The Yungas Road is a Bolivian road about 60 kilometres long from La Paz to Coroico. It is also known as the Death Road and it is believed to be one of the deadliest roads in the world: the bottom half is a dirt and gravel road , it is narrow, there are no guardrails, on one side you have the mountain and on the other a deep gorge and weather conditions often limit the view. From 200 to 300 people died every year on this road until recently.
Built in the 1930’s by Paraguayan prisoners captured in the Chacao War, the road gets up to almost 5000 metres near La Paz, and comes down to 1200 metres in Coroico. Pinched by the mountain and some 600 metre deep gorges, the road is often no broader than 3 metres across, it is often muddy and there is a tangible threat of falling rocks.
It is one of the most exciting route for mountain biking and we tried it out!
From La Paz to Coroico:
