Deadliest Roads | Bolivia: Yungas Clouds

In the high mountains of the Bolivian Andean cordillera, two courageous women risk their lives by traveling some of the most dangerous roads in the country. The documentary “The Grocer and the Goldminer” tells their story.

Maria, a grocer, is one of the rare women in Bolivia who dares to take on the trails that are lost in the clouds. She is an ace at the wheel and as brave as they come, well worthy of the wages of fear, as she risks the trip along the dizzy heights of the ravines. But her journey is not over once she reaches her village. She then takes her mobile store to remote villages to bring assistance to the residents, who walk for an hour through the mountains for a few errands.

Lourdes ventures along one of the most notorious of the “Roads of Death” to bring help to the women who dig for gold. The situation is dire– whole families work in waters that are highly polluted with mercury, slowly killing them. Lourdes tries to persuade them to give up this trade, which will never make them rich.

The road leading to the mines is a way of the cross, with broken-down In the high mountains of the Bolivian Andean cordillera, two courageous women risk their lives by traveling and landslides regularly cutting off the route. Rain falls incessantly, and the weakened mountain sides collapse, carrying houses and roads in their passage. Bolivia, because of global warming, is suffering from extreme climatic phenomena. The fault partly lies with the loggers, who, little by little, are killing the Amazon forest.

The brave women of this documentary may be risking their lives daily, but they do so in the name of helping their fellow man and making the world a better place. If you’re interested in learning more about their journey, be sure to watch “The Grocer and the Goldminer”.