Biking down Death Road ☠️

Marco Whyte|2024-05-22 (7 months ago)96 views

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Sometimes the best experiences require taking a risk. Today I'll be biking down the infamous Death Road in La Paz, Bolivia! The Death Road, officially known as Yungas Road, is infamous for its extreme danger and high mortality rate, winding precariously through the Andes mountains with sheer drops and narrow passages. Because of this high mortality rate, a new road was created for most traffic. However, the old one is still used for biking tours and the occasional mining truck. We got picked up early and we were off to the starting point, at 4'700 meters (15,420 ft).

It was around a one-hour drive where we got some safety briefings and met the group. We made it there in no time and the group was ready to be off!

The first part of the bike ride was a winding road in the rocky mountains. You can see the trail behind me here.

This first stretch was so fun! The road was well maintained, so you could really zoom down, making sure to account for traffic.

This continued for a while until we got to the main part of the Death Road. Here is where the cliffs began and the road became more rocky.

I never felt it was dangerous because there was very little traffic and as a bike you take very little space on the road. But thinking about how it used to be two way traffic makes you think about all that has gone down here! A good example of this is seeing the bus with the bikes on the road.

The whole bike ride was 64km (40 miles) of downhill, and I had a blast. It was nice to have some sections to enjoy the view, while having others to zoom down as fast as what felt safe. I would highly recommend it to anyone in La Paz!

Everyone made it down safely and we all got to celebrate with good food and a beer. Go Barracuda Biking!