04/11 As Yves was still in Sucre, I was going to do the big adventure: Cycling to Coroico in the Yungas. The way leads up the pass La Cumbre at 4725 m and then dropped 3400 m of altitude down to the Yungas. Buses are driving the cyclists up the hill, but I decided, that I just have to do it on my own. Going up in the 4000'ers is quite hard (I need more oxygen!!!)... See me at the top:
04/11 A nice downhill drive always follows a hard uphill session. The landscape was fascinating, but the temperature at 4 degrees Celsius (remember Tierra del Fuego?). I got down, but after about 5 kilometer, I lost feeling in my fingers. I wrapped t-shirts around the hands and made it so to a truck-stop, where I got some hot chicken with rice and could warm my body up.
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04/11 Every meter I made my way down, the nature changed and I saw new plants or animals. If you get near to your computer screen, you may see a hummingbird approaching the flower.
04/11 At Unduavi, lot's of military personal is checking travellers for drugs. Beside my legal coca leaves, I needed for my uphill ride, they could not find anything bad in my small bags.
04/11 End of pavement - start of ripio. It had rained shortly before, so the road was even more slippery.
04/11 Now I approached the most interesting part of the trip. This area was the kind of landscape, I had in mind when planning the trip to South America. But this road is rated the most dangerous road on the planet (by the Inter-American Development Bank).
04/11 In Bolivia, as on most places on earth, cars have to drive on the right side of the road.But the things are different here: The vehicle, going downhill has to maintain on the outer side of the road, because the driver has a better sight (into the abyss).
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04/11 Like a snake, the road winds around the hills.
04/11 When cars meet on the road, negotiations start, who had to push back. This get worse, when more cars queue in.
04/11 Waterfalls coming down the hills and hit the road. This leads to even less wider paths. The valley on the left is about 300 meter deep.
04/11 Approaching Coroico, the lovely calm town in the heard of the northern Yungos.
04/11 I stayed at Hotel Esmeralda, a beautiful relaxing place with a gigantic view. See what I saw looking out of the window at breakfast time:
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04/11 Bananas, just there to be picked by me.
04/12 The next day, I got back by jeep, but this had some adventures parts as well.
to Copacabana
Back to La Paz