aufpad.com – a travel blog

 

The Cañon del Pato road runs through the tunnels originally dug for a train track. Driving it today is an experience of a different kind.

Diese Strasse bietet genügend Aufregung: schmal und durch etwa 20 Tunnels direkt in den Stein gehauen. Nichts für schwache Nerven-es fällt steil ab und Gegenverkehr in den Tunnels veranlasst plötzliche Bremsmanöver. Trotzdem sollte diese Strecke gefahren warden, den sie ist landschaftlich spektakulär.

We left Caraz and took the road known as Cañon del Pato. It leads through many short tunnel sections, which were originally dug for a railway line. The dropoff into the Rio Santa is at times deep and steep but scenic.

A private toll road of the Projecto Chavimoche shortens the distance to the coast considerably and is in good condition.It helps to skip Chimbote on the coast and ends on the Panamericana Norte. We passed Trujillo and camped next in Huanchaco at the Huanchaco Gardens RV Campsite where overlanders meet.

It has a pool and clean ablutions inside a room made available to the campers. Along the beach and pier there are many restaurants and the traditional fishing boats made of reed can still be seen (Caballitos de Tortora).

The pier reminded us of back home in Namibia, Swakopmund. In one of the many seaside restaurants we had a good meal of prawns and calamari.

Next day we were back on the Panamericana Norte. Originally we intended camping in Bayovar, decided against it on gutfeel and ended in the Estuario de Virrilá where we wild camped and which has an enormous amount of seabirds, the town’s light visible across the estuary. At these beaches sea turtles lay off their eggs.

The route then took us to Piura with a shopping stop at PlazaVea and on via Mancora to Zorritos on the coast where Bernd and Marion Frauendorfer were patiently awaiting us to continue joint travels into Ecuador.

At Zorritos we camped at Swiss Wassi, where Jaques and Melba run a very nice overlanding stop and Melba makes a mean Pisco Sour on request. We also booked her for a lobster meal one evening in their house-delicious!

Also meet Colossus, the naked Peruvian dog.

This blog covers period 11th – 15th August 2016

 

Sector Llanganuco
The dirt road starts near Yungay –a town which was heavily hit by an avalanche from Huascaran after an earthquake in 1970 and the scars run deep as 18000 people were buried alive – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huascaran

Only one church tower remained standing-the massive cemetary visible behind it today reminds visitors of this tragedy.

The winding dirt road took us past two lagoons.

Our Landcruiser diligently climbed high up the pass to 4730m with spectacular views of the highest peaks in the Peruvian Andes. The views are difficult to describe-we let the pictures tell the story.

We returned to Jaime for another pleasant night’s stay on the farm, getting ready to tackle the Cañon del Pato.

Sub Sector Ulta

Next day we entered the second section of the National Park.

We entered the Parque Nacional Huascaran at the turnoff at Carhuaz into the sub sector Ulta.

We then took the winding pass into Peru’s highest mountain region, from where we could see both the Huascaran Sur 6768m as well as Huascaran Norte 6652m and other peaks like Ulta 5484m etc.

The road is tarred and well accessible and reaches a tunnel at the top through which the park could be exited/entered from the other side of the mountain range.

The views from the top were stunning.

The day ended by us camping just before Caraz on the farm of Jaime and his excellent camping site called Guadelupe Jaime Veliz.

It is on their farm, it had good Wifi and excellent baños which were in the process of being extended to cater for larger groups. Jaime was so kind to even have our kettle brazed in town the next day while we re-entered the park.

Both the Cordillera Blanca mountain range as well as the rare Puya Raimondii are worth a visit to the Parque Huascaran in Peru.

Viele Reisende hatten uns empfohlen, die schneebedeckte Cordilliera Blanca sowie die seltenen Pflanzen des Parkes zu besuchen. So machten wir uns dorthin auf den Weg und sind nicht enttäuscht worden. Auch ist der Park beliebt für Trekking. Die wilde Landschaft wird wohl einer der Höhepunkte unserer Reise bleiben.

Parque Huascaran can be entered at 3 different gates, necessary in order to see the various attractions. We started at the Carpa Section.

Carpa Section
Driving towards Huaraz we first entered the Carpa section close to Pachocoto and were permitted to sleep in the parking lot for the night and use the baños at the gate in order to enter the park early in the morning.

Close to the parking lot is a little lagoon with some birds which made for entertaining bird watching, especially the quarrel between an Andean Gull and a female Giant Coot.

The sunset was also spectacular from our location, the evening icy cold.

Driving into the park we soon came across the rare Puya Raimondii in clusters and up the hill slopes.

This unique plant reaches an age of around 40 years and only flowers once in its lifetime, then dies.( Puya raimondii, also known as queen of the Andes, Titanka or Puya Raimondii, is the largest species of bromeliad. It is native to Bolivia and Peru and is restricted to the high Andes at an elevation of 3000 – 4800 m- also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puya_raimondii )

A bonus was to spot the giant hummingbird that is assumed to pollinate this plant on one of the flowers.

