One of the "big draw" attractions that all the little tour companies here in LaPaz advertise is a mountain bike descent of "the worlds most dangerous road"... And they have pictures of impressive sections of road cut into sheer jungle covered cliff faces.
That sounds perfect :))
So I get a few details from the tour companies about where to go, and I head off next morning. It makes about a half day circuit by the sound of it, so I leave the top box and tank bag at home but the side panniers on.
First I find my way out of the city through morning traffic... bit of a pain but not unexpected. Then its up to about 4700m on a small highway and through a pass. Then this is where the mountain bikers start... Its about 25Km of windy down hill on very nice pavement (not wide but good quality). This is just normal riding for me.
Then the trick is to find the turn off onto gravel road... There are several options here and I try a couple of them. The roads are all in use as access to villages here and there. They are all quite steep and windy and narrow. And there are surprise appearances of trucks and buses coming around corners in the other direction too... It makes for cautious riding since going off the road on the wrong side on any of these roads is a "one way trip" so to speak... But they dont appear to be "The" road in question.
So, twice I decide Im not in the right place and back-track to the highway.
Finally I think Ive got the right one... Could be the mountain bikes loaded on that minivan Im following ;)
Right, off I go.
... And the road is a narrow windy dirt road that is in EXCELLENT condition. And sure enough there are quite a few mountain bikers on it, but there is absolutely no traffic coming the other way.
And yes the hills are steep, and the cliffs are quite a long way down. Yes the road is literally cut into the side of the cliff in places... Quite spectacular really.
But its nothing I havnt seen before, and it doesnt last very long before its back to just being a windy dirt road in the mountains...
But truth be told, its nothing any little old Granny couldnt do!
Im sure it makes some people feel they are really "out there" and I guess thats good for them in its way.
For myself, I would have felt quite disappointed were it not for the really nice jungle and the scads of butterflies... And there were LOTs of those great big metallic blue "Morpho" s that I love (and which are virtually impossible to get a picture of!)... I saw at least three different species of them in the space of an hour :)))
So, I was happy enough with the half day riding and the two hours on the dirt.
But, the rough road did take its toll... The pannier rack broke again! Only in one place though so the box wasnt dragging in the dirt like last time :)
So, on the way back into the city, I found another welding place, took the pannier off, had it welded up again (but with more reinforcing this time) and finally put it all back together again. That done, I rode back into town :))
So, I think they are over-hyping that road a bit.
But, I did have a chat with some of the locals in the mountain biking guide companies, and they acknowledged that their "road of death" was really quite tame.
Truth seems to be that the road was in fact very dangerous back in the day when it was the only access road to the area and it was in heavy use in both directions by lots of buses and trucks with the predictably poor central/south American maintenance practices. But now that the new paved highway is in, "the road" is really only a tourist attraction... And we cant go killing them off now can we :))
But they also suggested that there was another road in the area that went to a mine up in the hills and that it really was a "piece of work"... Hmmm
Not this time, but maybe when I ride back North, Ill give that one a go and see what its like :)))
