Cuzco to Lima

I didn't want to continue north on the Ruta 2S as I wanted to visit a few more Inca sites and see a bit more of the country.

I chose the Ruta 28B and the CU100. The Ruta 28B is part of the Valle Sagrado de los Incas and from Pisac to Urubamba it is teeming with tourists who want to go to Machu Pichu.

This has the advantage that, in addition to the many buses on the road, there are also lots of restaurants, shops and petrol stations.

Here I saw cuy for the first time at the fire pits in front of the restaurants. Guinea pigs are a popular food in Peru, especially in the Andes. They were prepared and served in one piece like a chicken, for example as ‘cuy chactado’. I wasn't sure what it was and will have to make an attempt in the coming weeks. Because I didn't see it again on the way to the Pacific.

It was only in Ollantaytambo that the stream of vehicles and their occupants stopped. We headed up into the mountains and the road wound its way past the Nevado Veronica. I was less fortunate, because after Phiry I was stuck for two hours in a full roadblock - an accident.

The day had started with rain and didn't get any better. In the evening around 18:00 I was standing in the fog on the Alfamayo Mirador. The view was zero, but the traffic was limited.

At 9.30 in the morning there were Down Hill Bikers next to the Dog.O.Mobil. A group of 15 people had traveled up to 4'000 m by bus and wanted to ride down along the Ruta 28B to Santa Maria (located at just under 1'000 m). There were some steep shortcuts where I had to stay on the road. On the way to Santa Maria, I saw a few more of these guided tours.

The descent on the well-paved Ruta 28B was an experience even in bad weather. Despite the clouds, the mountain panorama was worth seeing and the view into the depths sent shivers down my spine.

The few larger towns have partially adapted to tourism and you are offered the usual holiday gifts.

After refueling, I joined the CU100 in Santa Maria, the first few kilometers were paved and I was driving behind a small car. I traveled along the hillside while the Rio Vilcabamba flowed in the valley below.

Trees alternated with banana trees. I regularly had to cross torrents or drive over narrow bridges. It was constantly uphill, but the piste was good except for the roads through the villages. There were a lot of roadworks on the route, but I made good progress as far as Vitcos. It was around 13:00 and if it hadn't been pouring with rain in Pucyura, I would have made the short hike to Vitcos.

So I drove on. Up to Abra Chuquito (4'472 m.a.s.l) it was a pretty narrow, bad and strenuous track. The 7.5 tonne lorries coming towards me didn't make the journey any more pleasant in the pouring rain. There was a cattle market in Ccuyura and that's why there were so many lorries on the road.

But after Ccuyura it became a good road again with lots of hairpin bends. Every now and then I could see blue sky, but mostly it was very cloudy. In total, I cycled over 3 passes that day until I slowly descended to 2'000 metres at Inkawasi.

The only pity was that after Inkawasi the track was closed due to a landslide. So I spent the evening in a small car park and waited for what was to come.

Today was a new day, a new beginning, a new opportunity to be happy. In daylight, however, I could also see the extent of the landslide. Around 50 meters of piste had disappeared under a mountain of rubble. To the right, it went down about 500 meters into the valley. I had always imagined happiness to be different.

The road workers arrived at 8.30 a.m. and told me that I could continue in 4 hours. Apart from me, a Fusco with 7.5 tonnes and one with 10 tonnes were waiting in the queue. At 12:00 they had repaired a large part of the road and now they said they would continue at around 15:00.

When I saw this, I felt sick to my stomach. In hindsight, the roadworks in Pallay Punch were only half as dramatic and I continued along the lake.

There seemed to be only one plan B. The same route back to Cuzco (2 days) and one day on the Ruta 3S to my planned campsite at the Complejo Arqueológico Curamba.

At 15:30, a 10m long Fusco truck was the first to drive over the repaired track. Without any problems. I went to the Dog.O.Mobil and drove to the other side after a Hilux. I nearly wet my pants, but it was OK. -> see video

I continued on without looking back, because I had to spend the night somewhere. The weather and the CU100 were fine as far as San Fernando and I was looking forward to an early stop.

