility as well."

Our driver took us up(!) from La Paz to around 4.700 meters above sea level. This is the point where the extremely long downhill (64 kilometers, with only one short uphill section) starts. Dropping 3.500 meters down to just 1.200moh we were looking at quite a bit of possible speed and thrills along the way. Being given my bike at the top I decided to take it for a spin to get used to it - forgetting I was almost 5000 meters higher up than I use to be. Taking some ten minutes to stop panting like a dog after this tryout I realized it was a good thing gravity would assist my riding for the remainder of the trip..

Coming down a few kilometers we realized the forecast was indeed true. Fog and rain cramped our visibility quite heavily, and the road was a slippery pile of mud, making everything and everyone quite the mess as the bikes we rode had no mudflaps on either wheel. -But no problemo! There were also showers in place along the way to help us clean up a bit! :-D

Coming down a few more hundred meters the fog lifted and we had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the absolutely magnificent view this road has to offer its travellers. I would never have gone on this trip as a passenger on any vehicle sans parachute, but as the rider of my own bike it was nothing but a pleasure. We stopped after about two thirds of the steepest part was done and had our lunch, soaking up the views of the path ahead and washing it down with the included RedBull energy drink our guides brought us. The commercial for this product claims to give wings to whoever drinks it.. we for sure could use that had any of us taken a left where there should be a right.

No one was harmed in the shooting of this photography. That being said, 20-something cyclists have apparently died on this track since 1998.

The last part of the track was not as steep as the beginning, and made us use the pedals a bit. As a bonus for the adrenaline junkies our main guide, Julio, provided the option of finishing off the very last part with a "single track" section opposed to go down the road. This single track was basically a path zig-zaging down the mountain side and into the forest. 4 of us decided to go for it. 1 fell quite a bit (but was luckily unharmed).

Would I like to go again? For sure! Do I recommend other travelers to La Paz  to take this trip? Absolutely! Hopefully you'll have more luck than we did with the weather on the first part, but this also added something extra in its own way so I was absolutely happy with it.

As a farewell gift we were each given the "I survived death road" souvenir t-shirt. I've wanted one of these since I met Mike from Ireland in Ecuador around two years ago, wearing one. :-)

Next stop we will leave the continent and fly out in the middle of the pacific to visit Rapa nui, or "Easter Island" as it's more commonly known in the western world. So far so good - I assume this visit will be just as exciting, though in a different way, than the Yungas road.

Thanks for having us, Bolivia. This was so far the highlight of this trip for me!

Third stop - Bolivia!

Flying in to the worlds highest placed capital, La Paz, is quite spectacular. It isn't among the most frequented of places so flying there from Asuncion had us change planes once and touch the ground twice in order to get there. Bit of a bumpy ride, but everything went fine. I was even lucky enough to get a shot of the airport flying in!

The cameras came out quickly when we touched the ground, but a very excited cab driver told us to wait - he was going to stop the car for us where the really good view were and man was he right. La Paz is situated at 3.600meters above sea level, making just walking around a tough exercise for us low-landers. It's placed in a valley with houses climbing to the side of the mountain all the way down to the city center in the middle. The airport is placed on the plateau above the city, thus making the drive downtown quite impressive:

Bolivias capital bear marks that this country is not yet amongst the richest in the world. It is extremely narrow, and things are built on top of eachother, showing that nothing was really planned here. It just expanded as more people moved in. Inch by inch. This ofcourse is the root to quite a bit of trouble getting around downtown, but for a tourist it makes things even more interesting and exotic. Our hostel, The Wild Rover, was located in a nice spot in the city center:

At 3.600meters above sea level even the simplest of tasks can be a bit of work for us sea-dwellers. Just holding your breath while taking a picture resulted in some serious panting and breathing, and walking stairs proved to be quite the challenge. Oxygen is really a luxury item up here and it took a while to get used to it. I'm not even sure we all got quite used to it the three days we spent up here. One of the days we even went all the way up to 4.700meters, but that's for another blogpost. :-)

Some claim La Paz can be a dangerous city, but as with most things in life I'd say you'll go a long way using your common sense. The three of us never lost track of each other and stuck as a group. At the hostel the first night we met two Dutch girls, 19 year old, out on their first big trip. The second day we met one of them wandering around the handicraft market downtown looking for her friend that she couldn't find. "She does this all the time". Now that is NOT a good display of common sense, girls.. I really hope they found back to eachother.

I cannot recommend the Wild Rover Hostel in La Paz. It is big, yes. The beds are excellent yes. They have their own "travel agency" inside that's very convenient when booking events for sure - but it is all so superficial. So very tourist-y. Even the employees are young people from europe and USA, earning some money to prolong their backpacking vacation. I liked our hostels a lot better in both Paraguay or Uruguay. This place was more like an american spring break and didn't give me the feeling of being far, far away.

The first thing that struck me something was odd was this door I passed INSIDE the hostel on my way around after we arrived on (apparently Sinful - they have theme nights) - saturday:

Apparently, every month when they had this "Sinful saturday" they turned the TV-room into a tatto parlor. The place come of as very strict about rules and regulations, but this was something that must've slipped under the prying eye. Here was no check for ID, no voucher to fill out, no nothing. Observing quite tipsy boys in their early twenties wander into this room just to return an hour later with some "incredible funny" thing tattooed on their bum was a bit discomforting. Perhaps I'm (finally?) starting to grow up?

What was that, growing up? - Oh come on! Not to worry:

Sorry mom - I wanted a souvenir. It is small. :-P

The second day of our stay in Bolivia turned out to be quite the thrill. I will put this in another post on the blog - hopefully within the next 24 hours. The days are quite full though, and little time is left to do things like this. Topped with Internet being as scarce a resource as Oxygen in La Paz things prove to be more difficult than first anticipated.

Right now I sit in the lobby of our hotel in Hanga Roa on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the middle of the pacific ocean. We have been walking around all day looking at big heads, and that put Lars and Chris in a coma for a few hours - giving me the opportunity to get this blogpost done. Now it's time to get moving though as we have tickets for a show in 30 minuts showing the traditional dance of the island. I'm told to expect something like the Maori of New Zealand and is quite excited about it.

So far so good - Chris has some stomach problems and I've lost a (cheap) hat. Other than that it's just smooth sailing so far. :-)