Drive the World's Deadliest Road

 

 

Known in Bolivia as El Camino De La Muerte ("The road of death"), this crude stretch of road marks a spectacular descent from the Bolivian Andes to the floor of the Amazon basin. Treacherously plunging 3000M in just 70 KM, this is one of the world's epic drives.

Distance: 69KM

Elevation: 4650M to 1604M

Location: La Paz, Bolivia

Ideal Time Commitment: A few harrowing hours of your life

Best Time of Year: May to October

• Hurtling yourself down the deadliest road in the world, ludicrous speeds, while on the back of a mountain bike.
• Resettling the nerves after your hazardous descent in the sleepy town of Coroico, perched mid-hilltop and boasting wholesale views of cloud-draped valleys and Andean peaks.
• Wandering La Paz's Mercado de Herchiceria (Witches' Market) - filled with herbs, potions and the occasional llama foetus.
• Macheteing your way through the depths of the Amazon jungle near the town of Rurrenabaque.

Built by prisoners during the 1932-35 Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay, for 80 years this thin scar etched into the mountain flanks was the only way down into the northern Yunas region of Bolivia. Unfortunately,  traveling along its length is as precarious as it is stunning.
The road has its own rules: downhill drivers always have the right of way - forcing faster vehicles to slow and find a spot wide enough to allow trucks and buses to shimmy past. Barely a whisker stands between them and a plunge to the canyon floor.
The three-hour journey down to Coroico is truly breathtaking - passing from cool Altiplano terrain to subtropical rainforest, through dense clouds and waterfall spray, all to a backdrop of grand Andean summits and canyons plunging deep into the earth. Whether the views justify the mediocre odds of completing the journey in one piece, however, is another matter altogether.