Yet another death road. At least this one has a sign saying death road on it. Apparently this is the worse one of all. It goes from La Paz to Coroico in the Yungas region of the Andes. It was built by Paraguayan prisoners of war in the 1930s. and now has been replaced by a new road because of all the people that died while trying to navigate its skinny and treacherous path. It has now become a hot mountain bike tour for foreign tourists.

Early every morning mini buses, loaded with a roof full of bikes and seats full of tourists, leave La Paz and head up to the top of the pass and a big parking area at 4650m. You get some brief safety advice and some gear to wear and then it’s then a 20km fast downhill ride on the new section of the road before the bikes are reloaded onto the bus and then driven a further 10kms (more up than down) to another carpark where the 34km gravel section starts. From here the road winds down 3450m to a finishing height of 1200m and after a short break there and something to eat, the bikes are washed and reloaded for the 3 hour uphill drive back to La Paz on the new road.

I of course have a motor on my bike and all the safe riding gear but how do I know so much about the mountain bikers? Because I had to be one of them. Unfortunately, a few days earlier a major landslide halfway along the road closed it to all traffic. Even the bikes. The speculation of how and when it would fixed was rife but the Canadian guy was on to it and got photos of workers building a little detour bridge around the damaged section with saplings and rope. The show must go on because there must be at least 100 riders everyday that want to ride it.

So we were told the only way we could do it was on the mountain bikes. And in the end it was probably more fun doing it that way. It definitely made me appreciate my motorbikes brakes and tyres. The bikes were in good condition but the road is pretty crappy. One good thing about the road closure was that there was hardly any traffic on the road. There were 3 beefed up 4×4’s with all the bling who were stopped for a photo opportunity. I asked one of them how far down the road they would go before they turned back. He said they won’t be turning back as they can pass any obstacle. He obviously hadn’t seen the photos that I saw.

As with the death road experience in Colombia, I lucked out with the weather, and it was a beautiful day. We were in a group of 9 people and stopped on several occasions for photos. We had a guide in front and another one following up in the rear, Nice local guys and crazy riders. When we got to the landslide the car guys were there, and they weren’t so cocky which I found amusing. I think we could have gotten around it on our motorbikes using the temporary bike bridge but I was enjoying the ride anyway.

The whole ride only took a couple of hours, and it was pretty easy as it was all down hill but I was happy to make it to the end and have a cold beer. The temperature increase at the lower altitude was very noticeable. There was a meal included in the price and after that we headed back to La Paz. It was a really slow and somewhat dangerous road in the dark. Especially with all the trucks and buses and everyone wanting to get around them. No wonder people died on the old road.

There were some lovely views and nice waterfalls and I got to appreciate how comfortable and easy it is on a motorbike. It was very similar to the death road in Colombia and I am sure there are other more dangerous roads around but it was fun and for a lot of people on shorter holidays over here it would be a great experience and exposure to some great views of the spectacular Andes.

KMS 10977