We continued towards the parking of the Pastoruri glacier which we reached finally by horse. The Nevado Pastoruri is 5240m high.Unfortunately this glacier is receeding due to global warming.

On driving back we briefly stopped at the clear blue Ojo’s (eyes), water holes with bubbling gases coming up from deep below and at some rock paintings on the way.

We journeyed to Huaraz and stayed at the Real Hotel Huascaran for the night where we slept in our vehicle on a large grassy area behind the hotel and paid for the use of the bathroom(S09° 30.7751 W077°31.8703).

Our next goal was to drive towards the Cordillera Blanca. Four mountain passes over 4000m taught us a valuable lesson.

Ab Cusco ging es nord-westlich in Richtung Cordillera Blanca. Am ersten Tag in Richtung Abancay schafften wir nur 177km, denn die hohen Pässe nahmen viel Zeit in Anspruch. Auch der Wagen wurde ausserordentlich beansprucht –bei Ankunft in Ayacucho waren die Bremsen mehr als hin, vollkommen überhitzt (Beläge sahen glasartig geschmolzen aus) und wir mussten 5 Tage in Ayacucho verbringen bis Ersatzteile aus Lima kamen.

First day from Cusco in the direction of Abancay only allowed us to cover 177km – slow-going mountain passes and the exit from Cusco took quite some time. We camped wild (S13.588387, W072.833262) and enjoyed the scenery of the Salcantay mountains in the distance.

Similarly we continued next day at a slow pace and covered the next 4000m pass with winding tarred roads (8hrs for 285km), ending the day camping next to the Rio Pampa (near Chincheros), nice and warm at the river +30°C after we had 6°C in the mountains during the day. Unfortunately some small sand flies bugged us during sunset.

Leaving for Ayacucho we drive over 2 more 4000m mountain passes and passed through scenic Puna landscape and saw our first large and flowering Puya Raimondii plant. Finding an orange Taratula along the road was a highlight -beautiful!

When we arrived in Ayacucho the brakes of the cruiser were finished –a grinding noise made us realise that the passes have worn them down completely. Although being a Saturday, we get assisted at Toyota at 12:30pm and the mechanics confirm what we suspected – new brake pads will have to be ordered from Lima on Monday and the discs require skimming down. We had no choice but to book into a hotel in town.I realised that I had to change my style of driving in the mountains: use the gears more and the brakes less. The vehicle being heavy and an automatic made the brakes wear very fast in the mountains – and driving passes in Peru, we could take no chances, brakes had to be 100%. We had them very thoroughly checked every 5000km from then on.

We found the Ayacucho Plaza Hotel convenient as we could park the vehicle safely inside and within 5 minutes reach the centre of town. In the Plaza we were surprised by the number of ice cream shops selling tasty and creamy ice creams. Just in front of them inca women were preparing artesanal ice cream by turning a dish constantly inside a larger dish filled with ice – we counted more 12 ice cream places around the plaza.Heaven after not having any for so long.

Furthermore did we learn that Ayacucho is know for its 33 churches and a beautiful plaza.

After the brake pads arrived and the vehicle was inspected for the repair, it turned out that the discs were already too thin to be skimmed again – new back drums and disc assemblies had to be ordered from Lima, creating another 2 day delay. This was bad news, but at least Toyota in Ayancucho was on the ball and very helpful -also found one person with basic English skills with whom we could communicate.

We used the time to explore more of the area including watching a traditional firework display and music in front of the church next to our hotel.

Finally we left on Thursday morning getting lost for more than 90minutes to find the right road in the direction of Huanta. The road was narrow, mountain passes and curvy and on multiple occasions we had to reverse as trucks had to pass. That evening we found a wild camp side on the banks of the Rio Mantaro on the small campo of farmer Marcelino for Soles20,-. (S12.598943 W074.672082).

Marcellino brought us fresh prickley pears when we arrived and next morning early bode us farewell with a pot of freshly cooked wild papas (potatoes). He only farms with natural products.

The road to Huancayo consisted of more mountain passes, an area with many mines and heavy traffic past la Oroya, large mining operation for lead and copper. The road was congested at a construction section and came to a total standstill. We decided after 315km in 11.5hrs that this was enough at wild camped in the mountains on a stream with temperatures at 5°C at 4485m –not a pleasant night, but we had no choice (S11.596414 W076.247511).

In the morning it was a freezing 2 °C when we got up and continued towards Lima, which we decided to pass on the Panamericana and continued to Barranca on the Pacific coast. At km228 we turned off to the Punta Bermejo where we again camped wild close to a fisherman’s hut (S10.567237 W077.904945). Just up the hill is a scenic point with Pelicans, Comorants, Gennets and Seagulls. Unfortunately a lot of plastic spoils the otherwise tranquil point. Plastic pollution all over Peru is a major problem.

