Death Defying Bike Ride Is Not For The Faint Hearted
Bike Ride Of Death
Beginning high in the Bolivian Alps, is the world’s deadliest road, known as the Road of Death (El Camino de la Muerta), built in the 1930’s. The locals say, “It’s not the condition of your vehicle that counts, prayer is the only way to travel the road in safety”. Plunging around 3.600 metres, on narrow 64 kilometre trail, with no protection, no guard rails, steep walls sheering away, hundreds of metres to the Coroico River far below below. Fatal accidents every couple of weeks is common, with around 200 – 300 deaths annually. You will see both drivers and passengers feeding the dogs that live at the foot of the mountain, so as in to appease the earth deity Pachama. Drivers are constantly heard pray as they negotiate the deadly bends and narrow path, that is given the doubtful title of a road. At a chilly 4,700 metres, lies desolate and windswept La Cumbre, one of the globe’s highest cities, enclosed by glaciated peaks, the start of the world’s deadliest gravity-fed bike ride. As the group of bikers get ready to take up the rest of the challenge of the most dangerous road on earth, after having raced down the short introduction at tear streaming speeds of 80 km per hour, the guide instructs them, “Make sure you give way to {{{everything|anything{{{ larger than yourself.” Occasionally one of the tourist bikers backs out and returns to La Paz in one of the minibuses. Because of the density of the bush, you can’t hear vehicles horns blowing around the corner. Drivers pause to pour beer libations onto the earth. Chewing coca leaves so they will stay awake, the drivers take off at break-neck speeds in vehicles that are not fit to be on any road. Decrepit and overloaded buses complete the traffic pandemonium. Not everyone who dares to travel the road,makes it successfully. Signs of previous accidents are easily seen. There are no emergency services available on this deadliest of all roads. At the end of the ride, the bikers, having dropped 3,600 death defying metres, relax in a bar sipping on their margaritas margaritas. It’s not the legs or arms that ache from the exertion, but the hands, from braking so much during the white-knuckle gravity-fed ride down the mountain. A safer road that will substitute this death trap, has been twenty years in the making and nowhere near completion yet.
About the Author
Dr Wendy and her husband are CEO's of YouMe Support Foundain,(http://youmesupport.org) supplying high school education grants to kids who will never go to high school without outside assistance. They are offering a world first, Blue Moon opportunity, you can't afford to miss. Do yourself a favour and spend a few minutes taking a look at http://winaresort.com
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