I’ve been sick the past couple days and have been watching way too much poor quality TV.  However, I did manage to find a great Discovery Channel show about the Camino de la Muerte (the Road of Death) that runs from La Paz, Bolivia, to a height of 15,000 feet and then downhill into the Yungas region of Bolivia.  In 1995, the Inter-American Development Bank listed the road as the most dangerous road in the world, with an average of 100 – 300 deaths a year (various sites were reporting differing averages). This page has a large number of pictures of the road.

Based on the Discovery Channel show, I can see why it’s dangerous, but I have to say it was hard to take the driver/narrator of the show seriously when he indicated being frightened.  After all, it is a flat road, albeit with a steep drop off to one side.  Just drive slowly and you’ll be fine. I guess I’ve been on enough hair raising, difficult jeep trails that I find it hard to take the ‘fear’ portion of the road of death seriously.

That said, if I ever do my round-the-world jeep trip, it will be high on my list of must visit roads.

Below is an image that was part of an article about Bolivia, however a reader named Allen identified it from a Warn Winch Ad, as seen on this page.  It was taken on a formerly narrow section of the Black Bear Pass Road.