The world's most dangerous road (La Paz, Bolivia)

The highlight of my time in Bolivia saw me tackling the infamous 'Death Road' from La Cumbre to Coimbre by mountain bike - an at times terrifying, but ultimately fantastic experience. Although a popular activity among backpackers visiting La Paz, this is not something I undertook lightly as the road's notorius reputation is enough to strike fear in to the hearts of even quite experienced cyclists like me.

The world's most dangerous road

The road runs for 66km down the Yungas Valley (descending over 3000m en route) and is legendary for its high death toll, which saw it christened 'the world's most dangerous road' in 1995. At one time, over 400 vehicles a day were making the treacherous journey along the narrow gravel road, and up to 300 deaths were estimated to occur on the road every year. In places, the road is little more than the width of one vehicle, with 600m drops to the valley below and nothing in the way of guard rails and barriers to prevent vehicles careering over the edge. More recently, the road's use (and therefore death toll) has declined following the construction of a new road on the other side of the valley, but vehicles do still travel along the road, along with hundreds of thrill-seeking travellers with the many companies offering mountain bike rides down the road from La Paz. The road also gained greater awareness in the UK when the Top Gear team travelled down the road in 2009 which you can see more of here (but also see note at the end of this blog).

Although there are numerous companies in La Paz offering to do this trip at various different prices, I booked to do this with the original and best company to offer this tour, Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, who while perhaps not being the cheapest operator in town have by far the best reputation of the companies offering this tour. As with my experience on Mount Meru in Tanzania earlier in the trip, this didn't feel like the kind of excursion I should be making savings on!

We set off from La Paz early in the morning in a minibus containing 13 other travellers, our guides Marcus and Rodrigo and our driver Santiago, with 15 top of the range full suspension mountain bikes on the roof. The road climbed to a height of 4700m to La Cumbre where we were to start our descent. As we neared this point a song came on the minibus stereo system which I couldn't help singing along to. Although it was actually a dance remix of the original that was being played, Getting Away With It All (Messed Up) by James has always been one of my favourite songs not only as its by my favourite band, but also because of its Daniel-mentioning lyrics. I took this to be a good omen for the day! Once at the top, we were each set up on our bikes and given a detailed safety talk by Marcus which he helpfully summarised by encouraging us to 'have fun but don't be a f***ing idiot' - wise words indeed!

Bikes at the ready

Safety briefing

A blessing to Pachamama (Mother Earth)

...and a little sip of dutch courage each

The first section of the ride was along a paved road that took us down to the start of Death Road itself. We took advantage of the wider, smoother road and the safety of the crash barriers to cruise down the road as quickly as we could, although with our mountain bikes geared up for descending on rougher terrain it proved difficult to get too much speed up. After passing through a drugs check point (set up to try and reduce the illegal exportation of cocaine) and stopping to pay a 25 boliviano fee to support the maintenance of the road, we were at the start of Death Road.

After further detailed instructions from Marcus about how to descend as safely as possible, we were off. The road from here onwards was rough gravel and very narrow in places and so we all had to concentrate hard and keep a good distance between each other. The sight of crosses and flowers by the side of the road certainly helped to focus the mind!

Although the day had started dry and bright, by now we were amongst the clouds and cycling in a steady but light rain. The clouds meant that the views across the valley (and over the edge of the road to the 450m drop below!) was obscured, but it is still rainy season in Bolivia after all and the conditions further helped to keep me concentrated on the road ahead. The road descended down for turn after turn, crossing streams, ducking beneath waterfalls and crossing the path of a number of partially cleared landslides. However, our guides stopped us regularly to explain each upcoming section of the road, so at no point did I feel particularly scared or in danger.

After a couple of hours of descending, Marcus stopped us again and explained that the next section of around 8km would be our longest without stopping and with the most treacherous sections of road behind this would be an opportunity to relax a little and build up a bit more speed. I took this advice a little too keenly and promptly managed to come off my bike at the very next corner, albeit in a rather staggered and controlled manner. However I didn't let this hold me back so pressed on to catch up with the other quicker riders in my group and to make the most of the longer and safer stretch of road.

All was fine until shortly before our next stop when I caught up with a slower cyclist from another group......as I pulled out to overtake her I stamped down on the pedals to gain some acceleration only to find that my chain locked up beneath me, stopping the bike in its tracks but sending me flying forwards. Fortunately years of cycling experience (and therefore years of experience of falling off bikes) meant I instinctively threw the bike to one side and got my arms out in front of me and rolled sideways, avoiding any impact with my face, shoulder or collarbone. This did however mean landing hard on my right pelvis and elbow causing a couple of impressive friction burns and some deep cuts. 

Surveying the damage after my fall

Marcus did a great job of cleaning up my wounds so despite being a little shaken I was able to continue down the last few kilometres of the road, although I now chose to hang back at the tail of the group and adopt a more leisurely pace. Before long we reached the end of the route, a small village called Yolosa, where the old road and the new road meet.

Finishing the ride a little gingerly

Celebrating successfully completing 'Death Road'

After completing the ride, we had lunch at the fantastic Senda Verde, an eco lodge set up in the village which seems to have almost by accident become a reserve for several species of monkeys (including spider, howler and capuchin monkeys), along with numerous bears, ossolotes, macaws, camen, and coati. The centre relies on donations and contributions from tourists, so we were happy to oblige by buying a number of desserts and beers, safe in the knowledge that the profits would go towards feeding a hungry primate!

Macaws

Coati

Spider monkey

Capuchin monkey

So it is with some relief and a few scars to show for it that I'm now able to say that I successfully conquered the world's 'most dangerous road' and despite falling off, had a lot of fun doing it. The scenery on the way down the road was fantastic (although obviously you couldn't look too closely while riding along!) while the guys from Gravity Assisted did a great job of looking after us and making sure we got down safely.

Finally, while I don't take any pleasure from ridiculing Top Gear presenters (ok, so maybe I do), our guide reliably informed us that most of their 'hairy' experiences on Death Road were staged and set up to make it look much more dangerous than it really was. Apparently if you watch the show back you can see them passing the same vehicles over and over again, while the famous bit where Clarkson's vehicle appears to be about to disappear over the edge was actually filmed on a much wider section but edited to appear much more dramatic. Sorry Top Gear fans!