Big day in the saddle. Kurt was buzzing around at the breakfast
mentioning that he needs to survive and doing random acts to try and win
favour, such as moving my helmet from one table to a chair where I was sitting,
and saying at the same time “I’m just trying to survive man”. Sadly all of my
Bolivians are gone so I was not able to give a tip on leaving, Harry did give
him a 10 boli tip. Of course the other staff at the restaurant were at least as
diserving.
We fearlessly headed for the “Death Road”. It works out that this is
actually a fairly dangerous road. There is a grewsome history with huge fatalities
in the past with buses going over the side. Hax mentioned that 100 people died
in one crash a couple of years ago with two buses colliding and both of them
going off the road. Going off the road is not so good on the death road it
works out as at places the road is only 3-4m wide and has a 600m shear drop,
with no form of barriers to help keep you on the road. If two vehicles meet at
one of these points then someone has to back up, which is when most of the
damage occurs. Thankfully the road rules are different for the Death road, you
drive on the left. Why? This is so that the driver is on the outside aspect of
the road and can judge more acuratly how close to the edge they are. We were
going up and this meant that we would be on the inside aspect the whole way.
Geert was worrid that we would have difficulty remembering the stay left, but
no fear, my history of being bought up in NZ driving on the left and my natural
fear of heights allowed me very naturally to stay away from the edge. The road
itself was very similar to a south island club ski field with a mixture of
gravel, ruts and rock, the only difference being the void that was on the
outside of the road. There was no other traffic and essentially so long as you
did not look at the edge it was pretty easy going on a bike. It would be
teriffiing in a bus.
The vegetation was beautiful with tropical bush gradually
transitioning to more alpine bush as we ascended. It was very steep country.
Several waterfalls fell across the road with the overhanging cliffs that the
road is cut out of, and this did lead toa bit of water on the riders, and the
pleasre of riding behind a waterfall. We stopped several times to admire the
scenery and take in the environment which is spectacular.
Towards the top of the road we met the first mountain bikers.
Tourists rent mountain bikes and free wheel down the Death Road, which ends up
being a 3500m decent. Geert wanted us off the road before they started as he
says they are super dangerous, as they are not in control, and go all over the
place. Not surprisingly this includes gong over the edge, and 15 mountian
bikers have died on this ride since it started. Looking at the standard of the
riders this is no surprise, theey are not experienced riders. I would be
anxious riding down this road, as it is pretty rough in places and your breaks
would eventually give out with heat, as unlike a motorbike there is no option
for engine breaking, and I do a relatively large amount of down hill mountain
bikeing. As we exited onto the new road and ncontinued up, the number of
mountain bikers increased massively with numerous vans dropping people off and
numerous groups of riders coming through. Crazey.
Once again it went from Banana to Llama as the environment changed
over the 3500m altitude change.
Rode into La Paz with less drama than previously, picked up Harrys bike,
and then once again had an escort out of town by the bike rental guy who had a
short cut for us. Nice terrain in southern La Paz, with a variety of green
areas and a canyon area to contrast this. Stopped for lunch, a quick bite, then
we opened the taps headed for the border. Spectacular view of the volcano
Suger//// as we approached from the other side to previously. At border it took
two hours in bitter cold, I mean Cold, or COLD or…, it was really cold. It was
getting dark when we arrived at the border control, which is at 4500m altitude
on a plateau beside an alpine lake. The wind blew down from the snowy peaks
around us and there was nothing to stop it. We had no shelter as we lined up for
the border formalities, and the wind stripped the heat out of us. There were
numerous hoops to jump through with getting the vehicles over the border. We
wondered out loud what these people did wrong to be posted up here, it seemed like
Siberia.
Eventually after about two hours we were away in the dark, very
cold, and looking forward to a warm hotel in Putre, Chile, about 60km away.
This was a slow 60km though as it was mostly road works and gravel with a lot
of trucks on the road. There was one lollypop man that stopped the traffic for
an age and when it was time for us to go he stood chatting to his mate that had
just driven through and held us up for several more minutes than nesesary,
really annoying in this cold. I left my engine running for the 15min or so that
we waited just ot get the heat coming up. Ultimately the night ride into Putre
was an adventurous end to a big day in the saddle. We went to the usual hotel,
but it was full. We waited while Geert found an alternative hotel then met up
with him at the restaurant on the Plaza that we ate at previously (alpaca
steak) and a couple of bottles of wine later and life was rosey again. I was a
bit wobbly on the bike getting to the hotel, must have been exhaustion.
No comments:
Post a Comment