Bolivia Death Road

Yesterday I did the Bolivia Death Road mountainbiking trip. This road is very famous for its high number of deaths per year. I think 43 or so have died this year so far. The trip started at around 4700 meters at 9AM and over the next 5 hours we made our way down to 1300 meters. Overall the trip was amazing. The first half was paved and very fast downhill. The second part is the dirt and rocks and is the famous death road section.

About 3 months ago a large truck fell off the edge and many people died. The people from the surrounding area held protests in La Paz because they were angry that it was taking too long to open the NEW road which is a lot safer. As a result the government rushed the opening of the new road and now most vehicle traffic takes the new road. This was nice because we didnt have to deal with traffic on the way down.

Here is a picture showing what it was like at 4700 meters at the start of the trip.

During second half of the trip the road became very narrow.

Here is an example of what often happens when the truck drivers are too tired to navigate the tight turns and narrow road.

A good pic showing how steep the cliff is.

At the end of the trip the climate was dramatically different. It was like 75 degrees and sunny. Amazing.

Here is where we had a nice buffet lunch that was included in the tour.

Beautiful mountain range near La Paz

PS:

One of the guys in our group was from Italy. The below picture shows the worst fashion disaster I have ever seen.