Deadliest Roads | Bolivia: Yungas Clouds | Free Documentary

foreigner foreigner the city clings to the mountains every year it gets bigger it won't be long until it completely covers the peaks in La Paz the highest capital in the world 1,000 meters of altitude separate the rich and the poor the poorest neighborhoods are located at the top of four thousand meters high where the air is scarce, on average it takes people a day to acclimatize to this lack of oxygen, except, of course, experienced mountain women like María Don Carlos, the foreigner Quincena María comes to La Paz to stock up on products for her grocery store in the mountain division a foreign grocer loads two tons of products into the truck on his own uh foreigner sticks out like a sore thumb in Bolivia she is one of the few women who drives in the mountains and some men make She feels like she doesn't belong in a foreign country, and yet this shopkeeper could teach these men a thing or two about driving abroad.

Bolivia is a rapidly developing country that continues to grow thanks to economic reforms. The government has never been so rich no matter how many

roads

there are. Even in Dire Straits, part of the blame lies with the various dictatorships that over the years have delayed the country's growth. It takes courage to travel. Bolivia is home to some of the most dangerous

roads

on the planet, as well as making a living. Maria provides assistance. In isolated villages this poverty is widespread in the mountains. Lourdes also fights to take care of the gold miners, but going to the mines is a risk in itself.

Lourdes warns women about the dangers of pollution linked to metal extraction. precious foreigners due to these mines and loggers the environment is suffering this ecological attack is partly responsible for the disasters that are devastating the country in the Andes life is a constant struggle that Bolivians face every day María returns to her town the The back of his truck is loaded with merchandise as he slowly climbs the Andes Mountains, the road disappears into the

clouds

, okay, it's a good time to take out the rum and make an offering, it's the best way to earn good favor. of the foreign highland gods on the side of the roads the tombstones of Travelers who hastened remind us that it is better to be safe than sorry this accident just happened the fall was vertiginous behind here is the Road of Death there are several deadly roads in Bolivia before to undertake hers María is taking some precautions when the brake pads overheat the braking distance is considerably longer it is better to let them cool and take the opportunity to tighten the nuts and bolts so as not to lose a wheel on bumpy roads María has learned to fend for herself by herself María already abandons the asphalt take the dirt roads that lead to her town 62 miles through a sharp cliff foreign foreign foreign Maria is leaving the Andes and it is relatively cool and dry for the young Bolivians where the climate is completely different a gateway to the Amazon for young people a suffocating cocktail of heat and humidity and it rains almost all year round thank you very much because they are soft exteriors all this water not only damages the roads it also weakens the slopes between November and March the

clouds

of the Andes collide with the hot air from the Amazon this causes torrential rains and wreaks havoc on the youngest people it has caused hundreds of landslides abroad this is one of the

deadliest

a witness captured the disaster on film in March 2019 the first landslide of dirt on this road caused the entire track to disappear when The survivors crossed on foot The Earth begins to move again Stranger The lives of 70 people that day The travelers are not the only victims The inhabitants of the youngest also live in fear of let their homes be razed Foreigners Those who can afford it leave the region The rest watch as our life's work gradually disappears because the mountain does not always collapse at once every rainy season Venice sees its field of fruit trees grow by several dozen of meters at this rate the earth will surely have swallowed his house next year foreigner the Bolivian The state maintains the roads as much as it can, however, it is impossible to strengthen the several hundred kilometers of rock walls that rise above the roads.

Well, Lourdes takes this route regularly. A few days ago, the road was closed by the highest floods in the The mountains temperatures have increased the snow has melted and the streams have become Foreign foreign rivers travel to the tipuani gold mines 162 miles through the man of Yonkers desire for riches is proving to be catastrophic for the environment around the world forests and rivers are being destroyed in To extract precious metals from them, the foreign ER Gold Miner has created an organization that supports women who work in the mines . He tries to convince them to abandon this profession that will never make them rich and, more importantly, we will leave them in a very precarious situation the foreigner is forced to change taxis yourself on this part of the route only four by four They have a chance of passing safely while it seems that the clouds have decided to do without them.

Today the road has an unpleasant surprise in store for them. Dozens of cars have been blocked by this truck. A driver risks towing it. It is a dangerous operation. The truck is stuck right in In the middle of an uphill curve there is a danger of falling into the ditch thanks. Travelers wait patiently, no one dares to complain, drivers know to be humble, they could be the next to get stuck after three long hours of waiting. Lourdes is on the road again without realizing that the weather will not be as mild in tipuani in recent years, severe weather.

The change has made traveling to Bolivia problematic. The country is a hotbed of extreme weather events in 2015. The country's second largest lake disappeared, drying up forever while other regions suffered devastating floods. Global warming is partly to blame, but it is exacerbated by deforestation. Amazonia, the vast rainforest covers about 40 percent of Bolivia. Thank you, these loggers work legally, but they are causing a lot of damage to the forest in order to reach the best trees, they destroy everything in their path in just two hours, they formed a path that is half a mile long, okay, Luis is an indigenous person of the Turkana tribe.

