0157 Cuzco to Tinajani Canyon

26^th Nov

 

We need to get moving if we are to be in Santiago by the 17^th December, and with the delay in Cuzco for a couple of days while we sorted out the bushings on the car, it has taken another 2 days away from us.  So today we had to hit the road south – But first a couple of things needed doing.


 

First, when I had unpacked the old bushes I had requested the Toyota dealer return to me, I found a couple of pieces of the new oil filter that I had given to them to fit when they changed the oil.  Why had they not fitted the new rubber O-Ring ?  Had they used the previous one again (acceptable but not the best option) ?  Or had they not fitted an O-Ring at all (not acceptable !) ?  So I needed to pay a quick visit to the dealer and see if I could speak to the mechanic.  We also needed to do a shop, so needed to go to the supermercado – Luckily both the Toyota dealer and a supermercado were on the road out of Cuzco that we needed to take to get to Lake Titicaca, our next destination, so that would be easy.

Having said goodbye to everyone at the campsite, we headed out, and to the Toyota place. Unfortunately I was not able to speak to the mechanic, and the engineer was away for 30 minutes or so (which could mean 2 hours !), but the service girl assured me that the parts had been correctly fitted. I am sure if the O ring had not been fitted there would have been a visible oil leak.  So I had to be content with that, and off to the supermarket, which turned out to be the worst one we have ever seen – Shelves half empty, not a very good selection, and pretty horrible veggies. There were so few peole in there that at first I thought it was closed for a stocktake of something !!  But it was already 11.30 so we didn’t have enough time to go searching for another market, and we found most of what we needed, and headed SE towards Puno, knowing we wouldn’t get there tonight.

Cuzco is only at about 2800 metres, and as soon as we left town, we were climbing slowly for the next 3 hours, when we reached 4354 metres.   It was a delightful day, mostly sunny but cool, and the road was excellent all the way, snaking through the Vilcanota valley, following the river as well as the railway line between Cusco and Puna virtually all the way.  First we passed the pre-Inca ruins at Piquillacta, about 30 kms out of Cuzco, although we didn’t stop because we have now seen so many of them it is difficult to become overly enthusiastic at the moment !  Then it was on through the increasingly rural countryside, with little villages often with buildings mostly of mud brick.   We stopped for lunch beside the river, in the shade of gum trees that made us feel quite at home ! We could smell them.

After lunch we continued through the valley, passing more Inca ruins at Raqchi, and seeing the blue Peru Rail train on the way to Cuzco, bringing people from Puno Lake Titicaca. We were still climbing steadily, and soon we were at 3950 m.  Over here they paint houses with both advertising and political signs, and at one point we saw some political ones for someone called Mauro – Reminded us of our Brazilian friend Mauro and his family from Ubatuba, who we had met in Cartagena, and who should be home by now (Hi everyone !!).  Mountains were starting to be more obvious all around us, and though they don’t look very big in the photos, just remember we are at 4000 metres, so some of these mountains we are passing are 5 and 6000 metres, and have snow on their tops year round !

The views all day were just stunning, and more like what I expected to see down here. We passed several signs for Cuy (Guinea Pig), and then, in the middle of nowhere had to go through a Peaje !!  (Toll booth)  Its amazing where they put them !  We summited today at 4350 metres and then dropped gradually down until we were in flat plains – But still at right on 4000 metres !  But the scenery was still stunning.  We went through one area where we saw about 20 or 30 dogs just sitting beside the road, all spaced out so we only ever saw one at a time.  Don’t know what they were waiting for, but it was odd to see them just sitting there.  We also saw some interesting black and white birds that were quite eagle like – Need to find out what they are. 

We were both pretty exhausted by 3.30 pm so we started looking for somewhere to stop.  Tony, an Australian in the Cusco campsite, had put a lot of ioverlander camping information onto my Garmin, and it immediately worked for us because without having to stop and refer to my computer, I was able to see that there was a campsite just 15 kms away in a place called Tinajani Canyon. Sounded perfect, so at Ayaviri we turned off the main road onto a dirt road, and followed it for some 14 kms.  Initially we couldn’t work out where the “canyon” bit was going to come from because it was so flat, but suddenly we entered this incredible carved canyon that just took our breath away.  Also some interesting local herons and geese in the river, and with the sun shining on the canyon walls it was just the most delightful setting.  We eventually came to the camping / rest area beside the river, with a small mud brick building alongside.  A farmer was tending his cattle about 100 yards away, and came over as soon as we stopped.  He was very friendly, and opened up the little mud brick building which turned out to be not only a kind of recreation room, but also had a small museum of lots of different stuffed local animals.  We “chatted” with him for a while, and he even helped us put our tent up – He was obviously fascinated by our little mobile house ! 

 

Quite a wind in the valley, and quite cool, and at right on 4000 metres we are still making sure we move pretty slowly so we don’t run out of breath !  But we cooked our supper, and then with the pitch blackness (that you so rarely see in populated areas) surrounding us, we turned in, looking forward to the views of the canyon in the morning sun. 

Pics are here :  https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0151CuzcoToTinajaniCanyon?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3sv_Sup7WYtQE#