Yungas Road, also known as “Death Road” or the “Most Dangerous” definitely lived up that name for me.
The Yungas Road begins around 4,600m above sea-level firmly in the Andes, and finishes around 1,100m in the jungles. Called “Death Road” because of the amount of sacrifice took to built it, and the “Most Dangerous” Road due to averaging around 300 deaths a year before 2006.
It has also become a popular tourist attraction and I chose to partake. About 20kms down the road, going at a high rate of speed, I lost control of my bike and wiped out. I lost consciousness and when I came to, it seemed everything hurt.
I was transported to a clinic, and much to my regret (since I didn’t buy traveler’s insurance) was forced to pay for all the procedure’s out of pocket, something that ran me around 800USD due to the CATScans performed (in contrast traveler’s insurance is about 20$ per day).
While my CATScans did not show any broken bones to the collarbone, ribs, or vertebrae (thank God), an X-Ray did show my left-thumb was broken. Not wanting to pay another 5,000 USD for a surgery, I elected to go back to the USA and find out. Also, my left shoulder blade is killing me and I suspect I tore my rotator cuff since my shoulder briefly dislocated while taking off my shirt.
These severely is ruining my stated goal of traveling. We shall see what happens when I get back to Miami for medical treatment.
Me in my hotel and X-ray:
Pictures I managed to take before the crash:
Pictures taken of the group (by the organizers, both before and after my crash):
