'Death Road' as it is known is the biggest tourist attraction in La Paz. Well, that and nose candy. About ten years ago somebody decided to mountain-bike down this road. He had such a good time that he set-up a company so that gringos could experience the same adrenaline induced buzz. What was once a road for only the most-daring is now a closed-road for pretty much every gringo in La Paz to bike down. The road got it's name due to the amount of deaths that occurred along it while it was open to traffic. It is known as the Old Yungas Road now that a safer New Yungas Road has been completed. Traffic used to prefer the old road over the new one as it was still quicker but the road is 'officially closed' to traffic now. Officially closed in Bolivia means more or less closed.
The road is built into the side of a mountain very much like a balcony. The problem is that it is bumpy and narrow in parts with sheer drops off the side. Accidents occurred because in places there is not enough room for an on-coming vehicle to pass. The driver would have to back-up the truck and sometimes would reverse it over the edge plummeting to his death. The number of fatalities was alarming. Nowadays it's the odd gringo on his bike who increases the road's statistics.
I was quite excited about biking this road as so many people had mentioned it to me being a cyclist. I wanted to get a biker's perspective on it as opposed to the gringo perspective. Most gringos haven't touched a bike since they were BMX bandits and so their point of view is pretty much irrelevant. The appeal of this road to the gringo is that he doesn't have to pedal. The one 8k section where there are rolling hills causes the gringo to jump back in the support van before jumping out again when the road drops some more. They start the 84k 'descent' from La Cumbre at 4650ms. They turn off the asphalt and onto 'Death Road' before dropping all the way down to the town of Yolosa at 1185ms. On paper it sounds pretty amazing but I was curious to see if it felt as dangerous as people made out.
Having successfully hitched up to La Cumbre before I tried my luck a second time around. After an hour on the side of the road with nothing but shrugs from drivers I eventually jumped into a taxi to get to the top. The first part of the descent has a series of sweeping bends and was pretty much straightforward. It was enjoyable dropping but I made sure not to go so fast that I couldn't look at the impressive scenery. It wasn't long before I had completed the asphalt section and turned onto 'Death Road'. It was bumpy at first with lots of rocks making traction on the bends difficult but I wasn't riding the balcony yet. Soon I was riding on a road akin to a fire-road through the Dublin Mountains. As far as mountain-biking goes this is as good a surface as you can get. The road wasn't as narrow as expected and the bends were quite forgiving. For sure, the drop-offs were very impressive but you would have to be a total klutz to go over the edge. I can only imagine that gringos get caught out by trying to look at the amazing scenery and lose the run of their line. Perhaps if you had a blow-out you might lose control but there isn't much to cut a tyre. As far as a mountain-biker would be concerned there is nothing too technical about the descent at all. I would go as far as to say that it is an amazing descent for an experienced mountain-biker as they could really let go of the brakes and just throw the bike into the sweeping bends. They would have a lot of fun on this road for sure as It just goes on forever but there is nothing difficult about it compared to other roads I have come down in Bolivia. Other roads have Jeep tracks embedded into them. This turns them into dual single-tracks making cornering difficult as if you lose the camber of the single-track you are on it is very difficult to get control back without braking heavily or crashing. It is possible to use the whole of the 'Death Road' at all times so it is much easier to alter your line into bends. Having said all that it was clear to me why so many trucks managed to drive over the edge. The lush vegetation makes for lots of cloud and it is this thick cloud or the dust clouds from other vehicles that would have reduced visibility and caused a lot of the accidents. Another reason is that Bolivians would unbelievably drive this road at night. Of course, the mucky conditions of wet-season are possibly not easy to navigate either.
I did not go flat out on the descent preferring to take in the scenery. I have to say that it was breath-taking and possibly the most enjoyable bit of nature I have biked through on my trip so far. This leads me to conclude that the 'World's Most Dangerous Road should in fact be known as one of the 'World's Most Beautiful Roads'. Once more Bolivia has dropped my jaw with regards to its natural beauty. I descended to the town of Yolosa not realising that I still had some fun ahead of me. I had to climb 665ms vertical over 7.5k to the town of Coroico - all of it on rough cobblestones. I'm telling you, the pros in Europe have it easy.
To conclude, I have to say that it was an immensely fun day on the bike and it was clear to me why it is such a big tourist attraction. The descending itself is great fun and the scenery just makes the experience even more spectacular. However, I did manage to confirm that it is not the most dangerous piece of biking one can do. If a cyclist puts himself on the limit on any descent he can kill himself. This road is closed to traffic and is quite forgiving in most places. This is in contrast to the Alpine and Pyrenean passes I like to hurtle down at sometimes over 80kph where the bends are far sharper and the top-speeds higher thanks to the skinny tyres and asphalt. These roads are open to traffic making a mistake on these descents fatal. Of course, the fact that inexperienced cyclists can ride down 'Death Road' in one piece must mean that it can't be too dangerous. The statistics speak for themselves but part of the problem is the inability of Bolivians to heed danger. Certainly driving it during thick cloud or night-time would be particularly dangerous but In terms of biking it in day-light it is not technically challenging at all. If people want to see dangerous biking they should witness what downhill mountain-bikers are doing. Of course, these guys are biking off road which is not quite the same thing; it's worse. Some of the descents and stunts these guys attempt are far more dangerous and much crazier than any Bolivian driver might manage.
Pics to show you how beautiful this road is are in the gallery.
Take it handy
Marco