The time to depart for home was drawing imminent. Based in La Paz, I had one full day to fill in – what to do?
The answer: hire a taxi and take a ride across Cordillera Real to the Amazon basin.
It isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds, but looking back at this photo of the road we travelled, I wonder … for 30 km it wound down the mountainside unsealed, with no safety barriers and just a single vehicle width.
The passing bays (evident in the photo) are on the outer part of the bends. It is reputed that an average of one life is lost per week over the edge … I survived to tell the tale.
Until recently, this was the main road from La Paz into the Amazon basin.