The secret to a Peruvian bus driving career? Taking the mountains at their own pace. In Peru’s highest mountain range Andes, a passenger’s daily commute could cost them their life. The world’s most dangerous bus route, as the BBC reports, drops 1,000 metres in a series of switchbacks known as The Horse Killer.
Every year, over 1,000 lives are lost on Peru’s mountain roads, BBC Earth Explore has reported in a video documenting the route. The short documentary follows a bus driver named Glorioso as he navigates this deadly descent. Memorials to the dead can be seen spanning the edges of these treacherous paths.
For Glorioso, the drive has become routine – he’s been driving the same route for 12 years. As the bus slowly passes through the curves, its wheels just centimetres from a sheer fall, Glorioso’s face remains calm.
“Thank God, the Lord is protecting me so far,” he says, steering down a road so aggressive it forces him to change his tires every ten weeks.
Further down the valley is where the journey becomes most difficult, with extremely steep drop-offs and no way to bypass oncoming vehicles.
The local saying goes “It’s better to arrive a little late in this world than early in the next,” and passengers in the video don’t seem too worried about their fate. Taking a nap during the journey, they patiently endure their commute – one curve at a time.
Roads in Peru, especially in the Andes, riddled with dangerous turns and steep drop-offs, are vital lifelines for remote communities, connecting people to hospitals, schools, and loved ones. But at a constant risk.
A YouTube user commented under the BBC video: “I’m Peruvian, they filmed this in good weather. God bless and protect these brave drivers, risking their lives every single day to feed their families. People die every month on those country roads with bad weather, fog, rain, landslides, the entire bus tipping over and everyone inside dies going over a precipice.
“I remember those cross country bus rides, passengers have to help out when the bus breaks down, engine overheats or wheel gets stuck in mud for hours. People in those remote communities are desperate to go to nearby hospitals or schools or weddings. It’s a lifeline. Makes me tear up how hard people in my country work, Glorioso probably makes just enough to cover his gas and a little more but not enough for the risks he’s taking.”
