Guide
The best driving roads in South America
South America drives on a scale Europe cannot match. The Andes throw up some of the highest paved passes anywhere, Patagonia hides the Carretera Austral among its fjords and ice, and the switchbacks of Los Caracoles and the Trampolín de la Muerte are the stuff of legend. These are the finest we have mapped across Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, each from real geometry.
Abra Patapampa89 mi · 2 h 59 min · 21 hairpinsView the roadbook ›
Summit
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1
4,870 msummit
Abra Patapampa
A fully paved high-altitude road from Colca Canyon to Arequipa, cresting Abra Patapampa at 4,879 m, one of the highest paved passes in the Americas, with panoramas of the active volcanoes Sabancaya and Ampato.
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2
4,763 msummitPunta Olímpica
The Ancash road AN-107 climbs from the Santa Valley through the Sector de las Mil Curvas, 46 hairpins over 26 km, before piercing the Cordillera Blanca via the world’s highest road tunnel at 4,732 m, with Huascarán dominating the view.
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3
4,654 msummitLa Cumbre to Coroico
Bolivia’s paved Ruta 3 climbs from La Paz over La Cumbre at 4,650 m then plunges 3,450 m through every Andean climate zone, from altiplano to subtropical cloud forest, to the colonial town of Coroico in the Yungas.
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4
4,185 msummitCuesta de Lipán
One of South America’s greatest high-altitude drives: a paved serpentine climb from the multi-coloured quebrada of Purmamarca to 4,170 m, then across the white expanse of the Salinas Grandes salt flat.
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5
3,669 msummitAlto de Letras
One of the longest continuously paved road climbs on earth: 81 km rising from Mariquita at 468 m to the 3,692 m páramo pass before descending into Manizales, through five distinct ecosystems.
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6
3,585 msummitAvenue of the Volcanoes
Named by Humboldt in 1802, the 200 km Inter-Andean corridor between Quito and Riobamba is flanked by unbroken chains of snow-capped volcanoes, more major peaks from one road than almost anywhere on earth.
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7
3,298 msummitLos Caracoles
Chile’s most dramatic Andean pass road: back-to-back hairpin switchbacks carved into a near-vertical canyon wall, climbing from the Aconcagua valley to the Cristo Redentor tunnel.
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8
3,158 msummitCañón del Pato
A road hacked from sheer Andean canyon walls, threading 35 one-lane unlit tunnels through solid rock above a 1,000 m drop to the Santa River, one of Peru’s most dramatic drives.
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9
2,732 msummitTrampolín de la Muerte
Colombia’s most notorious road snakes 75 km through cloud forest between San Francisco and Mocoa on a single-lane gravel shelf carved into vertiginous cliffs, named for the many fatal accidents along its edge.
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10
1,159 msummitRuta de los Siete Lagos
Argentina’s most celebrated Patagonian drive: 107 km of Andean lake district through two national parks, passing seven glacier-carved lakes of turquoise set against native beech and cypress forest.
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11
621 msummitCarretera Austral
The crown-jewel segment of Chile’s epic Carretera Austral: 121 km of raw Patagonian wilderness from the basalt towers of Cerro Castillo to the marble caves of Lago General Carrera.
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