Andy Travels

64 Clicks for the Adrenaline Junkies Soul

An excerpt from Bolivia You Beauty
The Players: My WMDR Crew
The Location: Worlds Most Dangerous Road outside La Paz, Bolivia

Winding all the way down...

Cafe Terrazo was packed and the tension all but smacks you in the face as you walk through the door. The murmurs circulating are all centered around what was to come, “When was the last time you rode a bike”, “I heard somebody broke their collar bone last week”, “Are you really sure you wanna do this?” I was feeling that queasy tension in my gut similar to the excited anticipation before a day on the slopes or stepping onto a new roller-coaster as a kid. The WMDR: The World’s Most Dangerous Road, otherwise known as Weapon’s of Mass Destruction Road, is in fact the world’s most dangerous road. Buses and Trucks carrying loads of people and cargo fall to their death every year on this stretch of about 35 kilometers of gravel. Why not grab some mountain bikes and give it a go!

Really makes your balls chilly when you're up next to it...

Starting at 15,400 ft, the lack of oxygen and bitter cold hit you all at once. You got about 30 kms of road to cover, getting a chance to feel up your bike while reaching top speeds of around 50-60 kms/hr. But the real fun comes when you hit that gravel. That first bend you come up on that looks as if you are riding straight on into oblivion is truly breathtaking. With a 2,000-3,000 ft drop off to your left, mistakes are completely unacceptable and ensure a pretty certain and undoubtedly miserable death. During the overall 11,800 ft vertical drop you end up stripping about 3 layers of clothes throughout the day. The morning starts off surrounded by snow-capped peaks and you finish up in the evening chillin in the Amazon at an wildlife reserve. Needless to say the day was full of excitement and straightup downhill fun!

In all honesty, I was expecting a bit more out of the track with all the hype that it got. I mean it was definitely fast and fun, just not terribly difficult. Even so, the novelty of riding down the World’s Most Dangerous Rode is pretty cool and you are definitely into it while you are riding with that monstrous drop off pumping adrenaline through your veins. Thanks for another good time Bolivia!

Cobra Kai

Snake Village in Hanoi, Vietnam

Been hearing rumors of it since arriving in Asia, but I wasn’t sure it would actually go down. Some say the blood will cause kidney failure; some simply can’t stomach the idea; while others insist it’s but a myth. All the same, we decided on our last night in Vietnam we should definitely experience the sacrifice and immediate consumption of the deadly cobra. The mood of the room drastically changes when your man pulls out the feared serpent.  We all take a step back as the snake smoothly whips across the floor – but it’s not until he rises up staring down his spectators and exposes his dreadful hood that you can’t help but shudder. The beast proceeds to intimidate its viewers for a few moments before the slaying begins. First the heart is cut out and the blood drained into a glass, followed by a similar display with the stomach and its bile. With the heart still pumping a shot of blood mixed with rice wine is poured over the vital organ. My counterparts want nothing to do with this particular part of the endeavor, so I take the glass and sip the

Cobra Dinner

blood stained alcohol. Our guide instructs me to take the whole thing down, heart and all. What am I to do, it would be a sign of disrespect to not follow his wishes so in one swift motion I take back the shot: rice wine, blood, and heart. The heart is believed to give you the vitality and power of the cobra, improving your overall life force. We proceeded to have a snake feast eating about every part of the delectable animal prepared in various wonderful ways. I now have the spirit of the cobra running through my veins rendering me utterly unstoppable.