Prior to coming on our trip we had read about the bike tour that goes down The World’s Most Dangerous Road, which runs from La Cumbre (at the top of the valley that La Paz sits in) at 4700m, to Coroico, a town on the jungle-side of the Andes, at 1500m. (Sorry Mom, we didn’t tell you about this because we didn’t want you to worry!). The first half of the road is paved and safe, but the last half is narrow dirt road with sheer drop-offs, where an average of 100 people die each year from falling off the edge (in cars and buses mostly). The total length of the road is 65.4 km, and it took us 5 hours and 32 minutes to get to the bottom of it. We had a few rest stops on the way, so we were only actually riding for 2 hours and 41 minutes (these stats are courtesy of Lincoln’s GPS). The scenery the whole way down was fantastic, and the downhill ride was a real rush. We were wishing we had our own bikes though, with shocks that worked properly, because it was very bumpy! Our forearms were sore by the end from the jarring and the constant braking. We had a great group to ride with – two Scottish people, two Czechs, two French Canadians from Montreal, and ourselves. Lincoln wants me to write that Deb was, as usual, the first girl in the pack, and the only girl to keep up with the front runners. The other Canadian girl did well too – Canadian chicks rule! It wasn’t a race though, and everyone went at a pace that was comfortable for them. We had to stop several times to let buses and trucks pass by, and it was interesting watching how trucks would get by each other on the narrow road. By the end we were very dusty and dirty, and as part of the tour we went to a hotel in Coroico where we were provided with hot showers, towels, and shampoo, and our t-shirt that says we survived. After cleaning up we had a delicious buffet lunch and hung our around the pool. The water in the pool was rather green and gross-looking so we didn’t swim. The owner of the hotel must be a bird lover, because there were a few macaws and toucans roaming around the place and they amused us for a while. Then it was time for the ride back UP the world’s most dangerous road, which turned out to be more scary than the ride down! It seemed that 5:00 was rush hour as there was more traffic on the road than when we were riding down on the bikes, and a few times we encountered big trucks in very close proximity! The good thing is that on this road, you drive on the left-hand side so that the person with the steering wheel closest to the edge is on the outside so they can see the edge better. So we were always passing on the side of the mountain, not the drop-off, which made us feel better. It was still very nerve-wracking not being in control. We managed to make it back to La Paz safely though, three hours after leaving Coroico. It was a very long day – 12 ½ hours – and we were exhausted. There was some talk of getting together with the gang for drinks but we were too tired. We said we’d hook up with some of them the following night instead. I had a headache, probably from coming back up to altitude so quickly from being at 1500m, so I went straight to bed.