This one is for the speed freaks, and adrenaline junkies.

If you are mountain bikers, it is especially for you.

La Ruta de La Muerte is considered as the most dangerous road in the world. It is 65 km long and connects La Paz to Coroico. After rising first to 4500 meters, it then plunges nearly 3,500 meters until Coroico. In some places this dirt road it is only 3 meters wide. The many waterfalls flowing freely on it often make it muddy and slippery. The first part of our descent was in the clouds of the Altiplano, thus greatly reducing visibility and making it very difficult to spot some rocks that tumbled down the vertical cliff which borders the road on the right side. On the left side is a abyss of up to 1000 meters, without the slightest safety barrier. Cars crossing from opposite directions can only pass each other in appropriate designated areas. A unique features in Bolivia, by The cars venturing on the Ruta de la Muerte drive on the left side of the “road” so the driver has a better view on his outside wheel.

La Ruta de la Muerte has not stolen its name. The death toll reaches astronomical figures. Depending on the sources, there would be between 200 and 300 deaths per year, and this over a distance of 65 km only. The worst accident occurred in 1983 when a bus missed plunged in the abyss, killing over a hundred people at once.

The road was built in 1930, and, counting only a hundred deaths per year, this would give a staggering 7,000 people killed. By aligning all these smashed bodies along the road, it would make a corpse every 9 meters!

Five years ago, a new road was opened, thus ending the slaughter.

Today the Ruta de la Muerte  is mainly used by thrill-seekers, mostly mountain bikers, but it is still as dangerous:  37 cyclists took the big plunge in the last 10 years.