BEST ride of my life

Dear  Mom and Dad,

We got the free t-shirts! You know what that means? We survived DEATH ROAD. It was by far the scariest thing we have done so far, and probably the most scary thing I have every done excluding the fact that I just packed up and left for three months to live out of a backpack. It was also the best ride of my life. Dad, you have to come to Bolivia sometime to do this ride. The visa seems expensive at $135 a person, but I forgot to mention it's good for five years, which means you can come and go as you please. :) Next year we can go together.

Our ride started off at 15,000 feet, way up in the mountains. It was miserably cold with all the wind, snow, and rain. I wore my underarmor pants and long sleeve, another pair of pants, a t-shirt, a light long sleeve, my north face, a pair of gloves, a pair of biking gloves, rain pants, jacket, and another top layer coat. The company provided the extra clothing. Charlie wore about half the items I did. Here is a picture of us before we started the ride.

Here we are over a looking point. It was quite the drop off. Many people have died during this ride, but the only fatality our company experienced was due to a heart attack. Our company had the best trained guides and top of the line bikes that had  disc breaks, shocks, hydrolic suspension, and any onther cool biking thing that I'm forgetting. They had it all!

I have so many pictures to upload from this adventure that ended up with us going to a wild life refuge. The internet is really slow, and Charlie and I are very tired from this exhausting day. More posts to come tomorrow after our bus and train ride. We have to be up at  645 am, so it's time for some beauty sleep!

Love and miss you,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale