Forget Bolivia’s Death Road – Drive the PE-3N in Peru!

Our headline might sound sensationalist, but did you know that the oh-so famous ‘Death Road’ in Bolivia has been reduced to a tourist attraction? There’s a newly built road in place which takes all non-tourist traffic. As a result, the old road is now mostly used by organised bicycle and motorbike tours. On top of it you now pay an entrance fee for the thrill. Its reputation came from the fact that it used to be a busy two-way road and, in many places, was too narrow for trucks or buses to pass each other…

To have the real nerve-wracking experience of regular traffic on a road that is too narrow, with plenty switch-backs, steep drops, landslides, broken-off edges, and crazy drivers, you should drive the PE-3N from Huaraz to Huánuco in Peru. Seriously!

This was by no means the steepest drop along the PE-3N. The region is actually fairly densely forested, mostly with Eucalypt, so often Yasha couldn’t photograph for all the trees…

We actually didn’t expect it to be quite that bad. Yet, in hindsight, we’re happy that it’s over and that we made it – without an accident. When we arrived in Huánuco on Friday afternoon, all I was only capable of opening a beer and lying flat on the bed…

From its number, PE-3 (the N stands for ‘north’), this should be one of Peru’s main highways. If you look on the map you can see that it is; it runs almost the full length of the country from north to south, inland through the mountains. Yet most commercial traffic feeds from the mountains down to the Panamerican Highway, Peru’s main road along the coast. The PE-3 seems to have become a ‘forgotten’ secondary road, of lesser importance.

Actually, we have experienced the PE-3 once before, but it hadn’t really connected in our minds. We drove part of the PE-3S on our way from Ayacucho to Huancayo . This was also a very narrow road, single lane in some sections, but at least the majority of it was sealed – albeit with big potholes. That drive felt much easier because a) we were driving with mountains always on our side, b) the drops weren’t anywhere near as scary, c) it was at least wide enough for semi-trailers to crawl along, and d) the region wasn’t as densely populated and therefore had much less traffic.

Okay, let me get to the PE-3N. We met up with this road coming from Barranca at the coast. At first we had to get into the mountains driving up the PE-16, which had been closed for several days due to heavy flood damage. On the way up we had to skirt some fresh landslides – but nothing major. It’s in Conococha where you meet up with the PE-3N. At that point, it comes down from the north (via Huaraz) and veers inland.

It’s 244 kilometres from Conococha to Huanuco, of which the first 70 kilometres are actually really good road. You go over one pass of roughly 4,700 metres (Abra Yanashalla) with a really unique looking extinct volcano behind it. Ten kilometres later the nice, smooth road continues to the left (as PE-111) and you have to take the fork to the right.

Well, we had read that some people complained about this section of PE-3N. Yes, it was narrow, with no room for a centre line. But, apart from some deep potholes, it didn’t look too bad. Early that afternoon we came past a deserted quarry and decided to stay for the night. It was a few kilometres before La Unión – from there onwards our GPS shows a road of lower standard.

Day 1: we had driven 115km, 70 of which were on the PE-3N, and stopped early.

Please click thumbnails below for a larger photo with description.

This is what the first 70 kilometres or so of the PE-3N looked like. No indication that it would deteriorate so drastically…

Looking down into a valley of green fields. I assume this is the village of Aquia.

I spotted this amazing rock face from far away – but the ‘face’ became only clear when we were closer.

The still sealed PE-3N winding its way down the mountain pass ‘Abra Yanashalla’ (4700 metres)

Some potholes, but mostly asphalt on our first narrow section of the PE-3N.

No asphalt left here, but I guess this very narrow gorge had been flooded.

Apart from the fact that the road through the town of La Unión was in a terrible state, the next day we couldn’t see that much difference – at first. There was still asphalt, but the number of potholes increased gradually – until there were more holes than asphalt. But, according to our GPS map, this was only meant to last until Tingo Chico – some 30 kilometres.

In reality, from Tingo Chico onward the road got worse, much worse. We were going slowly uphill and had reached nearly 3,500m, with no place to pull off the narrow road. So we decided to drive into the town of Chavinillo, and stayed overnight right at their small square – the only flat bit we could find.

It was mid-afternoon. This region isn’t used to tourists, and thus we attracted quite a crowd. First only kids, later also some adults who asked us questions.

Day 2: we had driven 71km, took a longer lunch break, and averaged 20 kilometres per hour.

Please click thumbnails below for a larger photo with description.

Green fields along the PE-3N, after we passed through the town of La Union.

We discovered some mobile data and pulled off at this spot for an extended lunch break. In between I watched Hummingbirds in the yucca flowers.

It would have been a smooth ride if all gravel sections were in this condition. Down in the bend comes the next bumpy water crossing.

You sometimes don’t really want to know what the edge of the road looks like – best to simply stay away from it!

Scary: that culvert is pretty much hanging in the air – with the road surface above it. Glad our Berta is so ‘light’…

After Tingo Chico the road became much more potholed. The mud up the walls shows how often it has been very wet.

Water often comes gushing down the slopes, hitting the road, and creating a muddy wet mess.

One of the many, recently cleared mud slides.

One of the ‘trustworthy’ bridges which connects to small villages on the other side of the river.

The raging river slowly eats away at the road edge.

Here a landslide (from the right) dammed up the river, which consequently washed across the road and made a soggy mess.

These are the wash-outs you have to look out for! Often the top layer is hanging freely in the air – with nothing much underneath.

We are always amazed by the small green patchwork fields in the Andes. Most can only be worked by hand – at 4,000 metres, no easy task.

It probably rained all night. At least, every time I woke up I heard rain. The next morning, after a slow start (we don’t sleep that well at altitude), we came back to a mostly muddy and slippery PE-3N. The gravel road around Chavinillo was actually the best for the entire trip; recently graded and rolled, so there were hardly any deep holes. And luckily, we were driving uphill; I find it less safe to drive downhill in slippery conditions.

We were approaching our last mountain pass on this route, Corona Del Inca (the Inca Crown) at 4,000 metres. Soon after, we were held up by our first roadworks for the day. In many sections the road is in such bad condition that it needs ongoing repairs. Most landslides are only roughly cleared away by some heavy machinery, leaving deep tyre grooves and unsafe edges behind.

We hit another road block some 20 kilometres before reaching Huánuco. Here some arrogant, rich Peruvian guy decided to pass the line of waiting cars and argue with the flagman that he should be let through immediately. He not only attracted strong opposition from all waiting drivers, in the end he caused some real chaos because uphill traffic was allowed to get through first – and he was blocking their way.

Peruvian drivers: the use of the horn replaces the brain and the brakes.

The behaviour of this driver seems to be indicative of Peruvian drivers in general. We have found everywhere, that they simply don’t seem to possess any road sense, and are the most aggressive and inconsiderate drivers anywhere in South America. This is most likely because private cars are still a bit of a novelty. When we travelled here in 2008, we hardly saw any private vehicles in rural regions, or even driveways going to houses. Today, you still come past villages, on the other side of rivers, which only have foot bridge access.

Most ‘hairy situations’ we experienced along the PE-3N were caused by people not driving to conditions, trying to squeeze through where there wasn’t any room to squeeze through, or coming around blind corners at high speed.

Day 3: we had driven 70km, were held up at 2 road works, and our average speed was 10km/h

Please click thumbnails below for a larger photo with description.

When we left Chavinillo the road was all muddy and slippery. Lucky for us it was all uphill.

Our last pass: the ‘Corona del Inca’ (Inca Crown).

The mountain range at 4,000 metres – part of these cliffs is the ‘Corona del Inca’

After some roadworks we were behind a line of traffic, all bumping from one pothole to the next.

Here a big section of the road just sagged – leaving a steep step.

So tell me, how can you pass an oncoming vehicle on this narrow road?

Here another recent mudslide had been cleared away – it must have been a big one…

The driver of this silver Toyota four-wheel-drive pushed past all waiting cars and then blocked all traffic.

The last kilometres downhill into Huánuco. Traffic along here was getting fairly busy – still with no room to pass safely.

Almost all photos on this page were taken by Yasha with her new point-and-shoot Sony camera (Amazon Link). I was too busy driving… We don’t have any pictures of really frightening situations because, by her own confession, Yasha often simply closed her eyes. She opened them more often than felt comfortable to shoot out the side window – trying to ignore the sometimes very steep drop next to her.

We also don’t have a single photo of our truck Berta on this road; there was always too much traffic to think about stopping.

For Peru, to get the PE-3 up to the standard of a modern road, capable of taking the increased traffic of this century, will most likely take years. Any widening of the existing road would require extensive blasting and earth works. All of the Andean mountains seem to be very unstable. Any serious rain causes immediate landslides. Now (March 2017) the country has just experienced a serious set-back: the entire Panamerican Highway north of Lima has been damaged by recent floods, with bridges washed away and four lanes often reduced to less than half a lane.

So don’t expect that the condition of the PE-3 will change much in the foreseeable future.

A vista across the river to Chavinillo. Notice the road winding up from the river. It’s not the one we took.

Postscript from Yasha: although Juergen couldn’t really take his eyes off the road to see it, there is some stunning scenery along this road. In between holding my breath and shutting my eyes, I really enjoyed the vistas that the amazing Andes can surprise me with, time and again. I never get tired of being in the mountains.

[All photos shown in the galleries are in time order.]

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