Amazing 20+ hour bus ride to La Paz
This story starts in Cusco Peru...Brandon, Kyle and I have just finished hiking up Machu Picchu by taking the Salkantay trail and now it's time for another adrenaline pumping adventure; Death Road! Kyle is leaving us to go back to school at this point, it's me and Brandon for just a couple more days. I had managed to convince my Asian counterpart to risk life and limb to bike down the infamous death road with me. It didn't take much persuasion, next thing you know, we're both on a 14 hour bus ride to Bolivia!
By now, I've learned Brandon sleeps every chance he gets, we're on this fantastic bus after sleeping all night and this guy falls asleep within 30 minutes of leaving. I don't get it, we had such great views of the Peruvian and Bolivian peaks around us and Brandon is peacefully slumbering away. We had an 8 hour trip on the first day and around 6-7 hours the day after. We stopped at Lago Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. We were only spending the night so we decided to stay at a hotel to rest up before possibly dying while biking the most dangerous road in the world. The hotel was fantastic, the best part was the sunrise we saw while we were eating breakfast in the morning before entering into Bolivia.
Eating breakfast while watching the sun rise on the highest lake in the world - Hotel Libertador Lago Titicaca
We leave the hotel and get back onto another bus, at this point we have downgraded from what was a great bus to a third world clunker, it was all apart of the South American experience! On our bus ride into Bolivia, Brandon and I met a couple that was traveling around the world for a year, and they just so happened to be from Chicago! They sold all of their stuff shortly after getting married, quit their jobs and began their travels. Can't wait to hear all about their adventures once they return to Chi-town early next year.
Our bus pulled up to the Bolivian border, they told us all to get off with our passports and make our way across the border into Bolivia, this was just as bad, if not worse than what we did to get into Cambodia. All we have is our pocket wads of cash to get our visa and a passport. We did however forget to print extra passport photos for our visa so we ended up getting ripped off by a little boy with a printer and a camera, talk about an excellent business model! So we casually walk across the border, no big deal, we had officially entered Bolivia! It was now time to hop back onto the bus and make our way to the capital city of La Paz, little did we know the entire country only has around 300 miles of paved road so it was quite a bumpy ride.
a sip of pisco to calm the nerves and a few drops to please the gods
After around 7 hours of driving, we were finally in La Paz! At an altitude of 12,000 ft, just walking around required a lot of energy and oxygen, thanks to our hike to Machu Picchu, we were doing better than others. We checked into our Airbnb and it was fantastic! It was in a luxury high rise on the 19th floor, we had views for days! After settling in, it was time to mentally prepare as the next day we were about to descend a mountain that could likely kill us.
It's 6am and Brandon and I are awake and ready to go! We find out where our group is leaving from and head that way to eat some breakfast, this could have been our last meal so we ate pretty good! Yungas road was calling our names and taunting us, as we approached the starting point, it started to snow. We were at 15,000 ft above sea level, the weather was unpredictable here. As we start getting dressed with water proof jackets and pants the snow starts to thicken, Brandon and I just start staring at each other and instantly high five, no words were necessary to express our excitement! We strapped on our GoPro's and got into formation, before taking off our guide gave us some Pisco (alcohol) to make a prayer to patchumama (mother earth) to protect us as we go down this treacherous mountain. We first had to say something in Spanish, pour pisco on our tires, pour it into the earth followed by a big swig to take the edge off! Nothing says "dangerous" better than getting drunk at altitude before biking down a mountain nick named death road.
High up in the Bolivian Andes
And so it began, the first few miles down were on a paved road, we picked up a lot of speed here. Snow in my face, wind in my hair...my blood was pumping for sure! What were were seeing coming down this mountain looked like it was straight out of a movie, overcast skies, blizzard conditions, wet roads and a bunch of adrenaline junkies zooming past cars, it couldn't have started any better! As we approach the starting point, the road goes from paved and first world level to muddy gravel third world level almost instantly. At this point, we still have a mix of snow/sleet/rain, and it's coming down! The only thing that stands between us and the finish line is 41 miles of winding cliff-sides, a 15,000 ft descent, raging waterfalls and DEATH! No big deal, right?
