Ruta de la Muerte, Bolivia

The world's most dangerous road.

It's steep, it's ugly and it kills. Death road is probably the world's most famous road and rightly so. The 64km stretch of gravelly danger takes on average two lives per year and technically, it's not even open to traffic.

Hundreds of cyclists take to this road everyday to witness the sheer cliffs, buenas vistas and thrilling downhills. It's a must do from La Paz so we locked in a guided tour as you'd be mad to do it alone. RideOn was our company of choice (there were hundreds to choose from) and Marcelo was our guide. The price? A wallet wringing 470 Bs ($95) per head. Ouch.

The three of us (Lennart's still on the scene) got picked up from our hostel in our own private van and got a mini tour of La Paz on our way up to La Cumbre, the starting point of the ride. Marcelo and his team had planned the ride to ensure there would be no uphill on our route - what legends. A quick breakfast and a lengthy gear up (seriously, I was so kitted up that a blow from Superman himself wouldn't even have tickled a nerve) had us ready to rumble. Our descent would take us from 4800m to 1100m, a whopping 3700m of brake burning biking (roughly equivalent to a descent from the summit of Mt Cook to the Tasman Sea).

The first stretch was on asphalt, where we tested out the bikes amid some awesome scenery. It didn't take long before we were tucking in and bombing the windy road at eye watering speed. It was so much fun and knowing that we got the uphill for free was all the more enjoyable. In no time we had made the narcotics checkpoint (of course there's a narcotic checkpoint) where we stopped for a snack. Yes, an actual snack - I know what you're thinking.

From here the guides loaded our bikes back on the roof of the van and drove us to the start of the real death road, more accurately known as Yungas Road. Opened in 1920 (as a widening of a track to a single lane road), Yungas road connects La Paz (Bolivia's largest city) to the jungle - it's source of food. Now however, it is unofficially closed to traffic as a new road had been built to replace it. However, the road is not physically 'closed' so tour buses, tour vans and drug traffickers (amoungst other traffickers) still use the route for a small fee. This fee goes towards making the road safer and surprisingly, crash barriers had been installed on many of the corners.

We barely passed a car on our entire journey down, but you wouldn't need a car to have an accident. Slippery gravel, big rocks, landslides, hairpin bends, puddles, waterfalls, other cyclists and of course the fantastic view are all hazards which present themselves with relentless regularity. Marcelo was the best guide we've had all trip, pointing out all the hazards, the history and the points of interest.

In more than one occasion he would point out corners where people (many his friends, more tourists) had taken a turn for the worse. If there was ever a debate for ethical tourism, I'd say listening to a guide explain several of his friends' demises is right up there - emotional insight which gave us all heightened respect for the road and it's danger (and Marcelo himself). Corner after corner the crosses, flowers and memorabilia appeared. Empty shells of cars and buses lay barely visible at the bottom of the valley. Numerous corners were named for the nationality of the unfortunate person to have erred there at the ultimate price. Many of these lives were claimed by a lack of precaution; from taking selfies whilst riding, to going too fast or by simply getting too close to the edge. The worst though were the corners where crossed clustered - those were vehicles, often buses with children and families who had no control over their fate.

Morbidity aside, the ride was full of adrenaline and suberb scenery and in fact, we barely passed a car or bus on the way down - phew! After many stops and photos we arrived at the bottom of the road hot, dusty and tired some six hours later - and greeted by a ten year old selling cold beer. It was an oddly short taste of jungle heat and low elevation. I was thoroughly impressed with Cat for an injury and crash free descent despite some sketchy sections. Well guided one might say (that's Marcelo, not me to be clear). We finished up with a hot shower and a buffet dinner at a nearby hotel before driving two and a half hours bsck to La Paz, via the new road of course!

Definitely a highlight of the trip and a must do if you're in La Paz - despite the cost!Read more