When I fall, don’t forget me…
I’m still in La Paz but I’ll be leaving for Cochabamba in a few hours. I’m not looking forward to the 7-hour bus ride! Eli and Carolyn are hopefully in the air over the Caribbean somewhere on their way home after a hectic few days. All in all, it was a good little trip… although not without problems. Just as a reminder, we flew to La Paz from Cochabamba on Tuesday night, biked down the World’s Most Dangerous Road on Wednesday, bussed to Isle del Sol and did a 17km hike on Thursday, and returned to La Paz on Friday to do some shopping. This morning Eli and Carolyn left and I’m just going to kick it around the city until I grab a bus home.
I don’t think I can write about every part of the trip right now, but I’ll cover the first day. Tomorrow or Monday I’ll do the rest.
Wednesday: Biking the World’s Most Dangerous Road
First off I should say that the scenery on the trip was easily the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. From the 4500m mountains and valleys to the sub-tropical hills at the end, it was worth the price just to see the varied landscapes with my own eyes… which actually worked out pretty well since I couldn’t actually bike down the latter half or so of the road and elected to ride in the bus.
So apparently biking down the World’s Most Dangerous Road when you haven’t been on a bike (other than at the gym) in over ten years isn’t such a good idea. And when they say you never forget how to ride a bike, they’re wrong. As soon as we started on the bikes I knew I was in for trouble. Right away, you take off at what seems like incredible speed. Now, I love speed when it’s in a car or on a rollercoaster or at takeoff of a flight… but riding next to the edge of road, with traffic, while doing 40- to 60- km/h on a bike is not my idea of comfortable. I couldn’t stay off the brakes… I couldn’t trust the bike, probably because I hadn’t been on one for so long. But with some coaching from one of the guides, I started to loosen up. I became hopeful that maybe I could do this. No, as it turns out, I couldn’t.
Along a stretch of the paved road, I was going what seemed to be very fast but I was more comfortable than I had been before. I was feeling confident and starting to relax. And then the truck came behind me. In Bolivia, particularly in the mountains, all vehicles honk almost continually to let other people on the road know that they are there. It’s kind of a “hey, watch out, I’m right here” courtesy message. I guess I didn’t hear the truck until it was basically right beside me, so when I heard a honk very close to me I panicked a bit and started braking hard.
When you’re biking at speed, you have to brake with the front and back breaks in something close to the right ratio (70% back, 30% front) - otherwise you crash. I broke with too much of the back breaks and not enough front, so while zipping down this wet road, my back tire began to slide out to the side. After a terrifying, slow-motion second of sliding with the bike sideways, I rolled over it and hit the ground hard, with my bike crashing on top of me. We skidded and rolled for several metres. When we stopped, I was about 5 ft from the edge of the drop, which was only 7 or 8 metres - not enough to kill me, but enough to seriously scare me. Mostly out of embarrassment, I quickly got up, put the chain back on the bike, and got on again.
At the time, I didn’t think I had hurt myself other than some bruises and scratches, but I was now scared. As the next two days would show me though, my right side (the side that hit the ground first) took quite a beating. I’m almost positive I bruised the ribs on that side since even now, as I’m sitting here calmly typing in an Internet cafe, they ache when I breath any deeper than normal. My hip is still in rough shape too; although I can’t see a bruise on the skin, the bone feels very sore to the touch, which makes me think that it’s bruised too. At any rate, at the time I was sore but the main effect was that the confidence I had built up disappeared. You think “if I can’t even control the bike on this smooth paved section, how will I be able to do it at the most dangerous parts?”.
I continued and finished the paved section (about 1/3 or 2/5´s of the way), although now I was lagging fairly far behind the rest of the pack. I talked with one of the guides and we decided that I would try out the first gravel section to see if I could do it. When you ride on gravel and you’re going fast, you really have to use the breaks wisely because your wheels are much more likely to slip (like mine did on the paved section). After riding for a bit with the guide, it was clear to me that it wasn’t a good idea to continue; I was slipping around, putting my feet down, and basically doing all these unsafe things. So I made the decision to ride in the bus for the rest of it.
It was funny - there was no pride involved, and while I felt a bit embarrassed to be giving up, I think I was shaken enough not to care. Because, to me, it was clear that I just couldn’t do it, and I wasn’t about to risk my life trying. I’m all about trying new things and pushing oneself, and I would have loved to bike down the whole way, but when you’ve clearly come up to one of your limits, it’s time to step back. As the bus wound it’s way down the rest of the road, there were parts that I could have definitely done - but then there were parts that I definitely couldn’t have. Even now, out of the heat of the moment, I think that I made the right decision… although maybe that’s only because I can still feel my ribs aching.
I should add that Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, the company we went with, was very safe and professional. The equipment was good quality and in very good condition, and the guides periodically stopped the bikers to provide an outline of what lay ahead, tips and additional safety instructions.
At some point in my life maybe I’ll return and finish it, because, to be honest, I don’t think you need much experience to do it. If you are comfortable on a bike, you can finish it. But if you are an absolute beginner to mountain biking, haven’t been on a bike for more than 5 years, or haven’t tried riding at speed, I’d recommend getting a bit more comfortable before you try it. Like I said earlier though, the scenery, even from the bus, was spectacular, and almost worth the price of admission. So actually, even if you’re a beginner, try it because if it’s too much you can always pull a Corry and ride in the bus.
At any rate, there’s the first chapter of the trip. Upcoming installments include our heroes hiking through a mountainous island and along an Inca road, a row-boat ride on one of the world’s highest freshwater lakes, and a desperate 40-minute hike, in the dark, on the steep side of an island after being stranded.
…and pictures!
