La Paz has turned me into an adrenaline junkie, apparently, because today was spent on the Death Road. The name sounds more daunting than the activity actually is (for the most part), and it's worth one day if you have it to spare.
I talked a little yesterday about booking this tour for 360 Bs while I had other offers for 700 and 750 Bs, so to say the least I was a little nervous about what this would be. Again, my worrying was for naught. Before I describe my day, let me explain what exactly the Death Road is.
According to my guide today, Max, it's one of (if not the) deadliest roads in the world because of its narrow sections and the fact that it winds down a mountain in the Amazon rainforest. The location is about an hour away from La Paz, and tours spend the whole day (about 7 am to about 7 pm) taking groups here. You basically go with a group to the beginning of this trail, which has two parts. The idea is that you bike down and it's incredibly exciting because of all the bumps along the way. You practice for about 30 minutes, getting used to the bike over paved road first. When you're ready, you get back on the bus, which takes you uphill until you get to the second part, which is the actual adrenaline-pumping, focus-or-fall portion over the dirt road. This part takes about 2 hours, and at the end you go to a hotel with a buffet for lunch, hot showers, and a pool. You get to chill for a while before heading back to La Paz.
Everything went relatively smoothly, which is great. I was picked up from my hotel at about 6:50 am and taken to the travel agency to pick up my helmet, gloves, jacket, pants, etc. I met the other people who would be in my group then - 3 Israelis, 1 German, and 3 Chileans. It made for a nice group, with 4 Spanish speakers (the German lady learned Spanish after about 6 months of travel in South America) and 4 English speakers. I was worried at first because I have been on previous tours (ie Puno's Lake Titicaca islands) where the mix of English and Spanish tourists decreased the quality of the tour for both parties, but I was lucky that this was not the case. Right away, I could tell that Max did a great job with both languages.
We started off at a little lagoon. It was quite pretty and a nice place to have some breakfast, even at 4700 meters above sea level. We tried on our bikes and gear and headed off!
The paved portion of the road was nice and very, very pretty! I should have appreciated the lack of bumping more at the time, but that falls into the category of things I didn't appreciate until they were gone, unfortunately.
The second part of the road was simultaneously fantastic and extremely difficult. The dirt roads, with tons of random rocks and bumps everywhere, did not make it easy to ride over. Every single meter was a journey, and I had to balance trying to mitigate feeling the bumps by letting my hands and my legs feel the brunt of it. As I'm writing this now, my palms are aching, my butt hurts a little to sit on, and my arms are a little tingly, but it's definitely worth it!
What makes the trip more difficult than the constant bumps is the transition from early-morning cold to Texas-summer hot as you move down the mountain. It makes it hard to know what to wear, but I powered through with several layers of basically half the clothes I brought with me to South America.
We ended the trail and headed to the hotel after we finished, and thankfully they had towels, a hot shower, and even shampoo as well as the nice buffet for lunch. We then spent time lounging by the tiny little pool before heading home!
The way home took about 3-4 hours, especially due to traffic in La Paz (dare I say it's worse than Austin's?!). Along the way, Max sat with us in the back after two of the Chileans took another bus somewhere. He was white, which I noticed before but didn't question until he shared that he was originally from France and moved to La Paz about a month ago after staying in it while visiting several countries around South America. He learned Spanish, built a social network, and found a girl, so he decided to stay - it helped that he loved the city too. It was kind of awesome to see that he could give tours in Spanish after learning it so recently. He also said that he has heard really great things about Austin, so that was cool!
When we got back to La Paz, I stopped by the travel agency to get the pictures our other guide took of us and walked back to the hostel to pick up my bag before going to the bus station for Cochabamba! I wonder if it'll be as nice as I expect to stay in one place/have a home base for about 6 weeks, and/or to have a travel buddy for a little bit (shout out to Daniel, coming at the end of the month!). It'll be extremely different from the sort of travel/backpacking that I have done so far, so I'm excited!
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