Traveling On The World’s Most Dangerous Road

This is insane. How can you put a sign like death road? Look at how tiny that car is and it's barely fitting in the road. This is not the worst part. A few months ago our friends from Beautiful Destinations got challenged by the United Nations to attempt to create the first ever sustainable travel checklist. A simple list of things that can be done as a means of limiting our carbon footprint as we travel. They forwarded the challenge on to us and asked us if we want to tag along on their next trip. It could actually be one of the most exciting that we've ever done. And naturally we said yes. Even though we feel guilty sometimes for flying so much to film our different adventures around the world, we do our best to minimize the damage by carbon offsetting all our flights. And we also believe that traveling to countries that are less visited to can be of benefit in some cases. There's a link to an article in the description that explains how it can actually boost economies which eventually facilitates environmental conservation, animal protection, and local education. And so we thought why don't we tag along on this opportunity to work with Beautiful Destinations and the United Nations to educate ourselves and potentially showcase a few easy things that can be done for those who want to be more mindful when they travel. For this challenge we decided to travel to Bolivia, one of the least visited countries in South America. And unbeknownst to most, one of the most beautiful and biodiverse countries in the world. Look at this view. But it also has something else that stood out to us when we researched it. Oh my god. The most dangerous road in the world. This 50 mile long stretch of dirt road has an elevation of 600 meters from the bottom of the canyon and with fog and no guardrail, some 200 to 300 people die on it every year. So with a full itinerary planned for three days in Bolivia, ending with the adrenaline of the most dangerous road, we were ready to explore Bolivia. Wow. Alright, it's time for this trip to really get started. Squad going out. What's the destination? We're going to the Valley of the Moon. What's your name? Catch you later, bro. Oh, what a loser. Nah, we're homies. We are at the Valley of the Moon, beginning our journey of exploration in Bolivia. So we're gonna be following along with these guys and just along the way trying to take all the boxes of making sure that we are as carbon neutral while we're here as possible. And I think we should maybe start with the reef safe sunscreen. This is not really necessary in this situation because we're not going diving, but a huge part of what's destroying the coral reefs is that people hop in the water with sunscreen that has a lot of chemicals. So by buying reef safe sunscreen, you can actually be a lot more mindful of wildlife in the ocean. There you go. Nobody else is feeling the altitude, right? You doing alright, buddy? Yeah, we're good. Does my voice sound different? I did not bring the... I did not get the memo that we were gonna freaking hike. And very, very little sleep. It turns into a specific form of insanity that I like to call... You have no name for it? Do you even speak English? Did you grow up in the U.S.A.? Good comeback, dude. Great comeback. Great job. You make fun of me one more time in front of my f***ing audience? Yeah, you know what I'll do. We are wimps. We've climbed the mountains of Poland in negative 20 degree weather, but when you really get up high in altitude, it affects you so much more. Dude, nobody cares. Stop complaining. Okay, so we are at one of the main local markets in La Paz. And it's everything from fruits, dresses. They literally have anything you could ask for. So on our way to the world's most dangerous road, we wanted to get some snacks. So luckily, I have this container and we're gonna fill it up. Some cranberries, pistachios, some of this. I don't even know what this is. What is this? This is like fried peanuts. All right, we're gonna buy some ponchos. What color are we feeling? I think I'm feeling the blue. What, dude? What? Your turn. I like that one. Oh, what? That one is sick. Yeah, it looks great. Perfecto. You look like you're supporting a great cause. Great cause? I mean, you gotta match the colors, right? Muchas gracias. Yeah. Where the hell are we? We are at the salt flats! Poncho life! What's going on here, Tom? We're doing a shoot for the Bamboo Cutlery to show some sustainable travel. So we've got a pretty cool setup here. Doing like a crane shot from above. Wearing a different poncho in each location. Different setup, a table, different location. Nobody cares! Wait, wait, wait! That is around us right now, all this salt flat, used to be a lake. And these used to be the islands on the lake. And now, obviously you can get to them by car or by foot. Apparently, according to our guidance, this is the flattest place on earth. Which means, your shadows at sunset, can go about a mile long. Freaking crazy, man! The day has come. We are about to embark our journey towards the most dangerous road in the world. Apparently 300 people die on