A BBC article describes an extremely dangerous fifty mile stretch of road in Bolivia that kills 200 to 300 people each year.
But climb it does - just short of a lung-sapping five kilometres (three miles) above sea level, where even the internal combustion engine is forced to toil and splutter.
Then it pauses for a while on the snow-flecked crest of the Andes before pitching - like a giant white knuckle ride - into the abyss.
The road from Bolivia's main city, La Paz, to a region known as the Yungas was built by Paraguayan prisoners of war back in the 1930s.
Many of them perished in the effort. Now it is mainly Bolivians who die on the road - in their thousands.
There are even crosses along the road to mark locations where fatal accidents have occured. Mobile phones don't work on the road and if you get scared and stop for the night a flash flood could wash you away as you sleep -- apparently this has happened to truckers. Sounds like a stretch of road to avoid at all costs.
