Day38-Road of Death, Bring it!, Thu, Feb 3, 2011

The El Camino de la Muerte North Yungas Road

The North Yungas Road (Bolivia) http://tinyurl.com/yl88ju5. Bolivia’s ‘Death Road’ is THE most dangerous in the world.  North Yungas Road snakes across roughly 70km of the Andes, from La Paz to Coroico.  Because of the extreme dropoffs of at least 600 meters (1,830 feet), single-lane width – most of the road no wider than 3.2 metres (10 ft) and lack of guard rails the road is extremely dangerous.  Riders/drivers need to contend with crazy hairpin turns, oncoming traffic (often rushing to beat you into bends), an almost constant layer of fog and, during tropical downpours, high risk of landslides too.   In the past, as many as 200-300 travelers are thought to have died in a single year, but it’s carried significantly less traffic since the opening of a bypass in 2006. NOTE: Uphill vehicles have the inside track!  Downhill vehicles have the outside track so they can see how close their wheel is to the edge of the road. Tourist companies continue to cash in on the road’s notoriety by offering extreme bike tours down it.

Start & Stop: Out & Return

Mileage: 82 miles

Currency Exchange: $1 USD = 7.01 Boliviano

Lisa: Rain: 1  D&L: O

So riding the infamous road of death (Yungas Road) has been in the plans since the earliest we talked of doing this ride.  We have researched it, read ride reports, had waypoints, etc.  It never occurred us that we’d get rained out. But at 14K feet, weather is always an unknown and today was not only rainy but super socked in in places, requiring us to slow to about 30.

Dean: We gave it our best effort.  No joy!  :)  It has been raining all morning but around 9 am cleared up over La Paz but the northeastern horizon was dark and angry.  We left around 10:30 AM to ride ~40 miles over La Cumbre Pass 4,650 m (15,260 ft).  The Road of Death is on the back side of this pass.  Thinking, hoping, wishing it would be sunny on the other side.

We rode through rain, fog, hail, to get to the start of the "Road of Death". ME880 tires made the decision not to ride in the rain and mud.

We waited an hour to see if the fog and rain would break. No joy! The "?" will have to wait for another Bolivia ride.

Going to the summit we encountered sprinkles, then rain, then heavy rain, pea soup fog and hail near the summit.  Rain and medium fog all the way to beginning of the road of death.  20-30 mph behind trucks and buses.  Several road construction sites had us riding on wet, muddy, dirt and gravel very slowly.  Took us 2+ hours to ride the 40 miles.  We were the only motorcycles on the road and no bicycles at all.  Normally there would be several hundred adventure bicycles.  None!

We went light taking only tools and emergency stuff.  Our departure of 10:20 AM thinking we would be at the North Yungas Road turnoff in 1 hour.  It took us 2 hours to go those 40 miles.

There is a summit halfway to the turnoff.  La Cumbre Pass 4,650 m (15,260 ft).  As we approached the summit we got rain, then fog, then hail.  The rain was a drizzle which increased as we climbed to the pass.  On the other side … no sun!  no blue skys!  No majestic mountains with deep canyons.  We couldn’t see 50’ around us and oh yea … it was raining harder.

Lisa: It’s good to be Dean

We stopped at the entrance to Yungas and then rode about 1 km past it to a shack on the side of the road.  The plan was to get something to eat, hoping the weather would clear in that time.  As we walked in, I ordered Almuerzo (lunch) from the chalk board list and then told Dean I needed to find a restroom.  With a straight face, Dean told me, “Lisa, just ask where the Bano is.”  Dean: The man who in 38 days on the road has not checked into or out of one hotel room, ordered one meal or drink of any sort, done one border crossing task that required talking or understanding, asked for or understood any directions, or anything else that required more than his single Spanish word: Gracias.  But he now feels he needs to instruct me on how to find the john.  Sweet.  If I didn’t have a sense of urgency, I would have slapped him. And, “no senora, no bano aqui.”

Dean sat down and was immediately served  a big bowl of steaming chicken soup while I saddled back up and rode about a mile back to a gas station.  When I returned, Dean was working on his meal of roast chicken, rice, papas and a roll. (Rice and potatoes served together is pretty standard) I said, “Well that looks good” and Dean’s response pretty much said it all,” I didn’t order any of this, they just gave it to me”  Yes indeed, it’s good to be Dean.

Dean: We waited in a little shack 1/4 mile from dirt road entrance to the North Yungas Rd hoping for a break in the weather.  No luck.  At 2:30 PM we abandoned the Road of Death ride and returned back to La Paz.  The road is dangerous enough without rain and fog.  And we do not have dirt/mud tires.  If we got into trouble, help would be a long time coming.  Took 1-1/2 hours to return 40 miles.  Snow on the top of the pass.  None on the road.

The El Camino de la Muerte will have to wait for another South American ride.

Lisa: We are enjoying from afar the celebration still going on here in town. Dean walked over there and said there are 5 different sound stages, all playing LOUD music, lots of drunken dancing and every manner of craziness. We’re pretty removed from it but it’s loud enough that ear plugs will be a must have sleep aid. These people know how to party!! Tomorrow we head toward the Uyuni salt desert.