A few hundred meters further on there was another impressive waterfall and from then on the road was boggy with deep ruts for the next few kilometres. The Dog.O.Mobil made good time, but it took much longer to get to my pitch, an old coffee plantation.

I was happy and thought I had the worst behind me. What a misjudgement!

The next day I cycled for an hour along banana plantations into the valley of the Rio Apurimac (1'060 metres above sea level). A wonderful descent through a kind of rainforest.

On the other side I went back up to Taccmara Baja (approx. 3'800 m.a.s.l). On my side of the valley, I could see the gleaming roofs of Pacapayata, San Fernando and Sillaplata against the green of the mountain slopes. I parked in a hairpin bend and couldn't tear myself away from the view.

As the mountains around me disappeared into the clouds, the temperature dropped to 12 degrees, whereas it had been 25 degrees down by the Rio Apurima.

It went up and down, fog and clouds alternated, but the view was magnificent. But the view of the valleys and slopes didn't really change.

After more than 3 hours, I reached the Complejo Arqueológico Curamba and was exhausted. After a tour, I relaxed drinking my version of a Pisco Sour, without egg white and Tonic instead.

Below you find the tour including the altitude profile planned in Locus Maps

I would describe the Machu Pichu tour along the Ruta 28B and CU100 as brilliant. Alongside the tour through the Puna and over the Passo Agua Negra, it was probably the best tour so far.

It was Tuesday morning and the following Monday I would be meeting my daughter Clara in Lima. It was only about 1'000 kilometers and that should be easy to do in 5 days.  I traveled via Andahuaylas and along the Ruta 30B to the first campsite near the Bosque de Piedras. Average speed that day was around 60 km/h. In Andahuaylas I got everything I needed and on the Ruta 30B I traveled the first 40 km through fields of millet and oats up to an altitude of 4'350 meters.

The next 40 kilometers were a plateau at around 3'900 m and it was hailing and raining so heavily that I had to take a break.  In a van you sit in the back, drink a coffee and listen to the hail drumming on the roof.

In Pampachiri, the weather was fine again and I turned off onto the track to the Bosque de Piedras. This is the highest stone forest in the world <area: 6'815 hectares, altitude: 3'900 to 4'546 m.a.s.l>.

There are a number of tracks that lead through this mountain region and my pitch was right in the middle of a stream. In addition to the Aldea Pitufos Pampachiri, there were other access points such as Chincana de Llancama, Cerro Pancula, Awkillaqta, etc. When I was standing in front of Cerro Pancula, I had the cool idea of taking the track through the stone forest directly onto the Ruta 30A. That would save me 2 hours traveling time.

I found the Bosque de Piedras very impressive, but couldn't see everything because of the change of plans. If I hadn't been so pressed for time, I would have liked to stay a few days. It's worth it! In any case, there are various small stone forests, lagoons, rock formations and other sites along the track that are not on IOverlander.

90% of the track was in great condition. Only the last 4 kilometers were once again a drive through a quarry. But huge herds of alpaca made up for it. On this day I saw the largest herd of alpacas in South America.

As far as Puquio, I was able to admire alpacas again on the next high plateau (average altitude 4'500 meters). But to be honest, there wasn't much else to see. These high plateaus were very sparsely populated and apart from a few roadside restaurants, there were hardly any villages.

Puquio (3'200 metres above sea level) was the first major town after Andahuaylas. Everything else was just a collection of a few houses.

What you definitely need to bring with you is time. There were a lot of roadworks along the 30B and 30A. Waiting times ranged from 5 minutes to an hour.

55 kilometers after Puquio, I had reached the last Andean pass (4'155 meters above sea level) before the Pacific. Driving uphill on a single-lane road with many hairpin bends behind heavily loaded lorries is really exhausting. Going downhill is not much better, because due to the load, you can only go downhill at walking pace. In between, the lorries are always teaching us and the guys drive as if Niki Lauda were from Peru. Cutting corners is standard and the lorry always has right of way. If that's not enough, there are also lorries on the route that fit spare tyres halfway along the road, preferably on a bend. I was quite perplexed when I saw the spare tyre of one, formal 1 slicks would be the appropriate term for it.