Next day we refuelled at Pativilca and continued across the Cordillera Negra towards Huaraz (4477m pass) through very rugged landscape with large chili plantations where we entered the National Park Huascaran late afternoon although the sign at the turnoff indicated that the park closes early afternoon.

The ranger permitted us to stay overnight in the parking lot and made the baños (toilets) available. The site is at 4164m (S09.888989 W077.305008), not ideal for overnighting but it did not affect us too much as we had slowly adapted through the previous days. However Karin suffered more, especially in the morning at -1 °C.

 

We still had jungle fever, especially due to the cold nights in Cusco.This time round we decided to drive to Puerto Maldonado and not fly.

Uns hatte der Urwaldtrip nach Madidi besonders gut gefallen, jedoch wollten wir mehr Papageien und auch die Riesenottern sehen. So machten wir einen Abstecher nach Puerto Maldonado und von dort aus zu dem Lago Sandoval.

We had heard about the scenic road going down the escarpment from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado and that the tarred road was in very good condition –which it was indeed and the mountain passes are spectacular.

As we drove the landscape changed from barren and cold mountains covered in snow  to the lush and green forested escarpment ending in the jungle around Puerto Maldonado. Here we camped at the Anaconda Lodge with Donald and Wadee Traeris with a small Thai restaurant run by the Wadee.

Next to us our closest neighbours were 4 Tarantulas that were territorial and came out after dark, resident Agoutis and the red howler monkey Oscar. Unfortunately an open-air disco had opened close to this property with blaring music into the early morning hours, even during the week. For this reason we cannot recommend to stay here in a tent or rooftop tent despite the fact that it is within walking distance to a mariposario (butterfly farm) and it being possible for us to leave the vehicle.

Our guide Luiz Salazar came to the lodge to negotiate the various outings and work closely with the Anaconda Lodge. Next day at 5am our first outing was boating up the Rio Madre de Dios to a claylick of parakeets and parrots.

Following day we went by boat for 30min downriver into the Tambo Pata National Parque from where we went on foot for 1.5hours to reach the shore of Lago Sandoval. Luiz then paddled us to Sandoval Homestead Lodge, a small lodge run by an indigenous family. For lunch we were served chicken with rice and egg rolled up in leaves plus fresh fruit juices.

The afternoon we rowed around the lake, saw various birds, black caymans and freshwater rays.

Next morning we started at 6am, came across an Anaconda in a bush under which we passed, observed families of giant otters fishing and playing plus many birds.

During the afternoon we walk we came across a dead coral snake(very venomous) and leaned how Brazil nuts grow (only in the wild on tall trees and Agoutis are the only animals cracking the nuts).

Our evening outing by boat brought us again close to the giant otters and we observed a marvelous sunset from a viewing platform at the rangers post. No boats are allowed further in on Lago Sandoval. No motorized craft are permitted on the lake which results in the lake being very quiet and serene.

During an evening walk we searched for insects and came across a seldomly-seen  armadillo.

Next morning we started at 5am, rowing across the lake to see Macaws which we saw flying overhead and observed Capuchin monkeys.

Boating back we also saw large white Caymans on the riverbank.

On the return journey to Cusco we again wild-camped at a stream halfway up the escarpment and finally arrived back in Cusco mid day.

This blog covers 19th July to 27th July 2016

Witnessing one of the original religious festivals is gripping – just so different to anything we have seen before.

Um bei einer solchen Fahrt am richtigen Tag im richtigen Dorf zu sein ist auch Glücksache. In letzter Minute erfuhren wir vom Virgen del Carmen Fest in Paucartambo -weitgehend als eines der noch wirklich ursprünglichen religiösen Feste in Peru bekannt und noch nicht stark vom Tourismus beeinflusst. Ein tief berührendes Erlebnis mit exotischen Masken, Musik, Tanz und Feuerwerk.

This festival is one of the most authentic and not very touristic and takes place once a year in July. We were fortunate to hear about it in time to make the journey.

Arriving and looking at the statues on the plaza did not quite prepare us for what we would experience. The statues reflect the different groups participating.

The small town burst its seams and we wild camped at S13 deg 19.7857 W071deg 35.0680 along the river just outside the town. Traffic was heavy and it can took more than one hour to cross the bridge into town. The festival runs mainly Friday and Saturday with various troupes representing different professions and groupings.

Friday evening culminated in a fireworks display among the participants within the very crowded little plaza of Paucartambo.

The Saturday afternoon was the highlight with the carrying of the Virgen del Carmen through Paucartambo.

We drove on to the viewpoint Tres Cruces to witness the sunrise next morning, the mirador being at 3660m. We camped at the parking lot at S13deg073298 W071deg36.7039.

What we hoped to be a quiet night turned out to be a sleepless one as vehicles started arriving from midnight and at sunrise there were more than 200 vehicles and 500 people – all somewhat disappointed as it was cloudy. Apparently with the right conditions a sunrise with 3 reflections of the sun can be seen at times.

When the sun was up we realised how beautiful the flora in the area was.