Kicking dirt at the devil 6/14/11
Up at 630 to meet our group for the World’s Most Dangerous Road bike ride. As we were leaving the hostal Andy almost ripped the door down with his large backpack. We walked down the Prado to a coffee shop to meet the group. Once again Andy almost ripped a door off with his backpack on. We entered the coffee shop and I turned around to hear a loud clash of his backpack with the glass door. I reminisced about the time he ripped the door panel off a Moroccan Rihad. Two ham and cheese croissants and coca teas later and we headed off.
Along the way Phil, our fearless leader, gave us some guidelines: basically “don’t ride like a fucking asshole”. He handed out the water resistant pants and jacket saying, don’t worry about the size we give to you, they were made for Bolivian midgets. I got an L and Andy got an XXXL- ha! He asked if anyone was wearing the tourist pants- baggy coolots that come in a variety of colors. No one was and he said good, I worry about those guys because they are retards. Haha. He handed out snacks and I was the only one with the veggie sandwich to which he asked, OK who thinks they are better than everyone else for eating the veggie? I was getting nervous on the bus ride to our stop because I was a bit nauseous for an unknown reason. We stopped at a parking lot near a lake to prep. We put on our pants and jacket, the orange vest over it, gloves, helmet, and goggles. We tested our full-suspension downhill Kona’s around the parking lot and I was so out of breathe it made me more nervous, hoping we didn’t have to pedal up hill at this altitude.
The group took off for the first leg of our adventure on pavement to get a feel for the bikes. It was a bit chilly at 16k ft and my fingers were starting to freeze. Andy of course was first, battling it out with another dude from the UK, and I was 5th, behind all the other dudes who ride but the first girl. It was pretty fun downhill, no breaking and tucking to be aerodynamic. We came to a tunnel where we had to go around because a chick from France did a face plant into the wall, since then the government said no more cyclists in the tunnel. We then hopped in the bus where it drove through a construction site and to the entrance of the Death Road.
All we could see off the side of the road were clouds into the abyss. We left for the first leg of the Death Road and I could see how so many cars could go off the side. There were crosses all the way down where various people died- tourists and non-tourists. At the top there was only room for one car, the cliff on one side and a wall on the other. Every 100 meters there were small passing lanes in case you did come face to face with another car. Cars in Bolivia always drive on the right side except here. They drive on the left so cars coming down the mountain can see where their tire is near the edge. At this point of the ride there was a 600 ft drop. At one point in history they marched 5 opposition leaders over the edge and there was now a memorial. He warned us about the baby heads and how if you hit it wrong you can go down. What happened to me on this first leg? Well I didn’t go down but I almost did hitting a baby head. I was a little nervous so I was looking right in front of my tire instead of where I wanted to go. I caught myself and it set the tone for the rest of the ride.
The group would stop every so often so we could take pictures and the slow pokes in the back could catch up. Everyone in our group seemed to enjoy it, but we were constantly passing people in other groups who weren’t having such a great time. For a while we were in the clouds, not being able to see the drop but knowing it was there. At one point we passed a car that was driving up the road. People still lived in the villages here so some cars did still drive it although not to many. After the fog we hit warmer temperatures from the dramatic altitude drop we just did where there were waterfalls (San Jan waterfall) which we had to ride under. After the waterfalls we hit really hot temperatures as we entered the jungle and we had to peddle uphill some. It wasn’t bad due to the altitude, but it was hot and not being in shape didn’t help. We passed through a couple villages where kids wanted to give us a high five. Phil told us sometimes kids will hold onto your hand and not let go so no one was up for the high five. The whole way down we saw ‘Bolivian warning signs’ meaning crosses of where people have died. It was definitely a mountain bike ride, not just a tourist cruise down the mountain. I don’t recommend it for people who don’t bike due to all the baby heads and gravel and certain death.
We ended at an animal refuge (Sande? Verde) where most of the animals were free to roam. Some had to stay in cages because they are dangerous (like a bear) or weren’t used to being around people. They have lots of Spider, Squirrel, and a Howler Monkey. Dogs were roaming around along with a duck, goose, Macaws, Parrots, a Coati, turtles, and fowl. They have the stripper policy here, you can’t touch them but they can touch you. If a monkey jumps on you it’s OK, just don’t cradle them or try to hold onto them. There’s a vet and a few permanent workers, but a lot of the work with the animals is done through the volunteers here. At any time they have between 2-25 people who pay for their food to stay here and work with the animals. The minimum is two weeks but many stay for months, then go home and come back for longer. We decided to stay the night here since it was more of a refuge than a zoo, one of the nice things about not always having a place to stay. We were almost out of Bolivianos but luckily they accept USD and we had enough of it for one night.
We ate lunch with the biking group and headed to the pool where one of the monkeys just pooped. The pool was cold but I was able to get in enough to rinse the sweat and the 4 day funk on my body. They don’t have mosquitoes here but they do have sand flys which I think are worse. You can’t really hear, see, or feel them on you. They don’t itch immediately but you will feel them in 3 days. I sat outside the pool for a bit which was enough to have about 30 bites on me. You can tell you’ve been bitten from the little dot of blood underneath your skin they leave behind. I’m going to be in serious misery in a couple days. You aren’t supposed to wear DEET here because the monkey will lick it off you. I'll pay for that later.
We passed on dinner and ate the junk food we had with us since we were low on cash. After a cervesa I was so tired I wanted to hang in our cabana. Andy was all for partying with the volunteers. We lied down, I started blogging and Andy felt asleep around 830. No partying tonight.