El Camino de la Muerte

Last weekend, Manuela and I headed back to Coroico. You might remember from a previous entry that the old road from La Paz to Coroico is called “The Death Road“, and until recently (specifically, until they finished the new road), was considered one of the most hazardous stretches of dirt and gravel in the world. Well, to make a long story short, we figured that this sort of danger was just too good to miss, so we biked down the death road on the return trip to Coroico.

It turns out that the name is a bit overdone; the road is much safer now that all the buses and fruit trucks trundle up the new road. The path itself is a good lane wide, and completely empty aside from the bicycles, support vehicles, and amazing vistas.

Still, there are a number of ways you can make the decent more interesting (i.e. scary). Foremost among these would be to try and save a bit of money and rent your bike from one of the many discount tour bike companies. We did not make such a mistake. Instead, we made our descent with Downhill Madness, a reliable name in the field of death bike rides. I’d highly recommend the firm. The bikes were a bit of home — handmade by Rocky Mountain Bicycles, straight from B.C. Our guides were professional and knowledgeable, regaling us with stories about the Italian who fell off the Italian corner, or the French girl who fell off the French corner, or the Israeli who… well, you get the idea. Virtually all the deaths took place before the new highway took most of the road traffic; still, the stories certainly helped to keep the mind focused on the fact that the edge of the road also happened to be the edge of a cliff, with the valley floor far below.

It took us about five hours to cover the 65 horizontal and 3 vertical kilometres, and the scenery was simply breathtaking the entire way. The trip was less an ordeal than a revelation. We started in fog, pedalled through rain, mud, rivers, and waterfalls before finally finishing on dry ground under under glorious sunshine.

The views, as I say, were spectacular, and thanks to gravity, the pedalling was often optional (as opposed to braking, which was mandatory). I’d recommend the trip to anyone who can resist the urge to turn left at inopportune moments. Just remember to keep your eyes on the road, and don’t get distracted by the butterflies.