MAY 10
ECUADOR-Cuenca
Saturday 1st we decided on a rest day. The
weather was very poor raining for most of the day. It has rained
for most of the days we have been in Ecuador. In the late
afternoon the rain poured down and flooded down the left hand
wall. We removed the contents from the cupboards and placed them
in empty boxes. Sunday
we left early with a simple route out. The main road was closed
and as usual there were no diversion signs. It took us an hour
and a half to clear the town!! The trip to Loja went OK but
Howard had to take a taxi with the van following to find the Hostal
Aguilera International to camp. We settled in the car park and were
told that they would tell us later the cost. Monday again it took
time to clear Loja. NO SIGNS. We headed west and then south for
the Parador Touristic in Macará. It was abandoned.
We parked in a fuel station, the sweeper charged us five dollars.
The electrics in the van failed, the battery read 8.5 Volts. During the
drive down through the lush vegetation we saw ten small Bright Orange
and three small Bright Yellow Birds, a Grey Fox and a Hairy Spotted
Pig. Tuesday we
made an early start for the border with Peru. Leaving Ecuador
took twenty minutes, entering Peru took thirty five minutes, mostly
with the caravan entry documents. We drove south on an excellent
road, it made a change from yesterday. The journey was uneventful
although there were lots of Cows and Donkeys on the road. They
moved aside quickly. We saw another six Orange Birds. We
arrived at Piura but took some time to locate Los Algarrobos
Hoteleria. The manager, Luis Jesús Delgado Perea welcomed
us back. Wednesday
when we left Puira we headed east into the Andes and then south at
Chulucanos. We passed many small, different coloured churches,
when we reached
Tucame we failed to find the ruins, as usual
no signs! We reached Lambayeque and The Echo Hostel just after
lunch. We were welcomed back. Thursday we were told that
the road to Kuélap was open, we returned north and headed for
Jaén on the east side of The Continental Divide, the pass, Abra
de Porculla was 7000ft high. We arrived at Jaén where we
could not find a Hotel with parking. The town was full of scooter
taxis causing huge traffic jams. We eventually got out of town
and found a garage where we could park for the night. Friday we made an early
start at 0730 and continued on the road out of town. Twenty km
along the road we found we were heading in the wrong direction.
Back to and through Jaén. We eventually left at 0900 and
drove south to Ruta 5 to go east to Pedro Ruiz where we turned south
again for Chachapoyas. We had yesterday’s problems in
Chachapoyas, nowhere to park. We drove on east and soon found a
friendly farmer who let us camp in his small holding, Ribira.
Saturday 8th yet another early start for the ruins of Kuélap. When we arrived at the road to the ruins, we drove three km along it decided it was too narrow and twisty, we returned to Chachapoyas to find a tour agent who could find us a
secure place to park. The first one we tried,
Chachapoyas Travel, took us to a yard where we parked. With an
Israeli tourist and a guide we set off again for the ruins. The
drive in a taxi took two and a half hours but it was well worth
it. We spent three hours in the ruins and we returned at 1815 to
be directed, by the tour operator, to a restaurant where we had a
superb meal. Sunday
we left Chachapoyas at 0730 and drove north on the twisting, narrow
mountain roads. At Pedro Ruiz we turned west and continued
through the two hundred miles of Rice fields to the Pass at 2145m, then
we descended from the Pass in 70km and drove on into Lambayeque where
we arrived at the Echo Hostel Mamita Helmita at 1815. We took a
taxi to have a meal out. On the trip we saw many King Vultures,
two Black & Yellow Birds, two dark Green Birds and two groups of
Brahma Bulls. The layers in the cliffs were really spectacular
and the “vertical“ forests had to be seen to be believed. Monday we spent the morning
going to the Supermarket and a garage. We took a taxi to the
Supermarket, via the garage (to find it’s location). When we
returned from the Supermarket we had tea break and then drove to the
garage. The LPG connection was different from that in Argentina,
the Argentinean connector was stuck on, we had to go to a mechanic to
get the connector off. The mechanic took off the whole
connection, placed it in a vice and was able to remove the external
connector. We returned to the garage where we filled up with
diesel, LPG and water. All this took until lunchtime. We had a
relaxed afternoon. As the sun went down the battery registered
zero. We had an early night. Tuesday we were up as the
dawn broke and drove into Chiclayo after breakfast. The Iveco
garage was missing. Howard took a taxi, with Mervyn following, to
a battery centre. Both the caravan batteries were finished, they
only had one battery and we had that fitted. We returned to Echo
Hostel. Wednesday
we made another early start. It took an hour to clear Chiclayo
after which we had a good drive south to just past Chepén
wh
ere we turned east on Ruta 8 for
Cajamarca. This turned to be the worst “paved” road so far.
