Tragedy! (or, at least, real bad luck)

Ok. So we decided to be adventurous (again), and signed up for a bicycle tour: a ride down "the world´s most dangerous road", from La Paz to Coroico, a small town about 100 kilometers from here. The bike tour involves cycling down for 62 km on a very steep and really busy road which, for the most part, is a narrow dirt road bordered by mountains on the right side and a 600-feet-deep steep canyon on the left. I was pretty scared of the whole thing to begin with, but it seemed challenging and silly enough, and we signed up to go with the most reputable company that had been recommended to us by various people. After 22k on the regular asphalt road you arrive at the beginning of the dirt road and instantly understand why it is so bloody dangerous. Traffic is coming in both directions, and it includes huge, kick-ass trucks and buses that do not observe basic safety rules. We had to ride on the left side trying to avoid looking down into the canyon and, more importantly, trying to avoid looking at the crosses and tombstones that line the road in memory of those who died there...Apparently, about a 100 people die every year in accidents on the road, and - although we were not told that in advance - the occasional cyclist also falls off the edge. Luckily, the tragic event referred to in the title happened before we reached the really dangerous bits. Andrea, who was enjoying her ride down much more than I was, rashly decided to overtake a cyclist she considered to be too slow for her liking, but the cyclist in question got scared and made a bad move, which in turn resulted in Andrea falling off her bike and hurting her shoulder really bad. I had not seen the accident, because I was not too confident and accordingly tried to stay in the back with the guide, so by the time I arrived I only saw my friend lying on the ground, in pain. It was really scary but thankfully she could stand up, and apart from the shoulder pain there was nothing wrong with her. She had to sit on the bus for the remainder of the tour, where she heroically suffered in silence while the rest of the group finished the tour. I carried on half-hearted, keeping my position at the very end of the group, trying to go relatively slowly. I only climbed up into the bus for a short period after we had our lunch next to the Hebrew tombstone of a 23-year-old Israeli girl who died while cycling on the road a couple of years ago. (Despite my best efforts, I also managed to dive head first into the sand, but I survived with a big bruise on my left knee and a few scratches on my arms.) At the end of the tour I did feel a certain sense of satisfaction for having completed the tour but, to be honest, I did not enjoy it that much while we were actually doing it. And this was not because everyone was better than me (including a 63-year-old English lady, who was faster than most boys). I truly do not feel the need to be the best in an activity that is so alien to me. (Unlike Andrea, probably...).

We went to the hospital right away upon returning to La Paz, and it turned out that Andrea had broken her collar-bone. Thankfully, the doctors were really nice and professional, they spoke English quite well and we got tended to right away, so the hospital experience was not nearly as painful as I had anticipated. They put a cast on my dear friend´s upper body (this collar-bone is a tricky one to break) and we will try to survive the next couple of days just hanging out in La Paz. (Andrea is leaving on Saturday to go back to Budapest). So, that is the long and short of the tragic events. Lessons learned? Not sure...perhaps that we do not need to prove to ourselves at every opportunity that presents itself that we are really cool and adventurous despite the fact that we are lawyers and almost 30...

Right now we are chilling out at the Coca museum, which is really interesting and further convinced me that my father´s radical views on drug legalization (ie that all drugs should be legalized) may actually be right...More on this another time though, because we need to go watch the England-Portugal game soon.

For the time being: http://www.cocamuseum.com