Biking Camino del Muerto

All geared up and ready to go

One of the popular things (for all the adventurists) to do around La Paz is the downhill biking of the 'Death road'. The tour companies have made it surprisingly accessible at $50 for the day providing top of the line full suspension bikes, all the gear, pictures and movies of the group along the ride, showers and a buffet lunch at the bottom. Then they give you a t-shirt advertising their tour outfitter that says that you survived the Death Road. Amongst the backpackers in La Paz there was a lot of hype around this ride, and so even though we had wanted to do it before getting there we had to do it after hearing so much about it. I'm super glad we did. I understand the thrill now, not that I ever thought I might fly off the edge and die. :)

We rode with a bunch of 20-year-old French backpackers. This was one of the waterfalls over the road.

 

 

 

fog off the road in the morning

In the morning we started for an hour on the road and because of the altitude and that it's the rainy season it was raining and very cold on the bike.

A little rest

About half-way into the ride (about 2 hours) it stopped raining and warmed up. Actually by the time we got to the bottom we were hot and most of us took off a few layers of to keep from over heating in the humidity of the jungle.

The Death Road

Everything about the ride was beautiful and exhilarating at the same time, but my favorite part was riding through the dozens of waterfalls that fall onto the road. The waterfalls were almost always at bends in the road and where they fell onto the road they seemed to collect more of the gravel or stones from the road, making the turns really scary because you can't slow down too much or else you'll lose control on the stones but at the same time you never know where the stones have piled up because of the water.
The guides took advantage of these bends and took photos there - although I really think they were waiting there to see if any of us would wipe out and then they could catch it on tape.

The view of the valley near the end of the road