Backpacker dies in Bolivian 'Death Road'

28-year-old Israeli woman falls from path's cliff during guided bicycle tour.

By BEN HARTMAN
death road 311 (photo credit: .)
death road 311
(photo credit: .)
Ela Dan, 28, from Even Yehuda fell to her death during a bicycle tour of Bolivia’s “Road of Death” on Thursday.
At some point during the ride, she is believed to have become separated from the other riders, and she fell off a cliff in a thick fog.
The Israeli Embassy in Lima and Israel’s honorary consul in Bolivia are organizing the transfer of the woman’s body to Israel. The Foreign Ministry notified Dan’s family of her death. She leaves behind her parents and two sisters.
The accident happened four months after Dan, a graduate of Tel Aviv University, began her trip to South America, where she also visited Chile and Argentina. She was set to return in a month.
The Yungas Road, or the “Road of Death,” is on a very steep incline and is extremely dangerous. Numerous travelers have died along the road in the past.
In November, 23-year-old Rosh Pina resident Omri Lahad’s body was found by locals in a rural village in Peru, after he set off to travel the jungles of the Amazon River basin south to Bolivia. He had reportedly died of a snake bite.
In February 2008, 11 people, including five Israelis, were killed in a head-on collision in Bolivia’s Salt Desert. The Israelis were named as Ortal Ducas, Sivan Budnizky, Daniel Atzmon and Adi Roseman – all childhood friends from Haifa – and Tel Aviv resident Liran Mizrachi.