The Death Road: Fun for ALL ages!!

Going with what Bolivia has to offer, I did the "Death Road" a few days ago in La Paz. For those unfamiliar, the Death Road was voted the most dangerous road in the world (by either JD Power & Associates or Teen People. Not sure), and to harness the danger, agencies offer bike tours traveling along this expanse of cliffy and mountainous road. The entire trip lasts 75 kilometers, starting at an elevation of 4,700 meters (about 15,000 feet) and ending at 1,200 meters (about 3,800 feet). To the layman, that is 11,200 feet of vertical drop in a few hours on a bike, mostly along roads tucked along a mountain ridge with cliffs/direct drop offs of up to 3,000 feet. (The day before I did it, a truck fell off the edge killing 4 people. I was safe on a bike. However, I realized about halfway through the bike ride that we actually had to drive back up the road that we were riding down. That was a sucky realization).

In my group, I figured I would be dueling for first place with a 31-year old Irish guy, however, when we hit the road, I found myself jockeying for 1st position with an older guy from Switzerland. We had some intense over takes, and whenever we would continue biking from a break, he would bolt off of the line like a Swiss version of Seabiscut. Truely impressive off the block. In the beginning, we were like arch enemies in heated competition, who couldn't even look at each other. By the end when we were exhausted however, we started giving each other props. (Sadly, due to his age and place of origin, he had no idea what props meant). You can imagine my sheepishness, when at the end of the road I asked him his age and he said: 73. ^[Picture below, the man was half-man, half-beast.. (you can tell by his sunglasses).]

He was 48 years older than me, and I was on the brink of talking shit to him. I need serious help. Regardless, Alberto, who was in fact 73 (i verified by checking his ID) and had 9 children, is in tremedous shape and is an avid skier, tennis player and all around bad ass. When I asked him if he liked soccer and golf, he indicated that soccer was for pussies and golf is something he'll take up when he's old..

I finally met my hero.

(Peter Pan, if you reading this, don't pay any attention to the last comment).