Yungas aka Death road
 

Has anyone done it lately? What are the conditions? Please share coords to enter from La Paz

Also would be nice to team up

Coordinates: 16°20′09.26″S 68°02′25.78″W

When you see this sign, you'll know you are at the top:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-B4iNNOEPrJk/UW...jpg?imgmax=800

The sign is just off the highway.

We didn't see much traffic. No trucks at all. Mostly vans transporting mountain bikes. Technically you are supposed to ride on the left side as you go down the road. It puts the down hill driver in the best position to see the edge. Yeah, right. I stayed to the right and didn't see anything headed up the road until the bottom.

Gas up before you leave La Paz. We only saw one gas station at the end of the road and they were out of gas. Luckily my friend has some extra gas in soda bottles.

Peter, many thanx for your reply! Very informative. And the pic is awesome bier

ramble on
 

Here's the story...met up in La Paz with another rider, Takahiro Sanui, on my way north. We were both on the same Stalhratte voyage from Panama to Colombia months earlier. On the first attempt to ride the Death Road Taka's bike wasn't performing well at the high altitude, so we scrubbed the trip and he spent the afternoon having the carburetor needle adjusted. On the second attempt the next day there was a transportation worker strike and a chance we would run into road blocks leaving the city. None materialized and we escaped La Paz without incident. It about an hour and a half ride northeast to the beginning of the road. That morning there was a dusting of snow on the mountains. If you see something like that, stop and take pictures, because it might be melted by late afternoon.

We nearly passed the turn off for the Yungas road. Sometimes I think the lack of signage is intended to keep tour guides in business. In the morning expect to see vans transporting backpackers and mountain bikes. The mountain bikes are your main obstacle as you ride down the road. The waterfalls on the road were a surprise, but I hold back a few details. Take you time going down. Stop where its safe to pull over and appreciate the heights. We were pretty much pumped up and rushed the ride.

At the bottom we found out way to our way to the town of Coroico, with the aid of Taka's hiking GPS and more braille than signage. On the road up to Coroico there is a gas station, but no gas. I recall paying some small toll to enter the town, a gringo tax. The town caters to tourist that came to take on the Yangas road. We found a clean well lit place for lunch on the town square. Time to head back to La Paz. We decided not to tempt Death twice with a ride up the Yungas Road and chose to return via the modern highway. Back down the valley floor we went a little north looking for a gas station and found one! But no gas there either. Taka had two large plastic soda in his saddle bags which guaranteed I would make it back to La Paz. I really should have filled up before leaving the city limits, but was preoccupied with the possibility of road blocks and general anticipation of the day ahead. Again, more by braille than signage, we found the entrance to the new highway and climbed up the mountainside, stopping at vantage points to view the Yungas road across the valley.

On the outskirts of La Paz a gas station appeared that had gas and would sell to a tourist. That night I stored my bike with Alfonso, a Horizons Unlimited member I contacted through the Contact a Community page, then tossed back a few with Taka at the hostel bar. In the morning I flew back the US for three weeks. And Taka? A year later he is still on the road, currently somewhere in Romania.

Lots of good info in Peter's posts above. We really enjoyed staying in Coroico for the night (at Hostal Sol y Luna - GPS: S16 deg 11.891 min / W67 deg 43.430 min) and continuing our ride through the Yungas through Coripata, Chulumani, and Quime towards Oruro.

More details at: Motojeros: the North Yungas Road

Did it in October 2012, going downhil to Coroico. It's a nice, scenic, smooth dirt ride. Easy. Nothing technical.
No death thrills any more, the traffic uses the new road nowadays. We saw just one support van for mountain bikers. That was it. Nothing else.

We also paid that "gringo tax" near the end of the road.
We pitched our tent at Sol y Luna, nice place.

wild ride?
 

Hey csustewy!

I was wondering how you guys got from Chulumani to Quime, then on to Oruro. At first I imagined you back tracked through La Paz, but wanted to check that you didn't take some kind of insane route through the mountains. It took a second tried to download the Google Maps KLM file from your website, but was able to make it work. I viewed the file in Google Earth and now think you took mountain roads (Bolivia 25?) and some crazy dirt roads that aren't on Google Maps or open Street Maps. Did you ride dirt switchback roads from BO 25 to Inquisivi? I can see roads on the satellite view of Google Maps, but they aren't "mapped" yet. My maps are about 12 months out of date, so they could be there now...

If you did the ride I think you did, it was deep, very hardcore. Tell me about it.

Hey Peter!

You got it - we passed through Inquisivi on our way to Quime. I am horrible at GPS usage, so don't have any route specifics, but yes, minor roads connected. We were running open street maps, which did not show any roads connecting 25 to Inquisivi to Quime, but there's a way. One of the benefits is how little traffic there is on these surprisingly decent roads.

At the time, we were riding with Mark (Radioman from ADVrider) who had met another rider who had wandered around the Yungas. Based on his recommendation, we did the same. A beautiful place! (NOTE: with very few amenities, for anyone considering this route)