Ica, Huancayo, Ancash: 08. – 26.10.2010

In South America it seems people got calmness and cosines put in their cradle. A chat here, a talk there and of course a day without siesta is not a successful day. In that aspect, we Europeans should get a slice off of them. But if you put a Peruvian behind the wheel, it is strongly recommended to get lost as quick as possible. It seems like a Peruvian is only a good driver if he pushes, squeezes and passes on every single possibility and very often also impossibility. The whole attitude is accompanied by constant honking. Why the horn isn’t displayed in their flag is still a mystery for us.

In the mountains of southern Peru we have been mostly spared by these habits, but on the way to the coast we got the real feel of it. Huge two story tourist busses raced with incredible speed down the switch backs and some of them would have liked to step into Nistos rear. At a passing maneuver one of these crazy drivers seemed to forget his long rear end and almost pushed us down the hill with it. And even on straight roads they used our lane and if we didn’t move into the gravel we got honked at. It seems like the principle; ‘what’s yours is also mine’ is also valid on the road here.

After this first lesson of ‘Driving the Peruvian style’ and some 656 Kilometers further we reached Nasca where we fled into the safety behind the bars of a Campground. Of course we did not get here to hide. We wanted to have a peek at the unsolved mystery of Nasca. Therefore we needed to get airborne, because only from up above one can see the true dimensions of the geoglyphs in form of geometrical lines, expanses and animals. So the next day we boarded a small Cessna 206 and were surprised about the good condition the over 500 year old over dimensional ground carvings are. But also Flight style of the pilot was in Peruvian manner, since the passengers on the left as well as the ones on the right needed to see paintings, he got to do quite a few steep turns, this combined with the midday turbulences over the dessert, let Sonja enjoy her last meal for a second time and she was glad to have solid ground under her feet again after only 35 minutes.

Now the coast should not have to wait any longer for us, even though we did not find the road drawn in the map. But why do we have an Off- Road- Vehicle; we drove straight thru the dessert, which covers Peru’s entire coastline, until we reached the cliffs where we finally could take a deep breath of the fresh ocean breeze. Like little children we got astonished by the amazing sights. Way to long back was our last real ocean experience. Originally we wanted to unpack our dive base, unfortunately permanent wind crossed these plans and after three day of waiting we broke camp only with one not so successful beach dive done. The visibility was just not good, understandable with a stirred up ocean with all that wind.

We continued along the coast to the beautiful Paracas peninsula. But behind that the mystic Panamericana is in reality a road along miserable houses in a depressing grey landscape covered in trash where at times even people have been digging thru in hope to find something still useful. Because of all that we left the coast again and already that evening we spent at a wonderful quiet lake at about 4’500 Meters. That night we got ripped out of our sleep by loud drunken voices, but they left soon after. They have found us, so we planned on leaving very early the next morning. But for that we didn’t get a chance, already at sunrise the same men gathered around Nisto and this time it seemed like they would not want to leave anymore. So at 5:30 Markus went out and had a chat with them, which ultimately led for them inviting us on a tour around their trout farm with a highlight of a trout breakfast in the end. Exactly, trout with mais, very tasty but one has to get accustomed to it at eight in the morning.

Our next target was the 200 Kilometer long Cordillera Blanca, the second biggest mountain range behind the Himalaya. But before we arrived the whole N-Team showed weaknesses. First Nisto let us know that he has enough of those bumpy roads and a second leaf spring broke. The same evening we had a problem finding a decent camp spot so just at dusk we settled for a place just next to the road and as soon as we parked, Markus pumped up his stomach in all directions. But that was not enough for one day, about two hours later a patrolling police car stopped with flashing lights and shotguns ready. Where we are it is way too dangerous; “we would get robbed and bang bang!” Ok, that was convincing enough so Sonja drove in the dark and escorted by the Police to the next village where they showed us in the middle of all the houses next to the health center, a safe place to spend the rest of the night. All of it no problem if not Sonja would have had the same problem as Markus in the early morning hours. We were exhausted and only wanted to get to the civilization.

The next afternoon we reached in permanent rain, we didn’t care, Huaraz, where we made it to a Hostal room just to recover for the next two days. After that ready to pull some trees and also rain has stopped we prepared to explore the mountains with their wonderful lagoons. With hiking boots mounted we walked past breathtaking mountains sceneries with many peaks higher than 6’000 Meters towards crystal clear or turquoise lagoons. Only Nisto seemed not to be happy about it all; because the main leaf spring broke a second time.

After that was welded again, we spent an amazing day in the Cordillera Negra just before clouds covered the sky and mountains with their grey layer again. So we continued thru the narrow Canon de Pation (Duck Canyon) along the Rio Santo that separates the two mountain ranges towards the coast.

What treat we got there you can read in the last Peru-Report.

Kind regards

Sonja and Markus

Here it goes to the pictures...

Here it goes to the underwater pictures...