Going Up

 We left Arequipa at 8am and pulled in to park for the night at 4:45 in the afternoon. We shared a bagel for lunch, a fifteen minute break. I pee’d twice do we stopped twice and let Rusty loose  but Layne pee’d in motion which was quite heroic considering the roads as you will see. Up first we had to say goodbye to Herman the manager. 

Rusty already knew we were leaving and he watched, full of disapproval. 

Herman patrols first thing and turns off the lights and checks the trash. We said we’d like to leave at eight so he came out and opened the gate for our final good bye.  

Arequipa was 485 years old yesterday and the drive out of town was quieter than we have seen it even on a Sunday.

Google doesn’t hold back from trying to send us down some narrow alleys to save two minutes on the route planning. 

It was a day of driving the Altiplano which means “high plain” in Spanish and they aren’t kidding.   

We spent most of the day after we got out of Arequipa between 13,000 feet and 15,600 settling in at 14,000 feet for the night. 

This is the Southern InterOceanic Highway, quite the mouthful but that describes a Chinese project y to connect the Pacific to the Atlantic by road across the Andes and through the Amazon. Peru has a ways to go to get this right.

There is no visible work being done to finish this new bridge so we got our teeth rattled for a few hundred yards using the single lane bridge on the left approached on a section of gravel road. 

There were six miles of this very rough gravel which felt more like dislocated cobble stones requiring a ten mph speed limit by yours truly. Luckily there wasn’t much dust as the continuous flood of trucks overtook us. 

Then there was this moment at the beginning of the gravel section. I had no idea why the trucks stopped so I asked a driver was it okay for us to go to the head of the line as you usually do in Latin America when semis line up like this. He reassured me no one would get mad and off we went. Such a bizarre day. 

I was wondering how exotic these photos might look from the comfort of  home because I realized I am getting used to these spaces. I even failed to photograph a vicuña or an alpaca and I forgot to take a picture of a billboard advertising a fried alpaca lunch (it tastes like chewy beef). But this is the road we traveled:

Grua is a tow truck and you’ll see phone numbers painted on rocks as advertising just in case you might need them.  The sign below is the typical symbol of a government control point, a police check sometimes customs  checking trucks or agriculture checking for fruit fly carrying foods. I tell Layne to “put in her cap” when I see it. 

It’s not easy to scratch a life in these very poor indigenous villages locked away in the mountains.

We stopped at an intersection for lunch sharing our last Chilean bagel. It wasn’t great but there aren’t sheets many lily outs along the highways which are lined with cement drains.

And trash you just have to get used to. 

It was an all day drive up and down and more up. We met a stretch of unpaved road too with a bunch of trucks stopped on the road. We also saw other tourists stretching their legs looking at the Great High Plains of the Andes. 

Some sort of ore train. We saw those brown cubes two to a trailer on trucks. 

Suddenly we had six miles of crappy rugged gravel road and I always find unexpected dirt road to be somewhat    annoying though this was not dusty.

Andean life. These people were raising money for the patron saint holiday for their village. I gave them ten soles (“suns” the Peruvian currency) about three bucks. 

Then I asked for a photo and she got shy and ducked her head. Sells herself  expensive I guess. 

Bitel is a phone company and various convenience stores sell their SIM cards.  We use Verizon international which works seamlessly across borders but it is more expensive. In many countries it’s complicated to buy SIM cards or to recharge them without a local social security number and you you lose service as you cross each border. Not with Verizon! 

If you think you have a hard life driving the Andes puts things in perspective. 

Typical hazards on the road are speed bumps often hard to see when you travel alone. Flat tires are always a problem but tire shops are everywhere. I have no idea where the woman below is walking. You also see dogs  by the side of the road too but they have homes and starving. They hang out and hope for treats from passing cars. I saw a collectivo mini bus stop and toss out scraps for the local mutt who owned the spot. We of course carry extra food but they didn’t attack it like starving dogs, but each passerby took a nibble. It was rather heartening. Rusty had taught me dogs don’t mind being outside and I’ve stopped worrying about them feeling cold. He loves it outside the van. 

We got a couple of minor drizzles the first rain in months. Probably enough to turn GANNET2’s dust into mud. 

On and on for nine solid hours. Layne’s as I drive and how she does it on these roads I don’t know; it must be desperation.

We spent the night between the village of El Descanso (the rest) and the town of Sicunani at a pull out recommended by iOverlander. At ten o’clock we got the knock and a police patrol stopped by to check on us but they just talked and didn’t ask for our papers. Rusty slept  through the whole thing. They would have liked us to stop in Sicuani but we said we were scared to drive at night, no lie in these roads. They were very kind and professional in their worry and we felt much safer suddenly knowing they were on patrol. Not what you expect in South America is it? Below you see a sign posted by a local indigenous tribe that speak Quechua. Some shindig advertised I think. 

Can you imagine being the only foreigner here living the van life? No fear of overcrowding or noisy neighbors. 

Of course the minute we pulled up at our spot a car pulled in and two Italian tourists from Rome got out. You can imagine their shock when they wisjedckr a good even in English and I replied in fluent Umbrian. I dead panned it so it was pretty funny. Their destination was four hours away and they faced the prospect of driving in the dark and they were quite indifferent. Brave people and it was a lovely unexpected five minute encounter. 

Rusty admiring Lake Lingui at the end of a long day. Layne was not feeling well and ate nothing. Rusty had a huge dinner of chicken as did I with avocado followed by grapes and strawberries and bed by eight. 

A day on the road in the Andes.