In La Paz, Bolivia there is road called Yungas Road that is regarded as the most dangerous in the world. Some of the stats that we had picked up researching about the road was that in 2004, 24 buses / coaches had fallen off the road which is an average of one bus falling off every 2 weeks. Due to the fact that this road had been labelled as being the most dangerous in the world, this automatically meant it was a must do for team Goonies, so off we went to La Paz.

Having only been in La Paz for one day due to our tight schedule, we was on a one day bike tour down the World’s Most Dangerous Road. We booked with a company called Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking as they were highly recommended by the Lonely Planet, but most importantly we decided that it was one part of the trip we cannot skimp on. This is because you would want to use the best equipment available if it increased your chances of staying alive.

On the day of the bike ride the professional tour guides / instructors picked us up from our hostel. Upon arriving at the starting point of the bike ride there was a large sign detailing the number of recorded fatalities so far this year. The sign said there have been 43 fatalities so far this year but this was not the most alarming part. There was another sign underneath the main sign saying another 9 deaths to be added making it 52 fatalities in approximately 9 months. After speaking with our instructor he explained that a bus had fallen off the previous week and they had not had enough time to update the main sign.

After explaining every single piece of clothing that they would be providing and how to put them on like we have never seen a glove before, we was outside with our £2000+ mountain bikes ready to decide our fates on the road. Before we set off there was a ritual that everyone must do first. It involved using this 100% alcohol where we would splash a little on the ground for mother earth, splash a little on the wheels of our bike to ensure our bikes did not fail and a short swig ourselves for the courage we are going to need to cycle down the World’s Most Dangerous Road.

The cycle began with a downhill tarmac section that was really straight forward, with speeds of up to 70 KMPH being reached easily. Throughout the tarmac section are check points which our instructor said was put in place to make gringos feel more reassured, as the check points are used as a measure to ensure that everyone who had started the road also exited at the other end of the road.

Once the tarmac section was over the real fun started. We had over 20 KM of unpaved downhill dangerous road to cover. But before the fun could start our instructor went through some safety drills / measures that everyone needed to know. The instructor explained to us that the reason there are so many deaths on this road is because most of the drivers on the road are drunk. Therefore, it was important we knew how to handle different situations as we would be sharing the road with other motorised vehicles. The instructor used a whistle and if be blew once, this meant there was on coming traffic so we can proceed with care but we must remain on the left side of the road. If we heard a continuous repeating whistle then it meant that a vehicle is going to over take us and we had to stop on the left side of the road and get off our bikes on the right side.

Getting off the right side of a bike may sound relatively simple and even more easy on the Most Dangerous Road because the cliff edge was always on your left side, if you are starting at the top first. However, there is a famous incident where a French girl got off stupidly on the left side of her bike, took one step backwards and fell off the road to face a terrible death. Therefore, it always pays to listen to your instructors!!!

Despite the reputation and the label in which the road has received, it was relatively easy and not technical. As the road was downhill no pedalling was required and being on top of the range full suspension bikes meant we ate up the roads like a greedy fat kid left alone with a chocolate chip muffin. However, after riding for approximately 30 minutes the weather turned for the worst and started to hammer down with rain. So there we were riding down the World’s Most Dangerous Road on a push bike but the conditions were more slippery, visibility was extremely poor as the rain had caused a lot of mist and also caused the lens on our goggles / sunglasses to steam up. This meant that you could not see anything wearing eye protection, but it was torture not wearing any eye protection as rain droplets would slap your eyeballs as you travelled down the road at 30-40 KMPH. The conditions were so bad that one person from our group dropped out temporarily and used the support vehicle that was following us until the conditions improved.

With us being real men (or stupid) we soldiered on regardless of the conditions and everyone at some point had a hair raising moment going around a corner way too fast that would cause us to skip a heart beat or two. The abysmal weather cleared up after about 40 minutes and the glorious sun was out. We were all soaked to our bones and caped in mud but we just ditched our outer layers and began the final descent.

On the last section the road was a lot flatter which meant that pedalling was required which was hard work on a full suspension bikes as half of the energy you put into pedalling is wasted when the rear shock absorber bounces up and down. By the end of the road everyone was extremely tired but that meant nothing as the most important thing was that everyone made it back in one piece and not a scratch in sight. Also the instructor never had to used his whistle which probably did not matter as his pace was a lot faster than half of the group so they had no chance of hearing his whistle.

At the end of the bike ride we stopped off at a monkey sanctuary which is funded by the company. Here we got to clean ourselves up and have a nice buffet lunch. The company also provided us with a lift back to our hostel which coincidentally was via the World’s Most Dangerous Road, which in theory was the most dangerous part of our trip as we was not in control of our own fates and most importantly, almost all deaths on the roads happen in a motorised vehicle.

The Final Verdict:
Extremely good fun that is suitable for a beginning but no way near as dangerous as the title may suggest.