The World's Most Dangerous Road

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Throughout our travels through South America we have heard many stories of the world's most dangerous road in La Paz. The road is about 64km long - I'm not sure if you can really call it a road, mainly a small dirt/gravel track winding down a very steep mountain. It claims the lives of about 150 people a year and a record 350 a few years ago due to the single gravel track, 400m vertical drop and no barriers. This road simply isn't safe for any vehicle to travel up or down.

So the first thing we did was arrange a mountain bike ride down this trecherous road. We decided to go with the highly recommended Gravity Downhill company not because their bikes were the best with excellent brakes but for the free t-shirt you get when you complete it - times are hard and there's not much opportunity to clean your clothes!!

We arrived at the summit of the mountain about 5,000 meters high where we were briefed on our bikes and safety stuff before having to bless our bikes with 95% proof alcohol and then our bodies. Probably not the best thing to be drinking before flying round blind corners with a sheer drop on one side!!

The first part of the ride was on asphalt for about 20km and it was amazing flying down on a bike overtaking buses and trucks. The sun was out, the road was wide and i've never been so fast on a bike. Before we reached the worlds most dangerous road we had an uphill climb for about 7km which was very tiring at high altitude and only Bim resorted to catching the jeep all the way to the top after feeling tired looking at the hill.

By the time we reached the worlds most dangerous road we were in the clouds and visibility was poor. This probably wasn't a bad thing because you couldn't see the 400m vertical drop on your left. We were told that because of upcoming traffic we had to go down on the left hand side of the road (the drop side) and I soon realised that it was hard to go slow because of the steepness of the road and the number of large rocks i was flying over. The only way to get down was to just go for it. There were a number of stops along the way where we saw numerous memorials and were told about an Israeli girl who complained about weak brakes and went over the edge on the next bend. (Thankfully not the company we were with). An investigation into her death was carried out and the bike company paid off the Bolivian police and the outcome was suicide.

Further down the road, the cloud had cleared and we could see the sheer drop down the mountain side and in the distance several trucks and buses were forced to reverse back to allow other trucks to pass. The final stretch was very dusty and we could really go for it. Being in our own group with our own guide we didn't have to keep stopping to wait for others although there were times when we were waiting for Bim who was riding like Mary Poppins!!

According to our guide it was the quickest time he had taken a group down and we finished up in a camp site at the bottom of the mountain for a shower, a well deserverd beer and most importantly a clean survivors t-shirt.

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