Death Road

Sunday, January 1st, 2006

Change of pace. We have mellowed out long enough and were now ready for some serious action. Even before we entered Bolivia, Shurik was thumbing through the Bolivia section in our guide book and stumbled across something called The Death Road. “Stasya!” He turned to me all excited, “Wanna go up to 4700m on a van and then ride a bicycle downhill 64km on the most dangerous road in the world?” “Ahem… No! Do I look like I have a death wish?” It was an honest response. I haven’t been on a bike since the fifth grade! Now, that was about a week ago and since then the subject didn’t come up until Jurgen asked: “Are you guys doing the Death Road?” To my surprise it took both of us about two seconds to reply “Sure!”, and that very day was spent on searching for the best and cheapest guide to lead us down the mountain. I have to say though; this decision was truly in the spirit of our whole journey. There is a very good Russian saying: “In every joke there is a smidge of truth,” and this saying has been so very true for us. Many things that we have done, including the decision to go around the world itself, started as nothing but a joke. A silly idea that is thrown out there and then actualized against all odds.

Can’t say I wasn’t nervous. They say you don’t forget how to ride a bicycle, but I didn’t believe “them”. All I hoped for were good brakes and for the waterproof garments that were given to us by the guide to actually be waterproof. Well, as usual you can’t always get all you want, but one out of two is still better then none. After they were tuned to my size and strength, the breaks worked pretty well even though at certain points I ended up helping myself along by digging my heels into the ground. The waterproof pants I was given though were a completely different story. The thing is that the first 15km of the Death Road was paved so it was easier to ride on and get used to your bike. However, it was incredibly cold due to the altitude and, to make matters worse, it was raining, and at the speeds we were able to reach on the asphalted road, this rain felt like hail of frozen needles. To say the least, by the end of this first run we were all wet down to our underwear, waterproof pants or not…

Tags: cycling, extreme
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