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How does it feel to arrive? After 40 days of driving North North North to make it from Patagonia, thousands of miles North to the tropics?
It feels pretty darn good.
And, although every day feels like the most spectacular drive of the trip, this part really felt like the most spectacular drive of the trip.
Starting at 7,000 ft in Arequipa, the road snakes up and around a pair of 20,000ft volcanoes up to a cruising altitude of 14,000ft. The landscape flattens out and looks like West Texas, crossing the continental divide of South Americal. Then you drive through a series of lush valleys and canyons, eventually following a river (which drains into the Amazon!) down to Cuzco, at about 11,000ft.
It´s incredible countryside - villages, terracing and farms up sides of the valley with a river rushing through the middle. There are sheep, llamas, cows, pigs and people. It´s like another world. It´s this kind of day that you dream of when you plan this kind of a trip.
How does it feel to arrive? After 40 days of driving North North North to make it from Patagonia, thousands of miles North to the tropics?
It feels pretty darn good.
And, although every day feels like the most spectacular drive of the trip, this part really felt like the most spectacular drive of the trip.
Starting at 7,000 ft in Arequipa, the road snakes up and around a pair of 20,000ft volcanoes up to a cruising altitude of 14,000ft. The landscape flattens out and looks like West Texas, crossing the continental divide of South Americal. Then you drive through a series of lush valleys and canyons, eventually following a river (which drains into the Amazon!) down to Cuzco, at about 11,000ft.
It´s incredible countryside - villages, terracing and farms up sides of the valley with a river rushing through the middle. There are sheep, llamas, cows, pigs and people. It´s like another world. It´s this kind of day that you dream of when you plan this kind of a trip.
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| Ola! Would you like some delicious roasted lamb for lunch? Actually, yes. (She also asked if I wanted to take her daughter back to the US with me... that was a little bit more awkward.) |
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| Inca Kola is the local drink. The flavor reminds me of bubble gum. |
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| Roasted lamb to go! |
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| As you move towards North and get closer to the rainforest the climate gets wetter and the mountains have more and more snow cover. |
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| More massive, snow capped mountains on the route. Who knew? |
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| Peru keeps surprising with beautiful views and range after range... |
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| Rain on the horizon! |
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| After weeks of pure desert the green was a relief. |
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| Local village life. |
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| Driving at about 3500m with the snowline around 6000m. |
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| I´ll take a little road construction if it means smooth paved roads! |
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| Hail! Another new experience. All the moisture from the Amazon Basin rising up and over the Andes creates some fierce storms. Luckily this only went on for 20 minutes. Ice can hurt at 60 miles an hour! |
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| Descending into the Cusco valley. |
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| The area around Cusco - very different from the South. Much more indigineous Andean culture and much more fertile. |
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| Welcome to Cusco! It´s a crazy city with streets twisting and turning and tons of traffic. |
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| The final descent into the Sacred Valley to drop off the bike. |
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| A sure sign you are getting close to Cusco - the Gringo tourist trail. |
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| Good spot for a break. |
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| The last leg of the road to the Sacred Valley - unbelievable sight. |
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| Safe and sound at my final destination. |
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