this road a year. I think we're about to embark on a pretty gnarly journey today. You don't know this driver? I don't know him. I'm about to ask for his name. Okay so it's 5 30 in the morning. What we didn't realize before starting this trip was that we were going to be driving an eight passenger van. This is literally our vehicle and they're like yeah that's the car we're going in. You're just like what? The freaking bus? I mean it'll take up the majority of the road. One little wrong maneuver and we're just completely ruined. So where are we exactly Anderson? It's called La Cumbre. So we are 4,600 meters. From here we're going to go down all the way to 1,500 meters. This is nearly the size of Mount Kilimanjaro. Tom do you know if Joe is joining us? If who? Joe. Who's Joe? Tell mama. Tell mama. We got him. All right this is uh this is our driver taking us on the road. How safe is the road according to him? He says it's just one one lane so it can be very dangerous. No it's good. I drive there all the time. No problem. He's used to it so. I don't know if I'm like if I would feel more confident. No I wouldn't feel more confident driving it myself. It's just the dude you know it's just there's a guy. I don't even have a seat belt right now. I don't think a seat belt is going to help us with dramatic falls on the road. At least when we buckle in for our death. Shut up Tom. The driver is like super aggressive. He just went crazy and he's like skipping past all the cars and you can't even see like five meters in front of him. There's so much fog. Our driver apparently had eight coffees this morning. He's in a rush. Yep this is the actual beginning. Oh wow. Oh wow this is insane. I thought we were all death road but how can you put a sign like death road? So that is the road. How in the world is our truck going to fit? Look at how tiny that car is and it's barely fitting in the road. This is not the worst part. This is a two lane parking. This is two lanes? Car coming guys. Wow holy Whipping. This is stupid. Really? Stupid. Yeah he's got beautiful hair. It's in his pelo. Oh my god dude. All right we are now walking on the death road. This is supposed to fit two cars. It fits two humans. If I lie down I would like be almost the length of this. Lie down. Wow. My god. Yeah 2010. Someone's memorial. Look how close this freaking thing is. That is the edge. Ladies and gentlemen we have survived the world's most dangerous road. Jake was scared for his life. We almost went off the road like a couple times but we're good. We're good. So we've arrived at La Senda Verde and it's an animal sanctuary. It's an eco lodge run by locals here and we're going to be staying here for the night. So here actually the humans are in cages and the animals are on the outside so we're like the zoo for the animals and so animals are actually able roam wherever they want. There's no like border for them to go but this is where they feel safe and nurtured. Where is he going? Whoa. Oh my god that is so beautiful. I freaked out. Oh he's coming. T-Buggy and I have gotten put in a tree house for the night. It's in the middle of this entire jungle through this little path. This is our neighbor for the day and for the evening. Welcome to our new uh our new abode. It's in the middle of this entire jungle. We're just surrounded by nature and animals and they can literally just hop up on this porch and just hang out. We just got woken up by this guy. She was jumping on top of the roof. We're buying bamboo cuddlery. This is going to be a super useful kit whenever we travel. It's all local. It's all locally produced and all the funds go to helping this animal sanctuary. It's a great way to have an impact on the local communities. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah we felt so welcomed and so happy to leave with this an amazing experience. Thanks for helping us with that. Can people volunteer here? Yes, yes people can volunteer here. This is a great place to volunteer. It will change your life and then you can spread word about the animals, the planet and what we can do to help the new generations to survive. Thank you very much. Awesome. After a few days in Bolivia we were enchanted by this country. The biodiversity, welcoming culture and having survived the stupid decision of driving down the world's most dangerous road left us feeling rejuvenated and hungry to travel more. At the end of the day we're not the people to turn to for flawless environmental wisdom. But after spending a whole trip actively seeking ways to lower our carbon footprint it left a mark on us that trickled over into our daily lives. It can be intimidating to start assessing your own carbon footprint and it might take a bit of time to get it right. Nothing is stopping us from taking just a few steps in the right direction so that we can collectively preserve our planet. Going on this trip with our friends from Beautiful Destinations was incredible and we're excited to travel with them again soon. There's a link to a much more extensive sustainable travel checklist in the description below if you're interested to learn more and we'll see you next week.