northampton, ma

I'm back again in La Paz, after spending a three days in Coroico, the town at the end of "the world's most dangerous road". The road from La Paz to Coroico was dubbed this by the Inter American Development Bank in the late 1990s after the bank approved funds to assist in the building of a newer, safer road to Coroico. The reason? The road has at least 20 miles of very narrow, single lane dirt track with a 3000 foot drop off the side into the valley below. Nearly every bend and corner has memorial crosses erected to those who have gone over the edge, and many victim's families do periodic traffic control at the corner where they lost their love ones. On my trip down the road I saw four such people, with flags green on one side and red on the other, to coordinate oncoming traffic.

Four people died on the road the day before.

As any traveller in search of adventure knows, whenever a place is called the "most dangerous" well you must go experience it for yourself. So I did, doing the 38 mile journey on a six hour bike ride. The trip was incredible and incredibly painful. The scenery along the way is beautiful, starting at over 15,000 feet up in the Andes and finishing around 5,000 feet down in the high jungle. The painful bit comes in at around three hours into the ride, when all the rocks and gaps and bumps in the road have rattled your hands into a clawlike stage where you can barely open and close them. Imagine how you would be holding on for dear life, attempting to avoid oncoming trucks and buses, falling off the cliff, or simply falling and bashing yourself into the ground. Out of the 28 or so who went only one person fell, which surprised me because fatigue really sets in after awhile and the road conditions are absolute crap.

But anyway, I obviously survived, and had a very nice time of it. To be honest, biking the road is entirely safer than going down it in a bus, and the company I used has been operating for 7 years without anyone dying. I did have to return to La Paz on a bus, but when going in this direction (uphill) you get the left "lane" and the traffic going to Coroico has to pass you on the right, or on the edge side. So it's a bit safer - although collisions happen all the time, and the downhill vehicle, having the momentum on its side, has been known to take both vehicles over the edge.

Ending here, off to get a pint at the pub.