Ask any backpacker worth their salt who’s travelled to La Paz and they will tell you one of the highlights is to zoom down the ‘World’s Most Dangerous Road’ from La Cumbre down to Coroico.
Lonely Planet warns about cut-cost agencies, and I thought Vertigo Biking were a happy medium. £12 cheaper than Gravity, Vertigo offers you a full day out with protective equipment for 480 Bolivianos. The guides speak English and there is a mechanic that accompanies you throughout the day in case of bike problems.
The minibus picked us up at 8am and a couple of hours later we were all bums on saddles. It starts off pretty cold so make sure you bring some layers; and do not wear jeans! I had to wear mine because I was staying in Coroico for one night before heading to the jungle the next day and wanted to save valuable backpack space, but by 1pm you are sweaty and hot and also end up riding through one or two ditches. Oh, and under a waterfall or two!
My only gripe about the whole day was that we were not offered anywhere near enough water, something that is quite a big problem if you have barely eaten all day. The road is narrow and you have to try and keep to tyre-marks on the road, because there are lots of sharp and nasty pebbles and rocks waiting to send you to your death…. and this is no exaggeration! I was going fine, perhaps a bit faster than I was comfortable with, when all of a sudden I felt a major loss of control of my bike. It took me a few dodgy attempts at braking before I realised my front wheel was punctured.
I can’t fault the company because one minute later one of the guys gave me a spare bike and I was on my way again. For me, it was definitely a big adrenaline rush but the real winner was the scenic views. I had to be careful I was concentrating on the task in hand and not the stunning valleys – below are a couple of photos from the day. It was definitely one of the best things I’ve done so far on my trip, and although £48 is a lot of money all the hassle of organising it is in their hands and you get a snazzy t-shirt telling the world you survived the world’s most dangerous road. I wouldn’t worry too much though because nowadays barely any traffic uses the road, although that’s not to say the steep cliffs and the random waterfalls aren’t a threat to you staying safely on your bike!
After reaching the bottom and having a quick beer, we headed to a hostel in Coroico, which is where I am at the time of writing this. The hostel itself has a naff buffet but it does the job, and there’s a pool which nobody swims in but has plenty of sun-loungers to assist you with your ongoing holiday tan! I have my own room with double bed with en-suite for the equivalent of £4, although there’s no internet, no bottles of water, and no food after 8pm…. here’s hoping that Rurrenabaque is worth the wait 
I am glad you did well with Vertigo Biking. One client of this company, Theodore William Dreyfuss died the past May 9th on the Death Road.
Vertigo was accused by fellow Bolivians of not being in rule according to their regulations.
I think we should respect other country’s law and avoid hiring companies that are not legal.
Comment by Lola Beltran — May 21, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Yes the tour company makes all the difference, I was there when Theo Dreyfus died, I was with the tour group following his group down the path, it wasn’t Theo’s tour company who organized us to bring him out of the valley he ended up in after he went over the ledge and survived the eighty meter drop… Theo’s tour company were too freaked to coordinate the attempted rescue…
I hope the tradgedy sparks some sort of minimum opperating standard that will see a fully equipped ambulance on the Yungas road while tours opperate and a trained rescue responce unit on hand …apparently even if Theo had sustained his injuries in front of a hospital he would have died, fortunatly he went out having an absolute ball!!
Comment by Bernard — May 31, 2009 @ 1:49 am
yeah one of my friends had to go to hospital because he needed stitches on his face – the tour company said he had to wait until everyone else had finished the ride in case they also got hurt!!! But he had to wait while he was bleeding lots and thankfully got there in time.
I don’t think I would do the ride again in a hurry!
Jeni
Comment by admin — June 3, 2009 @ 4:38 am
My name is Pablo Paz and I am the owner of Vertigo Biking, well first I need to tell you that its true the Theodore had the Accident with us that Day, It´s also true that Gravity people helped us that day(They are the oldest and most reputable company in Bolivia and we can´t say bad things about them)and of course everybody took out their rescue equipment, ours was also there, at the end of the day I personally went to 3 or 4 companies giving things back, but It doesn´t mean that we didn´t have ours, but no one is going to say this is mine or this is yours if someone has an accident and it´s in high risk, One more thing that is true is that other guides helped us a lot in this sittuation, also our tourists and other tourists, we did and will do the same thing in sittuations of other companies because I think that if there is Human Being in need everybody should help.
