Bolivia’s Death Road “Camino de la Muerte”

Deeanne first showed me a snippet about the world’s most dangerous road when we were reading through travel books in the U.S. and I said, “oooh, that looks fun”. She promptly said, “there is no way I’m doing that”. Well we just did it on a pair of borrowed bikes – lesson: never say “never”. It didn’t kill us but we’re definitely both sore.

The Summit of La Cumbre Pass

In 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank named the Yungas Road (El Camino de la Muerte, or Death Road) as the “world’s most dangerous road”. One estimate is that 200 to 300 travelers are killed every year along the road, which means about one vehicle every two weeks goes over the edge. Deeanne finally gave up pointing out crosses as we rode. The entire length is covered with crosses where vehicles have fallen.

Deeanne Geared Up

View from Summit

Cristian and Luisa, friends in La Paz who run Chuquiago Café, loaned us the bikes and took us to the summit of La Cumbre Pass at 15,256 ft. Cristian has this “super ride” he takes clients on that starts at the summit and does “The Ghost” road, then “The Death Road”, you then catch a ride back to the top and bike down the other side to La Paz, for a total of 62 miles of mountain biking. We opted just to borrow bikes from him and so set off from the pass down an old abandoned road that Cristian calls “The Ghost” road. None of the tour groups do the upper dirt road.

Deeanne on The Ghost Road

View Down the Valley

The road was single track in sections and mostly shale. I really, really wished we had full suspension, tuned machines. The ride was rough. Deeanne and I both ride occasionally in The States, but 42 miles of downhill starts getting to you fast. Those of you who mountain bike know you don’t sit going downhill, you hover. You have to keep your arms lose and hands firm, with one or two fingers on the breaks. This ride drops over 12,000 ft and usually takes 5 hours. That is 5 hours of bone jarring downhill.

Paved Section

The Death Road Begins

After the first abandoned section off the summit we hit paved road for awhile and then turned off onto The Death Road. Here is where the drop offs are deadly, 1,900 ft or more and the road is about 10 ft wide. The road was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners. It is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest of northern Bolivia to the capital. Because of the extreme dropoffs, single-lane width, and lack of guardrails, the road is extremely dangerous. On July 24, 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia’s worst road accident.

Garret Passing

Deeanne (The Tiny Speck)

After three hours on the bike at downhill speeds my entire body ached. I told Deeanne that I thought the off-road Xterra Triathlon I did was easier and more enjoyable. She replied, “I’d rather be doing a Half-Ironman”; I agreed. I could not pry my hands off the handle grips, yet pulling the breaks got more and more difficult. We both found ourselves going faster just because our fingers were so cramped we couldn’t pull the breaks any longer. My lower back felt like someone hit me with a shovel. My legs were frozen, and you just didn’t want to sit down (big rocks and ruts don’t mix with hard-tail bikes and soft private parts). Oh, did I mention we had no bike shorts. What I would have given for even a pair of tri-shorts. Lunch was a welcomed respite.

Bulldozer Fixing Road

Crossing Marking The Way

Current figures estimate that 13 people have died mountain-biking The Death Road since 1998 (not so bad). Out-of-control cyclists have escaped by leaping off their bikes before going over the side. One cyclist, who actually rode over the edge, supposedly survived with just broken rims. I looked over the edge quite a few times and estimated if you timed it just right you might catch a tree on the way down and survive. We steered clear of the edge though and made it the two more hours to the bottom. Even starting after all the tour companies we somehow managed to beat everyone down. As we were trying to hitch a ride back up at the bottom though we realized they were all going to Coroico to soak in hot baths and laze around in pools. We were suddenly very jealous. Finally after waiting 30 minutes we managed to catch a bus back to La Paz. We settled into our seats for the 3 hour ride back and dreamed of hot tubs and massages, thankful that the new road from Coroico to La Paz is a bit safer.

Finally Near the Bottom

Bus to La Paz from the Bottom

The bus dropped us off in the upper section of La Paz around 5:00pm and we had to bike all the way through town in traffic to Luisa’s house. The worst part though was settling back onto a bike seat and trying to pull the breaks, I didn’t even mind the crazy La Paz traffic. We made it home safe somehow and now I can get that cool “I survived the death road” souvenir T-shirt that I’ve been wanting. Everyone is going to be soo jealous.

La Paz Traffic at Sunset

Finally Home (Luisa's House)

Tagged as: Bolivia, La Paz, Mountain Biking, The Death Road