North Yungas Road

In the 1930s, during the brutal Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay, captured Paraguayan prisoners were forced to carve a road through some of the world’s most unforgiving terrain. Working with hand tools on sheer cliff faces, many perished creating what would become Bolivia’s lifeline connecting La Paz to the Amazon lowlands. The road they built was barely wide enough for a single vehicle—just 3.2 meters at its narrowest—with no guardrails protecting travelers from drops exceeding 600 meters into the jungle below.

For decades, this was the only route from the capital to the Yungas region, and the death toll was staggering. Before a modern bypass opened in 2006, an estimated 200 to 300 people died here annually—buses, trucks, and cars tumbling into the abyss with terrifying regularity. In July 1983, a single accident claimed over 100 lives when an overcrowded bus plunged into the canyon at a curve ominously named ‘Devil’s Curve.’ In 1995, the Inter-American Development Bank officially declared it the world’s most dangerous road, cementing its dark reputation in history.