The Death Road!
Posted from: Quito, Ecuador
Well its a catchy title! I'm sure that there are many places around the world with very dangerous stretches of road or track. Infact, I remember spending an 'interesting' few days travelling up the Thai/Burma border about 10 years ago (Yes, I know its called Myanmar now, but everyone knows the name Burma.) At this time it was still a dangerous area and one that was referred to as "No. 1 Death Highway" due to the large number of 'sniper' attacks and cross border shelling.
Still, in those days I was young and foolish - and although it could be argued that only one of those has now changed, the point is that 'in general' I do believe that things with the words "Death" or "Worlds Most Dangerous" in the title should be given their due consideration before plowing ahead regardless. That is unless its clearly a cunning marketing ploy devised to attract the attention of thrill-seeking Backpackers and to sell T-Shirts with catchy slogans .... "I survived the ... [insert 'death defying' tour of choice.]"
One such 'dead of daring' is Bolivia's "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" or "The Death Road" as its known.
To be fair, in years gone by this road did have a VERY high death toll, mainly due to it being a 3m wide (or rather, narrow) gravel track with a VERY deep precipice (up to 600m) along its edge AND high volumes of traffic. The debris of trucks and buses can been seen from the track (way down in the bottom of the valley!)
These days there is an alternative route, with a nice new sealed road. Quicker and safer - although some traffic still occassionally uses the old track. Things are MUCH safer than they used to be (although, even this year there have been a relatively small number of accidents and at least one death.) However, "The slightly dodgy (but not half as dangerous as it used to be) road" just doesn't sell.
So, what you're left with is a 'fairly safe' downhill mountain bike ride starting at 4700m and finishing some 64km later down at 1100m. Thats 3600m of vertical descent! Its bone shaking, its FAST, its exhilerating, its close to the edge (sometimes a bit too close!), But, its a LOT of fun!
And... I now have a T-shirt which says.... "I survived The Death Road!"
