The Road of Death

After fighting riding 5 miles down hill on wet slippery cobble stones, we found our way to the little town of Yolosa. It crosses a little river and then starts the mountain accent of the Death Road. There were some great vista and waterfalls but the mist, rain in places and the road demand so much attention that the camera stayed tucked away for most of the trip. In several areas the water cascading down the mountains at the switch backs, offer easy to manage water crossings. Mountain bicycles coming down the road was biggest road hazard. The road has definite rules for passing on coming traffic. However, passing on the right or left seemed to be a last minute decision for the mountain bicyclist. This big Dane was the Yolosa town greeter or there to bid a final farewell to those venturing on to the Death Road.

After only about two miles we encountered our first landslide. The road crew had cleared a small path so we made it across without much trouble. It was very muddy. So getting through validated the right decision to put knobbie in Lima rather than wait till we got further south. The road crew was not optimistic about our ability to make it through the other slides. So we decided to continue to the next slide to see what the whole Death Road thing was about. And then turn around.

We got to the next slide. It was a big pile of rubble that covered the entire road. It looked like the Death Road tour was over. Then we noticed a road crew with picks and shovels slowly emerging from what looked like a permanent collection of houses next to the slide area. Maybe the area experiences regular slides during the rainy season that requires a permanent crew assigned to keep the road open. The pile of rubble was mostly gravel, large stones and some large boulders all held together with a slurry mud. Chris and I gave a hand with the clearing. The construction workers, about 5 of them, seemed to know exactly what to do to give us a path over. We took our side cases off to reduce the weight. We motor walked the motorcycles over the debris while the construction worker pushed and steadied. We tipped them 50 Bolivianos (about $7 USD). It was the best 50 Bolivianos we spent in Bolivia. The workers gave a slight smile as they returned to, what looked like a three day job of clearing the road by hand.

Eddy you will also recognize this rock.

At the third landslide it was very deep mud with tree limbs and boulders sticking out of the mud everywhere. It created a barrier about four feet high. It was raining so only one photo. When we approached the slide we found only two road workers and one never did any work the entire time were stuck at the slide. Chris and I weighed the option of turning around and going over the boulder slide again, waiting for the one road crew worker to clear the road…days, or pushing ahead. There was a mountain bike tour guide, with his retrieval van stuck on the other side of the slide. We slogged through the mud on feet to see if he could provide us with any information. He said the rest of the road was clear back to La Paz. So we decided to try and get the motorcycles over the mud pile. Mind you we were at about 9000 feet above sea level just walking took a tremendous effort, let alone mud wrestling with a 600 pound pigs. Once we got the first motorcycle on top of the slide it quickly settled down on the bash pan and buried the front and rear tires in the loose wet mud. We could not go forward anymore and it was impossible to back down off the mud pile. The pig was stuck in the mud. The one working road construction guy saw it as a hopeless cause and returned to clearing the road by the cliff edge as he had been doing when we arrived. It was starting to look like we may be on this road for a while, maybe days. The tour guide came to our rescue and was our instant hero. We were truly very fortunate that he had a long heavy rope in his van. He probable had it to retrieve any of his bicycles that happen to go over the cliff. The tour guide and the construction worker assist by pulling our motorcycles thru the mud while Chris and I either motor walked or pushed. We finally made it, exhausted and covered with mud from the spinning tire. Another good fortune was the waterfalls next to the road provided a handy shower to get enough of the mud off of us so we would not slip around too much on the motorcycle seats.

The rest of the road was thankfully without any more drama. I really enjoyed the road, scenery and the challenge but after that last slide I had enough of tempting the Death Road Gods with keeping us there for an extended visit. It’s a great off road adventure, even for a 1200 GS. The road was not that technically difficult. There were some muddy uphill areas so having knobbies in the rainy season is a big plus. Another hazard was near the waterfalls the cobble stones were very slippery and uneven. That caused Chris and I both to take tumbles. In the end I’m not sure it’s the best to do the road in the rainy season. Here is where the Old Road meets back up with the New Road as we returned to La Paz.