As I write this, the SnailTrails team rests in Bolivia's capital, Sucre. Although we didn't suffer so much from the altitude any more (the Altiplano ranges from 3 to 4000m), we clearly feel better "down here" in Sucre (at 2700m), a lovely mid-size city with an elegant colonial touch.
But I'm getting ahead of myself: our last post was from Trujillo on the Pacific coast, and we clearly made some progress since then. Not much to report on Lima: the straight and flat Panamericana brought us efficiently to Nasca, where we were somewhat underwhelmed by the famous "lines".
The two-day drive via Abancay is like watching a documentary, with constantly evolving landscapes and a spectacular ascent towards the Peruvian sky. After Abancay, the road conditions worsen, with considerable road construction sites slowing down our progress: the January floods and landslides have shown the fantastic force of the elements and the precariousness of human engineering...
Here's my own attempt at a (silent) documentary (for slower connections: click the film, pause when it starts playing, wait for the film to be charged, then play):
Cusco was a pleasant surprise: preferring to travel off the beaten track, we were afraid of approaching this pinnacle of Peruvian tourism (the region, according to the BBC, represents some 90% of Peruvian tourism revenue).
We were lucky to find an oasis-like campsite above Cusco (Quinta Lala), populated with other overland travellers: we actively exchanged travel advice and discussed our experiences so far.
Well, then there was the Machu Picchu question. No, we didn't make it into the site - but we did go further than many of our overlanding friends. After conflicting reports about the road conditions via Santa Maria and Santa Teresa (the "back door" to Machu Picchu), we decided to find out by ourselves.
After visiting the Ollantaytambo fortress, we made it to Santa Teresa, 10 km from the site, after some feasible but not for the faint of heart off-roading.
We gave up on "MP" when we learned it could only be approached by night, and especially after the onset of relentless heavy rain showers. A day of very muddy road conditions, crossing new landslides and quite ferocious rivers got us back to Cusco, and that was that.
The drive along the Altiplano towards the Lake Titicaca was pleasant, especially the ultra-wide panorama, after spending all these days in narrow mountain canyons. After all this driving, a day-trip to Isla del Sol (origin of the Inca race)provided us with essential exercise and some more spectacular views on the lake and its surrounding cordilleras.
Happy Easter from the SnailTRails team!
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