The Death Road

Some of you may remember a bunch of photographs that was emailed around about a year or so ago, showing an extremely dangerous road in Bolivia, carved into the side of a vertical cliff.... covered in ice and with big trucks and buses trying to pass each other on ridiculously narrow roads..... That road is called the death road - it descends from 4700m to 1100m in about 60km, from La Paz to the small but devilishly beautiful town of Coroico. There used to be around 100 people a year coming to grief on the road, hence the name and the road´s reputation as the world´s most dangerous.

Well that road is still there, though its a little safer now - a new road has been built (after 16 years of hard slog by the Bolivian road workers) so now trucks and buses (and sensible others) don´t go near the death road. But you can still hurtle down it on a mountain bike, which is a lot safer than a bus. At least that's what I thought when I handed over the $37 (US) cash to my confident guide and MTB hirer....

It wasn't until I was half way down and getting close to the most dangerous section that it was mentioned that an unfortunate Israeli had come to grief off a 150m cliff only two days before, with the same tour company, though it was claimed an overdose of testosterone was to blame, not the shonky gears or sticking brakes.

In any case we all made it down the hill in one piece, and had a truck load of fun in doing so. No doubt it was also the most spectacular mountain scenery I would ever have seen too, though the thick fog did make it hard to work out what was what. But when the fog cleared the landscapes jumped out, and the full scale of the cliffs towering above and below could be seen... terrifying stuff. I´d do it again on any clear day though!

The fog clears...

The view from Coroico. The new road is the more obvious one on the right, and the Death Road is the faint line snaking along the mountain in the upper left hand corner.