Bolivia - death bike ride to Coroico

Since Julie is a mountain bike enthusiast, I thought it would be fun to do a mountain bike ride in Bolivia. Shortly after Gerard, my brother, moved to Bolivia, he told us about the bike ride to Coroico. This ride takes you down what is billed as the world's deadliest road. Well, after some indecision we decided to go on the bike ride.

I would not be surprised if this label was true. I recall as a child sitting in the back of my uncle's 20-year old jeep, driving down a single lane dirt road from La Paz to Chulumani, in the Yungas region, and looking just 3 feet past the car to a 1000-foot or longer drop down a steep mountainside to a rocky river below. At the time I thought it was really cool to watch as we would stop on a narrow pull-out as a truck or bus drove the opposite direction, just inches from my uncle's jeep.

I can assure you the dirt road to Coroico looks just like the road to Chulumani. There is no guardrail, it's single-lane, and the downhill side of the road is dirt covered by grass and occasionally some of it collapses down the mountainside during the rainy season. At some points you can stop and look down to see the mangled remains of a car, bus or truck that drove just a little too close to the edge and fell down.

Fortunately, nowadays the bike ride is relatively safe. There is now a separate paved road from La Paz to Coroico, and most buses and trucks go on this road. I think we only saw 1 or 2 cars that drove uphill as we biked down the dirt road.

The morning of our bike trip, we had lunch at the hostel in La Paz where the buses leave to take us up to La Cumbre. Julie and I were pleasantly surprised to see 2 of our friends there, Graeme and Sarah from Australia, whom we met hiking on the Inca Trail! We quickly caught up and learned they were delayed into Bolivia a few days due to the stomach virus they caught the night we finished the Inca Trail hike.

The tour starts with a 30-minute drive up to La Cumbre pass at 4000 meters altitude. Even in the summer it's cold up there! This is the start of the ride, about an hour's ride on asphalt towards Coroico.

We had a few brief stops for pictures, snacks and to ensure the group stayed together. We also had 2 narcotics stops along the road. I don't know why you have to stop for a drug check going into the Yungas, since they grow the coca leaves there, and not in La Paz...

So at nearly noon we arrived at the start of the dirt road. We had already had a dropout, a young girl who went too fast on the street and lost control of her bike, flew off and needed stitches on her chin. There is about another 2 hours left to go, and it's all downhill dirt!

The dirt road is quite rocky, and I found myself nearly sliding a bit on all the curves as I got used to the bike and the road. Luckily there is no one but bicyclists on the road, so it's not really that scary anymore. We had a few more photo and food stops to admire the scenery. It was neat to feel the change in temperature as we biked downhill into mountain jungle, and see the change from alpine scrub to tropical forest. We had fun biking through a rainy-season waterfall on the road, and biking across 2 small rivers!

At mid-afternoon we finally arrived at the bottom, at a town called Yolosa at 1100 meters altitude, or 3600 feet. Here Julie and I left the group to meet my uncle Carlos and my dad, who were staying at my uncle's ranch just above Yolosa, so that we could also spend the weekend in the Yungas. We were quite glad to make it safely to the bottom!