Strikin the pose
We started out slow at first, we needed to get a feel for how the mud and gravel would shift under our tires. It also didn't help that the Europeans ahead of us were playing it super safe, we were trying to test death road - we wanted speed! We stayed back a bit until we saw a girl completely wipe out in front of us. As we were going down a steep hill, she accidentally hit her front brakes and flipped forward with the rear tire coming around to only hit her in the back of the head. She ate shit for sure! Nothing better than curb stomping yourself with a bike. Brandon and I jumped off our bikes and went to go help her up, her boyfriend just kept rolling downhill until he realized she was no longer behind him...what a guy! After a while, when our backup bus showed up, we loaded her bike and sat her down...she was done! Brandon and I got back on our bikes, looked at each other and said, "can you keep up?!" It was a race, what we had just seen didn't sway us at all, we were still desperate to race down the mountain, we started hauling ass! Within 2-3 minutes of taking off, Brandon almost hits a pickup truck that's coming up the mountain as we're going down and almost takes a tumble off the cliff. Good thing he was on the inside of the road, otherwise I would have seen him fly like superman to his demise.
Death Road Squad
The rain went from a slight drizzle to full on monsoon, I start to loose my sight as my sunglasses are covered in water and the dirt kicked up from the tires started to seep into my eyes. At any moment I could have gone off a cliff, instead I took off my sunglasses and decided to wing it. I couldn't think of what I wanted to do with all of this in my face, I wanted to hit the brakes on my bike but I was just trying to not steer off the side of the mountain, so I let the gravity speed me up. I was blinking like a mad man to get the water and dirt out of my eyes, it got really bad, no wonder there are so many deaths on this road. The conditions were horrible, and it wasn't just the rain and the mud, we also had to cross through waterfalls falling right onto our bikes which could have just washed us away off the mountain.
There were times where I began questioning myself..."why did I do this?" "This is terrible!!" But for some reason all the excitement was still there, and I was just thinking how amazing these gopro video's would be. After hours of going down this mountain and trying to stay alive, we made it! Death road definitely left it's mark on me mentally, I'll never forget how awesome and crazy it was to bike down. The downhill part was hard physically, going back up riding on the bus was worse mentally. After we showered and ate lunch, our bus had to go back up the mountain, this is where a majority of the deaths occur as the bus looses traction or gets washed away with loose mud or the numerous waterfalls we had passed. Fortunately for us, we made it back in one peace but not without a nail biting ride all the way back!
Brandon was going back home the next day, once we got back we ate dinner and tried to rage but we were so tired it didn't happen. The next morning he left and I was in La Paz all by myself, I had no idea what I was going to do for the few days I had left so I booked a flight last minute to Salar De Uyuni, the famous salt flats of Bolivia! I spent a night in Uyuni and did a day trip out to the flats, it was just an endless desert of Salt, it paled in comparison to biking death road!
Officially reached elevation higher than Everest Base Camp
After I came back the next day, I signed up for a 14 hour summit attempt of Mt. Chacaltaya, I've always wanted to climb above 5000 meters in preparation for a Himalayan peak so I thought I'd give it a shot. Since the ozone has depleted much more over South America than in other parts of the world, there was barely any snow, I climbed up this mountain wearing a hoodie and jeans since that's all I had packed. Chacaltaya used to once be the highest ski resort in the world at 18,000 ft. But now it's an abandoned mountain were people like me try to summit. The climb was terrible, I was not prepared in anyway other than the acclimating I had done in Peru and La Paz. It took around 15 hours for me to reach the peak of Chacaltaya, my head felt like it was going to explode. I couldn't breathe, there was no oxygen getting to my head so I only stayed at the summit for ten minutes before deciding to turn around and head back down. The views were phenomenal, I had just climbed a peak higher than Everest base camp! I now know that when I go to Nepal, I'll have to push my self to go higher, the goal now is Island Peak at around 22,000 ft, for that though, I'll need to train!
We've reached the end of my trip, sudamerica part uno is done, part dos starts in December where Brandon and I will continue our shenanigans before I set sail to the end of the world!
Stay tuned, Pre-Antarctic post is coming soon!