As extreme mountain bikers can attest, the roughest roads usually make for the best rides. Which means that if you can find the most dangerous road in the Western Hemisphere...you should be in for quite an afternoon.
 
Just make your way to La Paz, Bolivia, and ask about a particular byway called "the Bolivian Death Road", or as the locals say the Yungas Road.   It runs up through the northwestern peaks, around some extremely slippery hillsides, and then back down into the jungle. All told, it's 40 miles of treachorously winding dirt road, prone to summer dust storms, impenetrable fog and the occasional catastrophic landslide, shared by nervous truck drivers and exceedingly brave bicyclists.
 
Usually by way of support vehicle you scale 1000 vertical meters to the top, then you'll have to rely on your skills, strength and guts dropping back down another 3,600 meters, through hairpin turns and a hillside road that's only ten feet wide in places. If you come across a car, take heed: on the Yungas, Bolivians drive on the left (unlike everywhere else), so that when they're on the cliff side, they can lean out the driver door to judge how much room they have. It's a good thing to know before you face off against one. Also, luckily for bikers, the downhill traveler always has the right of way
 
The dangers are very real, so you'll want a guide who knows what they're doing. We suggest Gravity Bolivia, who are good enough to have only lost a single biker in more than a decade of operation. (Like we said, it's a tough road.) But even they won't run during the rainy season, which lasts until March, so you'll have a few months to work on your downhill.
 
And if you have any doubts in the meantime...you should probably stick to the beach.

Gravity Bolivia

Av. 16 de Julio #1490

Edificio Avenida, PB, of#10

La Paz, Bolivia

Tel: (591) 2 231-3849