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Where's Dave O?
My next little challenge in this country of adventure was to mountain bike down the World's Most Dangerous Road (WMDR). This stretch of 'road' has officially, according to UNESCO the most deaths per year per kilometre in the world. When you see it, it's not surprising. Basically a dirt track cut into the sheer side of the mountains, it joins La Paz to the lowland 'Yungas' town of Coroico. There are plenty of other similar type roads in South America but what makes this one lethal is the traffic and the drivers. Huge laden trucks and overloaded buses negotiate the narrow track and sharp unprotected corners at ridiculous speeds. Worse still, some of the drivers are drunk or so tired having driven for days on end with their loads that they literally drive over the edge. The route is littered with wrecks of trucks and buses and crosses and other memorials line the roadside. So, what a great idea to bike down it I thought! At least my fate was in my own hands. Having literally signed my life away with one of the better reputed tour agencies, we drove up to the point at 4800m outside La Paz where we'd start the 65km downhill on a stretch of asphalt road before hitting the dirt of the WMDR. After getting familiar with the bike we set off and got some decent speed down the steep road before we had to stop and pass through the first of 2 drug checkpoints. We were heading towards the main coca growing region of Bolivia and the Leapardos, the army's drug squad look for the chemicals that are used to make cocaine. Growing coca is legal in Bolivia as it is in Peru and Columbia and has been part of the culture since pre-Inca times. Despite pressure from the US to reduce or criminalise coca growing (they used to fund the Leapardos & provide them with helicopters and other equipment in their hunt for cocaine production sites), El Presidente Evo -who once used to be a coca farmer himself- supports the industry and its continued growth and in fact is due to address the UN in an attempt to decriminalise the coca leaf internationally.
The asphalt ended abruptly and we started down the dirt trail. After a local man's wife was killed in an accident on the road, he established a basic system of 'traffic lights' at the worst corners. Volunteers stationed on the corners wave green or red flags to warn of oncoming vehicles. The ascending vehicles always have right of way as many of them wouldn't be able to start again if they stopped on the steep hills, and so if descebding, you drive on the left of the road, overlooking the drop. Unbelievably, after only 5mins our guide stopped us, as one of the guys towards the back of our group was missing, presumably having gone over the edge! We couldn't find him. For a frantic few minutes, with his girlfriend hysterical, we searched, looking over the edge before someone found him and shouted he was alright. 'Alright'meant alive and he was lucky, he'd gone over in a spot with lots of vegetation and his fall had been broken by some trees. He was about 20m down, just before the sheer drop into the ravine. To get him out, our guide roped up and using a bus as an anchor, we lowered him down. The guy had broken his collarbone. To make matters worse, it was his birthday and his girlfriend had bought him the ride as a birthday present! She's bad luck and has got to go, we all thought. The guy was taken in a bus back to hospital in La Paz and after the guide went back down to recover the bike ($1000 worth of bike doesn't get left behind in Bolivia) we continued on, albeit at a slightly more sober pace for a while at least. A few hours later after a dusty, rocky and hot ride we arrived weary but happy at Coroico, having survived the WMDR.
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