Our company as all of the companies oparating this tour had acccidents, but be sure that we are not here just trying to make some money, our bikes are Haro Bikies and we are recommended in http://www.harobikes.com (American Brand), our security equipment is branded and I am sure no company offers more equipment like us, full face helmets (Brand 661),knee & elbow pads gloves & goggles (brand:thor, Smith & EVS), with this equipment we saved some lifes and people from serious injuries in the past and hopefully we will save more in the future,Our group the day of the accident was of 6 people and we had 2 guides maybe the lowest ratio of tourist per guide in the market, but remember that this is an adventure tour and every tourist goes under their own risk, we give them a bike but we can´t ride for them, so if you get to the end of the tour depends on how do you ride the bike, how do you obey the rules and many other circumstances out of our control (like weather, road maintainance and others)
Sarah: I understand some of your words, You may had an awful day, so do I and of course our guides and personal and the people that was there, but I have to say that it´s not true that we are not legal and it´s not true that our guides didn´t do their best effort to help according to their trainment (as everyone) and please write me an e-mail to pablo@vertigobiking.com and I can send you a scanned copy of our papers if you keep in Doubt and please consider my point.
There are more than 26 deaths in the death road Tour, this was our first fatal accident(hopefully the lat for us and for anyone) and think that there are other 25 deaths (Reported),this could happen to any company (This happened to Us, To Gravity and to others), and many bad competitors are using this and used the deaths of others as advertisment, I don´t think that this is correct because a person died and I think nobody must get a profit from this.
Well Finally I have to say that we wont hide this sad accident to anyone, and in 1 year and few months we are operating we are getting more experience and we are learning some things from the big ones (Gravity) and improoving things not only for us but for every rider on the death road, I say this because I had a meeting with the owner of Gravity and we will begin together (with some other agencies that may want to) a Project to get some more equipment and facilities for common use like an ambulance and an inmediate rescue center and Inmediate medical assitance center nearby the road (Theodores father will also assit us in this purpose)
My guides cryed and suffered this sittuation, they are people puting their lifes in risk every day to make our Tourists have a nice and safe day, but they are not gods and they are not supermen, so please don´t judge people.
My guides, my personal and me went to the place of the accident on tuesday 12 and we left a memorial and flowers for Theodore, we prayed for him and for this not to happen again to anyone, and I will take this chance to say Thanks to Gravity Staff, To some people of B-side staff, to Chacaltaya Staff and to all the people helping us that day specially to the guy in yellow that as many bolivians gets a very low salary to give some mainteinance to the road but with his Machete in hand he entered to the cliff and opened a path in middle of the trees to help on the rescue.
“Theodore you will be in our hearts and in our minds for ever.”
Comment by PABLO PAZ — June 3, 2009 @ 7:40 pm
Good on you Pablo, your a good man, please keep persisting with the ambulances and rescue team ideas, I’m positive that you guys can make it happen together. Im so happy that the tradgedy is going to create something positive I wish you and your company all the best . Riding down that road gave me one of the best days of my life, and also one of the saddest. The road commands respect, concentration and skill if you want to go hard. Accidents will not go away from death road but dealing with them can always improve. Your 100% right Theo will be in our hearts and minds forever. Cheers mate!
Comment by Bernard — June 5, 2009 @ 3:21 am
I went with Vertigo when I did the ride and thought you guys were awesome. Mercelo was my guide and was great. I think riders only fall off due to carelessness as if you follow the instructions properly then you’ll do fine. I heard from different reliable sources weeks after the rider had fallen that it was due to him blacking out while riding after partying all night mixed in with the increased altitude. Its sad no matter what and I mean no disrespect but the road should always be taken seriuosly without thinking you are invincible.
Comment by Marx — December 28, 2009 @ 7:56 am
Hi Pablo,
A pair of days ago I saw in FB the Theodore William Dreyfuss cause… and I am so sorry about.
In October 2009, I had the most beautiful biking moments in my life in the “death road”, but I was riding my bike in the opposite direction-from Yolosa to La Cumbre (70 great K).
When I was going up I could see varios groups going down and I could realize that all travel agencies do their best to “have the party in peace”, but there are some tourists that take this opportunity of being in the middle of nature as a moment of irresponsibility… some of them do not follow guides instructions.
By the other hand, when I was going in the vehicle to Yolosa I could see one accident with a foreigner friend that hear somebody was calling him and just one second of looking behind and he fall down from his mbk. I do not konw which agency was that buy the driver and assistants were so nervous and they decided to return to La Paz instead of continuning to Coroico where I know there is a good hospital. In that ocassion our friend was injured in the face but not with life risk. Everybody helped.
It is a good idea to join forces and work hard as you say, whith the main adventure travel agencies, in a common project whith the characteristics you mentioned in your text.
I think it will be interesting to ask for a kind of examination or test to the tourists before the downhill journey. Some persons are irresposible with themselves and do not take seriously the risk they are enteryng while they are in the death road.
Keep offering this beautiful experience. I see you guys on September 2010… the same road the same direction Yolosa-La Cumbre.
My respects fo Theodore and family.
GM Santa Cruz-Bolivia
Comment by Gina Muñoz — January 3, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
[...] Mountain-biked down the world’s deadliest road near La Paz, [...]
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