The Death Road – Driving the World’s Most Dangerous Road

Or, instead of ‘ The Death Road’, or ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Road’, I could say:

• The (North) Yungas Road
• The Coroico Road
• Camino de las Yungas
• …

These are among the same names for this same road. According to many online articles, the Inter-American Development Bank declared this the World’s Most Dangerous Road in 1995, but on the IADB’s website I can’t find anything about this statement so I can’t verify how true it is.

True or not, things have changed a lot since then and I am sure that nowadays there are many roads (in and outside Bolivia) that kill many more people than this one, for example on the highway Oruro – La Paz, which is known for its incredible number of crashes, especially buses.

Until 2006 the locally called Death Road was the only road connecting Coroico with La Paz. The often no-wider-than-1-lane, unpaved road was used by all buses, trucks and all other vehicles. Overtaking is often impossible and I can’t imagine having driven there during those days.

Read More: Recovery Gear for Overlanding

From Main Road to Extreme Sport

However, this about some-70-kilometer-long stretch no longer is the main road between the 2 towns. About 10 years ago a new road was constructed around another mountain range: a 2-lane, largely paved highway that is well maintained.

The ‘Most Dangerous’ aspect of the Death Road today is mainly for tourists who take their chance on descending this unpaved, slippery, hair-pinned road on a bicycle – among whom who never sat on a bicycle before! I guess this activity falls under the category Extreme Sports. Yep, today tourists die here an unnecessary death.

In fact, when you look up Yungas Road on Wikipedia, it will tell you it is a cycle route!

Read More: Tips for Rough Camping on Salar de Uyuni

A New Legendary Road: the Death Road

Three years ago, we survived the stretch north of Coroico when driving from the northeastern border with Brazil to La Paz and even though that stretch is just as treacherous for exactly the same reasons, the term ‘Death Road’ is commonly used for the specific stretch between Coroico and La Paz.

It was high time to add it to our list of South America’s Legendary Roads.

The first challenge was leaving La Paz. As we were camping in Mallase, south of the city, it meant either traversing El Alto – skipping part of downtown La Paz – or cutting straight through town. Both routes, no matter what time of the day, are clogged with traffic and time consuming.

Read More: The Rains Have Started – How Long will the 1,000-km Journey Take?

On the northeast side we passed the toll gate (la tranca) Urucaja, after which we at last found a gas station where we could buy diesel. That took a worry away because getting fuel in and around La Paz is a pain in the ass.

Dry weather, some clouds, sun working its way through the gray layer. We meandered the asphalt road from 3,800 meters (La Paz) to La Cumbre, a pass at approx. 4550 meters with views of valleys and canyons with hairpin bends, llamas, lakes and snow-capped mountains.

We had a bit of an idea where the turn-off would be but weren’t exactly sure. We drove slowly, checking each possible turn-off to see if it made sense that this was thé entrance to the Death Road. It isn’t obvious to find, that’s for sure.

At last we found a turn-off to Chuspipata, where some weathered road signs gave us the impression this was the right point (GPS waypoint: -16.28891, -67.82725).

Testimonies along the Death Road

Asphalt changed to gravel.

The first crosses, of which there remain a couple of dozen along the stretch all the way down to Coroico at 1,600 meters, immediately came into sight. I checked many of those crosses or shrines. All names are Spanish-sounding and I have the impression that there isn’t one that commemorates the death of a cycling tourist.

Read More: Laguna Colorada – A Washboarded World of Colorful Lakes

By now we had descended into the clouds, and visibility was minimal. We were afraid we were going to miss out on the views. We hadn’t done this stretch in 2010, when we were here during the rainy season, exactly because we didn’t want to drive in the clouds, but wanted to actually see something of our surroundings. Fortunately down the road the weather cleared quite a bit and we did get our share of fantastic views.

Road signs gave us a couple of instructions:

• Give way to drivers coming up from Coroico to La Paz (as it’s easier to do this when going down than when driving up).
• Stay on the left side of the road. This way the downhill vehicle drives right along the canyon and the uphill vehicle along the vertical wall so both drivers have an optimal view of all inches on their side of the road.

Read More: The Magic-number Car Tires for Overlanding

It was a beautiful ride. We left in the afternoon, long after those kamikaze bicyclists had gone down and we encountered only 3 other vehicles. Easy going in first or second gear most of the time with lots of opportunities to take in the tropical vegetation of the Yungas. Waterfalls came down all over the place, giving us and the Land Cruiser some impressive showers.

So, the World’s Most Dangerous Road. The Death Road. Yes, once it was. Today, it no longer is.

We felt it was perfectly safe to drive after the bicyclists have left. In fact it’s one of the more scenic drives in Bolivia.

Check it Out: The Road Trip t-shirt Collection

Fuel Up

Thank you to everyone who has bought us a couple of liters of diesel to support our journey and website.

Would you like to do the same?

Inspired? Pin it to your Pinterest Travel Boards

(Click on the image to pin it)

More on Road Travel:

Books on Overland Adventures

Taking Risks? – A Road Trip to Chocó Region in Colombia

Exploring Uzbekistan’s Tien Shan Mountains