Casualties of the World´s Most Dangerous Road

Upon reviewing my very long day mountain biking the WMDR, I have to admit that I think there may be casualities, perhaps even a death. That´s right friends, it is possible that my trusty hiking boots may not survive the encounter. They have been with me through thick and thin and haven´t let me down, but I think forcing them to spend the day in the freezing rain, snow and crossing through rivers may have been just too much for them. They are taking on water now at an alarming rate....although it is possible that it has taken all of a week for them to actually dry out, considering I put them through one of the rainiest weeks ever in Sucre right after that!

Since you don´t often get the chance to ride a mountain bike down the Andes, descending 12,000 feet in 64 kilometers, I really felt I had to do it, even though it is the rainy season and not recommended to do it. It poured so hard all day long, I didn´t even take my camera. The day started out at over 4,700 meters--that´s over 15,000 feet--in the freezing rain. Actually the day started out with the bikes on the roof of the bus pulling down power lines as we made our way through La Paz, but that is not important here.

The goggles were covered after about 2 minutes of riding, and taking them off made it worse as then it just went right in your eyes. The reason people enjoy this ride so much is the scenery--sheer drops offs as you wind your way down the road in which so many vehicles have been known to go over the edge. Unfortunately, we had mostly white out conditions all day as so couldn´t see much, which is really disappointing. Oh well. It was a good, difficult ride, and of course we got to enjoye a flat tire and a snowstorm on our way back up the mountain into La Paz. Not sure if there will be pictures here as I have been waiting a long time for this lady to put the photos on CD, and don´t think they are going to show up any time soon. If not, you´ll see them here later!

After that I hung out in Sucre for about a week just waiting for Carnaval in Oruro to begin. All I have to say about that is it was total and complete chaos, people got robbed and attacked and everyone was drunk for many days on end...not that this is a bad thing, but the parade went from 7 AM to the following 4 AM. In fact it is not quite over, and even though I spent 7 hours on the worst train ride ever to Uyuni at 2 AM this morning, there is still a band playing here! I guess it will all end on Wednesday, by which time I will touring the salt flat with not a marching band in sight. AS for the train ride, I guess if I had gotten in line 2 hours earliers, we would have gotten the good seats, that go for around $12. But no, we got shafted with the $4 3 people to a bench seats in the back. With all the people, admittedly including us, who had not bothered to shower since sometime around the beginning of carnaval. I guess at least the train made it there, as the Bolivian bus requirement for each trip seems to be a mechanical breakdown of some kind, a flat tire or 3, or a landslide. Or more often a combination of those factors.

OK, so the photos are not happening and so will put up some kind of Bolivian fiesta of photos when I am done touring the salt flats later this week.

As for the photos up top, for those not in the know, this is what passes for a traditional Bolivian musical instrament. I kid you not. Disfruta!