As you may have read in my previous post today was going to make up for months of being without a bicycle in Santiago. And oh, it did.Today Laura and I joined in one of La Paz's famous traditions - el camino de la muerte, or shall I say, the World's Most Dangerous Road! Yes folks, and I live to tell about it.
There is a road in Bolivia that has been a tourist attraction for a little over 10 years now, and it is known as the World's Most Dangerous Road. But wait! After doing my resear
ch (a.k.a. reading Lonely Planet), I discovered that there are actually roads much more dangerous in Peru and Ecuador, so for all of you readers who may be worried - stop right there! We took a mini bus to the starting point of the trail this morning in a group of 10 people, and after about 45 minutes of paved road and traffic passing all the while, we finally hit the actual dangerous road which was completely gravel. Oh, and did I mention it was on the side of a mountain? One side of the road was the mountain and the other side was a cliff that could drop for hundreds of meters. I am here with nothing but a new tear in my pants (and I still don't know when that happened) and completely safe! In fact, the scariest part was the ride home in our min
i bus with the driver who was manually rolling up the passenger side window, cleaning the windshield and talking on his cell phone all the while we were on the ascent of the most dangerous road.It was an absolute amazing experience from the "cool" elbow pads we got to wear, the included lunch and snacks to the point when I almost wiped out when I saw the cameraman filming us. There were two guides with our group and one was there with one purpose-to take pictures. At one point he went ahead of the group and crouched down to take a video of us as we passed (which we all now own on CD!) and of course when I saw him I wanted to do something cool to prove just how "daring" and adventurous I really am. I tried to take one hand off the handle bar and the next thing I knew I was in the ditch on the side of the road as my fellow bikers passed me with grace. Apparently I am prone to not being able to act on my feet on a bicycle (yes dad, the caution tape incident) but luckily I was on the side that was not close to the edge and made it out with nothing more than pure laughs.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and although we started the trek at 4700 meters and freezing cold weather, we ended at 1100 meters with a practically tropical climate. The company that we went with was really great, although we did stop to take pictures a few more times than I would have liked. All I craved was that open gravel road and the white-knuckling wrists on my handbrakes, but we did have some fun group bonding experiences. 
Also, due to the fact that we ended in such a warm climate we ended up going to a mini resort and getting to swim in the pool, take lukewarm showers and eat from the buffet lunch. Absolutely perfect.I am now back in La Paz and spending some time at one of the more exciting hostels here listening to Beyonce telling all those men to "put a ring on it". Tomorrow morning Laura and I head out at the ripe hour of 8 am for Copacabana and we'll see what's in store for us there!
More soon, xoxox,
Kelsey Marie
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