September 6, 2018 – September 9, 2018
Further down the Sacred Valley, in the direction of the famous Machu Picchu, lies the town of Ollantaytambo. We were going to use the town as our base for our train and bus journey to Machu Picchu, but the small village itself became one of our (many) favourite places in Peru.
September 4, 2018 – September 6, 2018
High above the market town of Pisac, sits the Inca fortress of the same name. From the townsite you can see bits of the ruin rising above the horizon, and many acres of ancient terraces stepping down the steep mountain sides. We were lucky to find a place to camp in the gated yard of a hostel just outside of town with great views of these terraces.
August 29, 2018 – September 4, 2018
Legend has it that the sun god, Inti, looked down on the world in the 12th century and decided that the people needed a leader. He created the first Inca (king), Manco Capac and his sister-wife Mama Occlo. The pair emerged from Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca. Inti gave Manco Capac a golden rod and told the pair to settle where Manco Capac was able to plunge the rod completely into the earth. This spot would become the navel of the earth (qosq’o in the Quechua language). And that is how Cusco got it’s name. The city has been inhabited ever since, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America. It was the centre of the vast Inca empire and it was, and still is, the centre of Inca culture.
August 27, 2018 – August 29, 2018
Huacachina is a tiny, oasis resort town surrounded by huge sand dunes. It was once the playground for elite Peruvians, but is now frequented more by tourists who rent snowboards or skis to first climb up, then swoosh their way down the sand dunes. We stopped in town for some lunch and watched boarders climb the enormous sand dunes in the hot midday sun, we didn’t see many coming back down though; maybe they were reluctant to climb back up again. After lunch we decided to move on.
The lagoon in the middle of town.
August 24, 2018 – August 27, 2018
We were headed back to the coast in order to take the longer, but faster, route toward Cusco. We stopped for breakfast in the town of Huaraz, which is an important tourism centre for trekkers making their way to the Cordillera Blanca. Much of Huaraz (90%) was wiped out by the devastating Peruvian earthquake of 1970 and many memorials exist in neighbouring communities to catastrophic avalanches and mudflows known as aluviones which roiled down steep mountain valleys from the glaciers in the cordillera above on other occasions over the last 300 years.
A beautiful church we passed before reaching Huaraz.
August 19, 2018 – August 24, 2018
The Cordillera Blanca (White Mountain Range) of Peru, according to our guide book, is,
“the world’s highest tropical mountain range and encompasses some of South America’s highest mountains”
As we drove, snow and ice capped peaks began to appear behind the nearer mountains that lined the valleys. The steep valley slopes were terraced and green evidencing centuries of farming knowledge. We drove through rural town centres, filled with fruit and produce markets, traditionally dressed indigenous locals, and backpacking tourists readying themselves for long treks in the Andes of Peru.
August 17, 2018 – August 19, 2018
Canon del Pato (Duck Canyon) lies between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra (White Mountain Range and Black Mountain Range), and it is a spectacular drive. The canyon is at times as narrow as 15 metres and the gorge can be as deep at 1,000 metres. Top that off with about 35 single lane tunnels carved out of the rock, and you get a beautiful, exciting drive.
August 15, 2018 – August 17, 2018
We headed back to the coast. We would have preferred to stay in the mountains, but after seeing what the main highways could be like in the mountains, and seeing that the alternative mountain route to our next planned destination would take us onto secondary and tertiary roads, we decided to stick to some more developed highways even though it was a longer route.
August 12, 2018 – August 15, 2018
We started mid afternoon on a 296 kilometre drive that Google Maps estimated would take us 6 hours and 41 minutes. We knew we would not make it all the way, but we wanted to get some kilometres under our belts. The maps showed the road as a main highway in Peru, so while we knew it would be slow going in the mountains, we were not concerned with road conditions. What we ended up on was one of the most beautiful drives of our trip so far, but also one of the most stressful.