Thursday, January 23, 2014

Road Of DEATH !!






"Road of the death" as obvious from the name is the most dangerous road in the world. Located in the Yungus region of Bolivia. It is a 61km road connecting yungus region to the capital city. It was termed as the most dangerous road of the world by the Inter American Development Bank for its extream danger. Every year thousands of people looses their life on this road.

The largely single line road has no guard rails. Most of the road's width is of a single car with small passages at quite distance so that the other car can cross. During the winter season rain and fog makes quite much difficulty for the driver and in summer rockfalls are common and vehicle dust limits visibility as well. 
One the Local road rules specify that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outerside to give space to the vehicle coming upside. 

The danger of the road made it a popular tour destination drawing some 25000 thrill seekers including a number of Mountain bike lovers due to 64km of continous downhill track with only one short uphill section. There are so many tour operators catering to this activity, providing information, guides, equipments etc. Atleast 18 cyclists have been died so far.


The road was built in 1930 during the Chaco war by Paraguayan prisoners. The Yungus road was modernized during a 20 years period included the enlarging the carriageway from one to two lanes and building a new section from Chusquipata to Yolosa with  mutliple lanes, pavement, guard rails and many other equipments that make it considerably more safer than the old path. The original yungus road is currently much less used by traffic, although an increasing number of adventure travelers bike it for thrills.

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