Bolivia Guide
Lago Titicaca, the Cordillera Real and the Yungas
World's most dangerous road
Few highways in the world have as intimidating a reputation as the original road linking La Paz with Coroico in the North Yungas. A rough, narrow track chiselled out of near-vertical mountainsides that descends more than 3500m over a distance of just 64km, it's still widely referred to as the world's most dangerous road, a title bestowed on it by the Inter-American Development Bank. Statistically, the sobriquet is difficult to dispute: dozens of vehicles have gone off the road each year, and with vertical drops of up to 1000m over the edge, annual fatalities have reached into the hundreds. A new multi-million-dollar bypass around the most perilous stretch was opened in December 2006, following a route which looms high over the old road on the opposite side of the valley and which tunnels intermittently through the mountainside.
What the statistics don't tell you is that the old route – and to a certain extent the bypass as well – is also amongst the most beautiful roads in the world. Starting amidst the icebound peaks of the Cordillera Real, it plunges down through the clouds into the humid valleys of the Yungas, winding along deep, narrow gorges where dense cloudforest clings to even the steepest slopes. So spectacular is the descent that travelling the old Yungas road by mountain bike is one of Bolivia's most popular tourist attractions, an exhilarating ride that's easy to organize as a day-trip with tour companies in La Paz (Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking has the best reputation). Though cycling down the most dangerous road in the world may sound like a crazy proposition, the re-routing of most traffic to the bypass means that – in theory, at least – it's now safer than it's ever been, especially if you go with a reputable tour company which has good guides and well-maintained bikes.