Wood is an essential source of income for his community. Every day he sees the results of this plundering of the Reckless Forest. The circumference of this tree is larger than Lewis is capable of. Fortunately for him, the tree. He plans to cut it down, but not for long, from the foreigner with her offerings. The indigenous people ask Pakamama, the goddess of the earth, for her blessing to cut down the tree. Good, necessary, foreigner. I don't know much. It only takes 20 minutes to cut down this tree. tree that took more than a hundred years to grow the century-old tree will sell for about 500.

The main culprits of the deforestation of the Amazon are not independent loggers like Luis but illegal loggers and large landowners who are constantly expanding their farmland by logging the forest 865,000 acres disappear every year, which is equivalent to 53,200,000 football fields abroad the shopkeeper continues her journey with her truck full of goods this is her tenth hour behind the wheel fatigue has set in and the road is not being kind to her foreigner these dilapidated roads are a tough test for drivers, but others have found a way to make money with them as a means of survival thanks to the families, the two girls aged 5 and 13 take up the shovel as soon as as they finish school and are far from the only ones many little hands are working along this road their families work a little further up the field fathers mothers and grandparents harvest most of their food wow, that would be how I feel some writing, yes families sell leftover potatoes to Maria after 15 hours and 175 miles on the road, the shopkeeper finally arrived in town, he only slept a few hours, but Maria is already abroad if it weren't for Maria's grocery store. store the 300 inhabitants of the town would be forced to drive for hours just to pick up accessories for school books or even birthday gifts the store has everything the locals need foreign tequila Indiana um thanks to the coca leaf trade the couple was able to open their grocery store María and Juan live far from everything but are a fairly modern couple in Bolivia the women don't really have a say in family matters, they often remain confined to household chores unlike many men Juan is very proud of see his wife working abroad The couple has not forgotten their years of hardship growing coca in the villages of a remote village in the mountains.

A very strong bond unites them, which is why they take risks on the journey to bring back supplies. No road stands in Maria's way, but there are still some parts where she prefers to leave the driving to her husband, who is a foreigner. There have been traffic accidents on this road, none have been fatal, but enough to send cars to the scrapheap. Getting to this town is always a risky undertaking for the couple. traveling abroad on the main roads is just as risky there are thousands of potholes, some the size of swimming pools The trips are extremely exhausting Lourdes knows everything that she is heading to tipuani, the city of gold, and that she has to change taxis for the third time because to a landslide that blocked the road when he arrived here part of the city is under water it has been raining almost continuously for days Jesús Lourdes is in tipuani to meet some gold miners with his organization he tries to persuade them to leave this work that keeps them in poverty due to the floods some families have left the city the retired miner heads to the banks of the river despite the risks of flooding she knows that there will be women working there it is a matter of survival on the road the sites They are terrifying.

The large industrial mines that share the best deposits are taking slices from the hill as if it were a foreign foreign pie. There is not much left to exploit on this side of the river. The miners are happy to find the smallest speck of gold. Maria is 38 years old and He has worked here for five years struggling to feed his two children the best these coca leaves help forget hunger most of these poor miners work on the other side of the river bank they have a better chance of discovering gold there but at a cost it is twice as risky yesterday the greatest danger is not this rickety cable tram the bank is located under an industrial mine the families were searching through their waste in the hope that there was still some precious metal left that would risk their lives for a speck of dust from gold, the problem is the discharge of water from the mine every day that poisons another gold miner and his food.

Mercury plus companies, unless you are equipped with full protective equipment, you will be exposed to the poison. Companies use mercury to separate the precious metal from the earth. The gold adheres to it and forms an amalgam that is easy to recover from the bottom of a tank, except that the liquid metal is a scourge for the environment, it leaches into everything foreign, such is the case of these two teenagers and It was a damn family despite the ever present fear that hangs over their heads, the families continue Digging the earth with an unwavering face laughs Lourdes and her small Association do not have the power to lift these families out of poverty but the former gold miner hopes that one day it will succeed in prohibiting the use of mercury and gold mines.

Maria the merchant and her husband have no association, but their battle is equally commendable. Both risk embarking on a chaotic journey to rescue a town from isolation with their mobile store. They save residents the ordeal of walking for hours through the mountains, except for the couple, it's far from a walk in the foreign foreign park and three hours later Maria and her husband can finally start unpacking no, I'm gay um , what's happening? The couple does not do this for money in the mountains, there is practically no such thing as earning a profit that almost no one can afford to put food on the table s foreigners today in Bolivia these brave women like María and Lourdes are

free

ing themselves from the old patriarchal system considered unthinkable until a few years ago, they are becoming increasingly involved in politics in society and in the fight for the environment, Bolivian women have shown that their place is firmly rooted in society just like foreign foreign men.