One of the most scenic yet challenging mountain serpentines in the world is Los Caracoles, a section of the Ruta 60 road in Chile not far from the entrance to the Paso Internacional Los Libertadores border crossing between Chile and Argentina in the Andes.
There are 19 sharp turns in a row on a steep mountain slope on this section of the road, and there will be several more further. The road itself is good, asphalted (although without any road barriers), and heavy trucks from Chile to Argentina and back calmly move along it. Due to the many turns, they slow down their movement greatly and a slowly rising column is formed from the trucks, so that because of this, the serpentine got its name: from the Spanish Los Caracoles means "snails".
It is especially difficult for cars to overcome the slope when there is snow here, but we were in the summer and on a rather empty road, so instead of difficulties, we got only beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. For example, the mountain opposite the road, right in the center of the photo above, is the Alto de la Posada, 4260 meters above sea level. It is interesting that this mountain, although from a different angle, is depicted on the official emblem of the mountain school of the Chilean army (de la Escuela de Montaña del Ejército de Chile), whose base is located almost immediately after the last turn of the Los Caracoles serpentine.
And a little further up the road is the ski resort Portillo, which I recently wrote about, so the military training there often skis on the slopes of Portillo and climbs Mount Alto de la Posada — the place for training in mountainous conditions is the most there is excellent. Well, I don’t need to train much, so I just enjoy the mountains that I see around. The place is really picturesque!
Fortunately, there are several fairly large areas near the turns themselves on the serpentine, where you can drive off and stop the car to calmly admire the surrounding nature, which is why I now have these few photos, otherwise it would be difficult to photograph this impressive and frightening road on the go.
Further along the road to the border there will be other beautiful views, but let's postpone them until next time :) For now, I judt highly recommend that if you move from Chile to Argentina or vice versa, you will not regret crossing the border at this border point!
It's better to watch the photo in high resolution.
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You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo. You can read a short interview with me here.
Wow this is crazy ! Hope I can visit one day.. thank you for sharing!
Yes, the road looks a little crazy, and that's great :)
Thank you for reading!
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These are some fantastic shots bro!
It's a road that really captured my imagination :) Glad you liked it!
One doesn't really get the scope and scale of this until you notice how small that giant bus looks waaaaay down there! hahaha
Oh yeah! :)
What a great spot to take a photo! It looks like it was a perfect day with perfect visibility! A giant snake is claiming to the mountain... :)
Thanks for sharing!
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I would say that this snake conquered the mountain :) Yes, the weather was good and clear. During a fog or snows, by the way, it would be very unpleasant to drive there, I suppose. When I'm driving myself, such serpentines make me nervous and if the visibility is poor, then even more. Thank you for reading! :)
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STOP'a snake' association is very solid here.
Yes you are right! Some giant boa constrictor :)
That's on my 'must go to' destinations to go by bicycle.
Hope you get there soon and have a lot of fun! :)
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Thank you! :)
Really great shots!
Thanks a lot! This place is great :)
Definitely I would feel sick on that road. We have mach smaller serpentines on mountain Tara (Serbia). Every time we go there I don't feel well 😀
Just looking at those pictures I feel dizzy, lol
Thanks for sharing.
Oh, it's sad that serpentines feel so bad for you. For me, it looks scarier from the outside than when I drive on the road. Thank you for watching! :)
Yes, I think road engineers and builders had to work hard, and the result is worth it. Thank you very much :)