0151 Curahuasi to Cuzco

18^th Nov

We awoke this morning to the almost perfect view over the mountains surrounding Curahuasi – I am not sure whether campsite views can get much better !!  We packed up and then went down to the house for a shower and breakfast before getting on the road by 8 am in order to get through the roadworks.  A hot shower made the morning even better ! Home made bread from hand ground wheat grown in the garden, fresh local avocado and cheese – I mean, why on earth would we want to leave this place ?

But we had to – So after a farewell photo with Gilder, Stephanie and daughter Sophia, we headed out – After a brief return to get our coffee cups we had left on the breakfast table !!  We headed though some lovely gorges until we got to the valley where the roadworks were in full swing.  It was our understanding that the opening times were 9 am, noon, 3 pm, and 6 pm, and if you get there early, your queued, and if you got there late, you queued !  For one, we seemed to time it just about right, and got there at about 9.15 am, and only had to wait about 5 minutes before we started moving, albeit behind a LOT of trucks.  This is a major road reconstruction project through an amazing river gorge, and extends for some 10 kilometres or so – It took us over 40 minutes to get through and back onto the normal road on the other side.  But in that 40 minutes, it was the usual display of local driving !!  When you get stopped at roadworks traffic lights here, when the lights turn green it is the “normal custom” for all cars to pull out into the fast lane and pass as many of the slower-accelerating trucks / vehicles as they can before they reach the single lane section of roadworks – Which may only be 30 metres away !  At this point they then try to squeeze in wherever they can !  Result – Chaos – Although only the gringo drivers seem to get upset – the locals just see it is as normal !!  But when a 20 ton truck tried to accelerate and squeeze past me when one set of lights turned green, it was on for young and old – I managed to keep him behind me, but it was touch and go for a while when he try to cut in front of me !!

Another good bit was when a double decker coach coming towards us got wedged against a wide low-loader trailer going the other way, but a truck passenger in front of us jumped out of his truck, reccied out an alternative route through the boulders, and so we all followed him through, leaving the stuck parties to sort themselves out !!

Once we got away from the roadworks, we started going up an amazing climb that took us from below 2000 metres (where we could breathe !!) through Izuchaca, and back up to 3750 metres in a relatively short distance.  Great road, incredible views back down into the valley and overlooking the town, and lots of locals walking their sheep and donkeys along the road, leading them on pieces of string !!  We then came to this incredible flat plain – Called the Pampa de Anta.  And long straight stretches of road like we hadn’t seen for days while we have been in the mountains !  When you look at the photos, you may think it just looks like flat farming country, but you need to remember that we were over 3000 metres ASL, so it is cold, and any small “hills” off to the side may well be 4000 or 5000 metres ASL, even though they look small and unimpressive.  One peak that was covered in snow and cloud is in fact 6271 metres.  The only thing that reminds you that you are so high is that all the water bottles get sucked in when you come down a little in altitude, beer cans open with a pop and froth everywhere, and of course, you are gasping for air all the time !!

This high plain was totally different from anything we had seen before – Much more “country”, with people trying flag us down (because we have writing on the front, they think we are one of the local mini-buses !), and earth brick buildings.  In places we could see over the walls into the yards of houses where pigs and cows are browsing, women doing their laundry, and pigs snuffling around – Quite an insight, if only momentary as we passed. Passed one women with the usual pack on her back (they carry everything from babies to shopping, to TV’s or bricks in these back packs) but this one we noticed had a leg of something sticking out the side – Hopefully a sheep !!  There was a tuk tuk that from behind looked like a Mack truck – But was only a tuk tuk from the front !   Then we came into the Pueblo of Izcuchaca, and the town was alive with people !  Bustling streets, colourfully clothed people everywhere, and then we came to the main square and there was a small market on.  The best sight was a local lady in a tall hat, and then some ladies with llamas dressed up in hats – I think they were posing for photos or giving children rides or something.  But fun to see.

Then it was on into Cuzco – And as we dropped won into the town, we were in the middle of major roadworks all the way into the city.  They are obviously having trouble with the sides of the hills collapsing so they are doing major roadworks to shore up the hills, put in drainage pipes, etc, which just served to make the normally hectic traffic of Cuzco even worse !    To add to the fun, the only directions we had for the only camp site in Cuzco were GPS co-ordinates, and sat-navs tend to try to take the shortest route to a GPS destination – So we were being led a merry dance around Cuzco for about an hour as it tried to take us the wrong way up one way streets, up the narrowest and steepest lanes you can imagine – If I tell you I had to stop and put Troopie into low range gears just so I could get up the hills, you might realise how steep they were !   Not meant for cars !!  Eventually we popped out next to San Cristobal Church, high on a hill overlooking Cuzco, and I parked – I was absolutely whacked from driving around Cuzco in circles for over an hour !! We caught our breathe, met an Aussie girl from Coolum who, together with a vendor helped us locate our camp site on the map (we were actually less than 1 km away from it !!), took a few photos of Cuzco, and then headed up the real road that led to the camp site.

After finding the site itself amongst the other houses on the hill (never easy here, I can assure you), in there we found our French friends Gregorio and Estelle (who we first met in Guatemala), and several other Overlanders, one of whom, a German lady called Marion, I actually met several years ago in a camp site in Lane Cove In Sydney !!  She and her husband drive an older Troopie, and I recognised it.  Small world ! Also met several other couples in everything from smaller Mercedes vans, US truck campers, and one couple in a big 4 WD truck that will go just about anywhere ! Fun to meet everyone, compare stories, and swap maps, details on good camp sites, and electrical plugs with people heading in the opposite direction !

Very pleasant camp site, with the owner's chickens and dogs running around, good facilities, and HOT showers !!  I spent the afternoon chatting with everyone, and in between changed the fuel filter again (last done in Guatemala) and found it to be even blacker and dirtier than the last one ! ( I wonder if that had anything to do with all the white smoke and coughing and spluttering  until it warmed up 2 mornings ago when it was below freezing and we were at 4550 metres ?)  Fixed a few other things around the car that needed doing, and general caught up with things – Except my blog !  Hopefully can do that over the next few days.  Plan is to go into Cuzco tomorrow, look around, and sort out tickets, accomodation etc up to Machu Picchu.  I think we will then drive up to Ollantaytambo, catch the train up to Aguas Calientes, over night there and then go up to MP on Thursday.  It is not a cheap trip going up to MP, but hopefully this is the best option – I guess, as usual, we will find out !!

Cold night, lovely view out over the lights of Cuzco, and a great few days of adventures to look forward to. Great to be here in Cuzco at last – One of the main targets for the whole trip.

Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0145CurahuasiToCuzco?authkey=Gv1sRgCPnpsYDC0dyPuQE#