I had set off at 9.30 in the morning and had needed almost 8 hours for this day's stage and still had over 700 kilometers to go to Lima. From here it was all downhill to Nazca. And the country side changed from green to brown or should I say sandy

Nazca was a "lively town. The streets were very busy. No parking spaces for a 7m Sprinter. But I didn't need it either, I still had everything.

On the Ctra Panamericana Sur, aka Ruta 1S, we traveled in hazy weather through a dune landscape to the famous Nazca Lines. As it felt like every vehicle was a lorry and the cars were clearly outnumbered, there wasn't much in the way of sightseeing. If you don't want an accident, pay attention to the traffic in front and behind you and of course to the potholes.

The Ruta 1S crosses the Nazca lines and a lookout tower stands in the middle of nowhere and costs just 6 sol.

The Nazca Lines are over 1'000 huge geoglyphs that are best seen from the air or from one of the surrounding hills in the dune landscape near Nazca. The Paracas culture and the Nazca culture are considered to be the originators of the lines. So much for the background

From the platform I could see some of the geoglyphs, accompanied by the sounds of passing lorries. The museum and the toilets were being renovated and so this point was ticked off in about 10 minutes. If only I had a drone, I thought to myself.

I could have got more information about the scientist's studies at the María Reiche Museum. She had lived here and carried out her most important studies on the Nazca lines on site. But it was closed and so I only made a short detour to San Jose to a dilapidated church that can be visited. The Iglesia was the most interesting place in the area for me. Unfortunately, the town was sleepy and the only restaurant was closed.

Next stop: Ica and the Laguna de Huacachina. On the way, I treat myself to a pan chicharrón and a freshly squeezed mandarin juice. Pan chicharrón is grilled pork on bread with lots of salsa, similar to porqueta in Italy. I should have got two, as I didn't find another stall along the 1S that day.

A few kilometers further on, from a place called Santiago, a few vehicles became more and more and I crawled towards Ica. Luckily, I was wide awake, because people were either overtaking on the left, even though there was no gap, or on the right on the hard shoulder. In Ica, creative driving was the order of the day. I hitched up to a lorry and did what it did. Just as considerate as the lorry!

When I was supposed to turn left after Huacachina, nothing worked in my lane. As I'm not exactly known for my willingness to wait, I gave up, pulled out and squeezed into the lane to Lima. And indeed, 30 minutes later, north of Ica, the 1S became two lanes and a proper motorway.

The next stop was to be Pisco. Along the Ctra Panamericana Sur, strange huge tents appeared to the left and right. Then, behind Pozo Santo, hidden behind high walls, the first wineries. But all sealed off with gates and security personnel.

And then came Urb Casalla and Pisco. The first shops and restaurants where you could buy wine and Pisco appeared on the street. And there were more and more of them, but it was also getting dark at 17:30. I needed a parking space. I didn't find one until 6.30pm at Cerro Azul. A car park right by the Pacific, no town behind me and a mountain between me and the Ruta 1S.

Why not before? Either the 1S went over a cliff or it was less than 300 meters from the Pacific. I could have stood on the beach, but it wouldn't have been a quiet night.

The final 200 km to Lima were straight forward and I parked the Dog.O.Mobil in a side road next to my hotel, the Ramada Encore - Lima San Isidro. This is not an advert, but how easy is it to park a van in a big city? My 7 m van fitted nicely and on a Sunday afternoon there was no problem to find a free parking lot. Hotel security told me that he would have an eye on my van and that the neighborhood was safe.

I have to mention, that I had the best Parrilla in South America in Lima on that Sunday. The La Carreta had the perfect ambience and a parrilla that was not cooked to death and not chewy. That's saying something, because my previous 4 attempts really weren't a revelation.