It's a Bolivian backpackers right of passage to ride the 'death road'. Ask anyone who has been to La Paz and they have defied the death road. Because if they hadn't, they'd be lying at the bottom of the Yungas valley with a cross marking the spot. Around 200 people dissapear over the edge each year, with a record pile up of 100 cars! Thus titled the 'world's most dangerous road' the ride requires no effort - it's 'gravity assisted' mountain biking. Being South America, it is of course now a tourist attraction!
It would be nice to think that you could ride along and admire the view but the huge potholes, rocks, sand blowing in your face and the 500 meter drop-offs keep your eyes firmly on the road and fingers on the breaks. You snake down from chilly mountains at 4,670 meters down to 1,120 meters of tropical forest. You can ride it pretty fast and looking over the edge is quite scary.
Not to mask our bravery, there's now a new alternative road so you only really have to compete with the odd car! At the end of the day we realised we'd been on much scarier chicken bus rides during our travels - at least this time we were in control of the breaks. Still, it was good fun to cruise all 63 kms of the road -even with filthy hangovers - and claim the all important t-shirts saying that... WE SURVIVED!
Check it out... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road
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