The Road of Death

The next day, we were ready to get out of La Paz. We knew we'd be back to explore the city properly but for now we were headed back down towards Coroico. This time, we'd be taking the world famous Death Road.

Aimee, of course, had other ideas. She disappeared into the abandoned house next door and while we could see her behind the high gates, we couldn't get her to come out. We drove off and left her there while we went to the supermarket. I always hoped that the sight of us driving away would make her come back, but she seemed pretty indifferent to it. So, we headed to the supermarket, bought some of my new favourite honey beer, Huari and came back. We sat outside and waited for Aimee. At the same time, I was trying to buy us a monitor of Facebook market place. With the laptop repair being insanely expensive, it seemed like it would be easier to buy a second monitor and use it with that. As we were in the capital, there were several options. After an hour or so, we got a message confirming we could come and pick up the monitor. Then as if she approved, Aimee wound her way between the railings and came back to Ruby. All on board, we headed out of the city to pick up the new monitor. It was a bit of a beast and I wouldn't like to comment on how long we'd go without breaking it, but for now it was a cheap and quick solution.

By the time we had got to the guys house, checked it worked, paid and driven off, there was only a few hours of daylight left. We started heading out of the capital, planning to wild camp near the start of the death road for the morning. Due to leaving the city at a different point, we took a different, higher road than we had previously driven. We bumped along a gravel road in the beautiful mountains at about 4700m. We hadn't planned to camp here but as we drove past the mountain ranges with the snow a pastel pink in the setting sun, we thought we just have to enjoy this view. There was a huge space by the side of the road and we pulled off and parked at the edge of a cliff, enjoying some breath taking views of the mountains in the last of the light.

As you can imagine, up here it was cold. Thankfully, even though it was operating several thousand metres above its maximum specifications, our heating still worked and kept us warm throughout the freezing night. In the morning, we saw the mountains bathed in sunlight and the herds of llamas crossing the valley below.

After a leisurely start, we packed up. We had heard that the Death Road is best attempted after 3pm, as before this it is a popular destination for cycle tours. However, the last one supposedly leaves at 1pm and so after this, you should have it to yourself. We weren't far away, but we still needed to buy some fuel. We headed off from our cold and beautiful spot on the last stretch of ruta 41. This brought us out at the lakes which sit at the foot of the statue we had visited previously with Leo. From now on, it was all downhill. We had located a petrol station that supposedly would sell us fuel, and so we headed their first to try out luck. The guy at the pump was happy enough to fill the tank for 5bol/litre, which is kind of the going rate for reselling fuel as we found out later. With that sorted, we arrived at the top of the death road.

This road was constructed back in the 1930's by Paraguayan prisoners of war and for a long time held the title of the most dangerous road in the world, claiming nearly a life every day due to it's sheer drops and lack of safety barriers coupled with frequent passing traffic. Back in 2006, a new dual lane bypass was constructed and the death road became more of a famous landmark, than a cause for fatality. Now all traffic can take the newer road, meaning there are is no longer any reason to meet a truck head on here. While it has lost the motorised traffic, the death road is very popular with aforementioned bike tours and there is still a few deaths to unfortunate bike accidents. We however, hope to make it down in one piece.

Before attempting our descent, we pulled over to give the brakes a quick final bleed. Now would not be a good time to lose them. Then, we set off.

We had hoped to have the route largely to ourselves, and sure enough, we steadily wound our way down the gravel track alone. To one side the sheer rock face rose above, while to the left it fell even further into the valley below.

While it has a fearsome reputation, we felt that really we had driven plenty of other similar roads in the mountains of Colombia. Truth be told, there is nothing scary about this drive nowadays, it simple a beautiful one. we stopped regularly to take photos and fly Steve, enjoying the astonishing views. We were lucky that this time, unlike when we had gone through the valley before, there was no fog.

It was estimated to be roughly a 2 hour drive, as you want to go slowly and enjoy the view. Around a third of the way, we stopped to pay a toll and entrance fee which we only just had enough money for once we negotiated that Ruby was not a minibus, but a car. With our fancy tickets and little pointless map that just served to highlight that this was now a tourist attraction, we drove one. We had yet to meet a single person and we enjoyed the views at our leisure.

Towards the end of the road, we got to the section which had recently been subjected to a landslide and had only been re-opened recently. It was still clear to see where the hill above had slid into the valley below, taking the road with it. A new, but significantly small track had been carved once again into the bare mud and rock face. It was the only part of the road where I fixed my eyes firmly on the horizon and instructed myself to drive in a steady straight line.

With this narrowest part over, the road opens out once again. It it worth noting that while the entire country drive on the right hand side, this road has changed the priorities. Therefore if you do meet another car as you descend, you will need to move over to the cliff face. Luckily for us, we didn't meet a single person until we had all but re-joined the main road, where I upset the only car we'd seen by being on the wrong side of the now much wider dirt track.

Having successfully ticked this experience of our bucket list, we debated where to spend the night. The small, but touristy town of Coroico was an option, but there was nowhere to camp except on the village square and we didn't really fancy. As we knew we'd had a peaceful night previously at the waterfall just a little further on, we decided to go back there.

The last time we had arrived, it had been night. This time we were much earlier and there were still people there. They agreed to let us stay, for double the rate of the last person who had stopped a few weeks ago. We scraped the last of our coins together out of the side of the chairs and the glovebox as we still hadn't been to a cash point, and just had enough to pay for the night. It wasn't the most amazing spot, huge goods lorries trundled past in a slow but steady stream, now kicking up dust from the dry dirt road. The noise of the waterfall behind us though drowned out a lot of the traffic and as it moved so slowly to negotiated the sharp hairpin we were parked on, we weren't too concerned about the cats.