|
The road to Yungas, referred to as the “road of death”, joins the Bolivian Amazon to the capital city of La Paz. A frightful incline, a drop-off of 3,000 meters for a distance of more than thirty kilometers, the trek is Dantesque, the precipices impressive, and danger imminent. On average, 26 vehicles plummet into the void each year!
The voyage begins with an unforgettable panorama of the Bolivian capital from the La Cumbre Pass, rising to an altitude of 4,800 meters. Travelers stop at this culminating height to make offerings to Pachamama, the spirit of the ancestors who inhabit the summits.
The descent from here is dizzying: The three-meter-wide gravel path prohibits the passage of approaching vehicles. Trucks loaded with coffee or cocoa leaves must maneuver at the threshold of the void so to park in miniscule refuges.
The direction of traffic here has been reversed in hopes that drivers on the right side of the road might better see the slope’s edge.
This mythical road is also a plunge into the depths of the country: Here one passes cocoa producers, those in search of gold, trout fishermen, and special anti-drug units of the Bolivian police. Peasants set up camp alongside the road so to sell goods to travelers and unemployed miners direct traffic on the most dangerous stretches of the route. For Bolivians, “El camino del Yugas” is more than a road, it is a world in itself. For more than 20 years, the state has tried to build a more modern alternative to this road, opening this economically important region. But nature resists, and the construction seems endless …
|
