Cruising on Bolivia's Death Road

Picture this…

You live in Coroico, Bolivia, a small town nestled in the towering South American Andes. Business calls in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, so you’re forced to make the 100 km trek. It could make for a treacherous journey, because until 2006, the only route to La Paz is via the famed North Yungas Road, which links the capital city and the Amazon rainforest region. To make matters worse, a roughly 60 km stretch of this road was dubbed the “World’s Most Dangerous Road” by the Inter American Development Bank in 1995.

The hazardous route has a morbid history too—claiming between 200-300 lives annually, Bolivians and tourists alike. Built by Paraguayan prisoners of war in the 1930s, many of whom perished during construction, the Yungas Road is a windy path hugging the mountainsides, with edges that end abruptly at steep, vertical drop-offs. Parts of the two-way road are barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass one another, and many have plummeted to an untimely death because of one wrong reaction after avoiding a pothole. If you’re making the trip during the rainy season, between November and March, the trip to La Paz will be even more frightening. If you happen to get a flat tire, wait for the next passing vehicle because cell phones are worthless in this poor service area; and God forbid an accident should occur, because on the North Yungas Road, emergency services are almost completely obsolete. Luckily, a bypass route was completed three years ago, so you do have the option of avoiding the potentially deadly course.

Many traveling through Bolivia, avoid the recently completed bypass route, and opt for the thrill of traveling the “World’s Most Dangerous Road.” Even without the dangers of earth’s most hazardous motorway, travelers on roads in Bolivia have additional threats such as, “the absence of formal training for most drivers, poor maintenance and overloaded vehicles, lack of lights on some vehicles at night, and intoxicated or overly tired drivers, including commercial bus and truck drivers,” as explained by the U.S. State Department. Still, oodles of tourists from around the world seek out a trip down the Yungas Road.

Chris Hanley is one of those travelers who rode the risky North Yungas Road, just for the hell of it. Recently, extreme sport enthusiasts have been incited by tour companies providing downhill mountain biking lovers the opportunity to cruise down Bolivia’s precarious passage. A popular tour provider is Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, who offer thrills for those who like to live life on the edge (literally on the edge of monstrous cliffs) and want to ‘ride or die’ (literally!) down the Yungas Road. Chris and some fellow adventure seekers went with this gravity-oriented group, when they coasted down the World’s Most Dangerous Road in March 2005.

Chris recounted that at 26-years old, prior to his pleasure cruise on the “Death Road,” he hadn’t ridden a bike for nearly a decade. How he got the inspiration to finally mount a bike for this ride is beyond me. He had met 4 or 5 fellow travelers in Peru previously on his trip and they all ended up in La Paz, where they decided to take the trip with the Gravity tour group. About 15 to 20 people rode with Chris and his friends, all of whom had to sign plenty of papers eliminating liabilities. Donning a helmet, biking gloves, and a bright orange vest, they set out on one of the most fearsome rides of their lives. Chris explained that there were some uphill portions in the beginning of the ride, long flat sections, and miles and miles of downhill terrain. For about 4 hours, Chris tried to stay towards the inside of the road, as far as possible from the edges that seem to have no bottom. Successfully dodging potholes, turns that are both sharp and blind, commuter buses, and 18-wheeler trucks, Chris survived the trip down the North Yungas Road.

A few phrases he used to describe the perilous trip...“It was a lot of fun, but quite frightening and also exhilarating…It was a spur-of-the-moment decision…Just before taking off, I wasn’t that scared, because I was too dumb to be all that frightened…It was a really exciting experience that I would never do again, but I’m glad I did it…But it wasn’t as scary as getting into the shark cage in South Africa.” Yikes!

Watch this ABC Nightline special on the Yungas Road:

Photos: AP