In Cajamarca we had the usual problems, no signs and different
directions from the Peruvians, to cap it all when asking for directions
there was a rubbing sound from the engine. It turned out to be
the engine mounting bolts had sheared. The garage owner found us
a park in a neighbour’s yard. The battery was still going
down. Thursday
we were up early and then waited till 0830 when the garage
owner/mechanic arrived. We parked in the road outside his small
yard and he started work. He finished by 1300 and we left to
drive up and down the Avenue Atahualpa looking for the camp.
Eventually Howard took a taxi and led Mervyn to the Hacienda San
Antonio, for us to camp. Friday we took
various taxis to visit The Baños Del Inca and The Plaza De Armas
in Cajamarca, where we also went into a café for tea
break. We then returned to The Hacienda.
Saturday 15th we made another early start, we seem to be doing this a lot. It took us twenty five minutes to travel the two km to the Avenue Atahualpa, we found the road out of town with the help of an friendly bus driver and drove west along Ruta 8 to Ruta 1 where we turned south for Trujillo, Huanchaco and The Garden RV Park where we stayed on our journey north. We found two friendly Italians, Pietro and Silvia, in the park. We spoke to them in Torres Del Payne, Chile. Sunday we relaxed. Monday Mervyn went for a walk round the town while Howard stayed in the caravan. After lunch Mervyn edited his videos and Howard worked on his pictures. Tuesday we drove out of The Garden RV Park and followed Ruta 1 south to Casma where we camped in the yard of The Hostal Las Poncianas. We had a meal in the Hostal, it is not to be recommended. Wednesday an early start was made as we had planned to drive into The Andes to Chavin de Huntar near Huaraz. At two of the junctions local Police stated that the road was paved, this was not the case. The first section to Paramonga and Conococha was ok and we made good time. The turn north to Cátac had a poor surface and the last section to the site was only paved for sixty percent of the way. We arrived to camp in a fuel station about 1800. Thursday another early start and we arrived at the site at 0830, it opened at 0900. The site was fair, not as good as described in the guide book some of the better places were closed to the public. We left after tea break and took four hours for the first eighty eight km. We then speeded up but not appreciately. We passed over two passes at 13000 and 15000 ft. by sunset we were on Ruta 1 but we did not settle in a fuel station until1930, twelve hours after the start. We had a good, cheap meal in the local café. Friday as usual in a fuel station we made an early start south for Lima. We had an early tea break thirty km north of Lima and continued on our journey by 1000. Due to the traffic in Lima and missing two turns we did not arrive at The Hitch Hikers camp site until 1300, but we were soon settled in.
Saturday 22nd in the morning Mervyn went into the town and Howard worked on his pictures. Mervyn was back for lunch and then Mervyn’s editing and
Howard’s picture work continued. We went
out for a superb evening meal. Sunday we took a taxi for
the day to visit the three main archaeological sites near Lima.
At the first site, Huaca Pucllana, the construction was of Hand Made
Adobe Bricks, the pyramid was a solid building using millions of
bricks. The walls of the other buildings were three feet thick
. We next visited Puruchaco an Inca Chieftain’s House and finally
Pachacamac, a group of pyramids and palaces from the Lima Culture in
200AD and continued by the Wari Culture and the Incas. Monday after tea break we
took a taxi into Polvos Azul for Mervyn to look for his stolen
camera, the price to buy it back was $1200, he left it. We
then went to Hiraoka, the camera shop where Mervyn bought a lens
cleaning kit. We were back in the caravan in time for lunch,
after which we went to a supermarket. After shopping Mervyn went
to the Tourist Police to see if they could do anything about the
camera, without proof they could not. Tuesday we had a rest
day. Wednesday
we had another rest day. Thursday we left The
Hitchhikers site, it took an hour and a half to clear Lima. The
main road out of town had been permanently closed and no alternative
route was signed. By the time we had cleared Lima we had
travelled twenty four km. We drove south and headed for
Paracas. Just before we arrived we detoured east on Ruta 24 to
visit Tambo Colorado an Inca site on older buildings. As we
arrived latish at The Hotel Mirador, we dined in the hotel
restaurant. Friday
Mervyn booked a boat trip so that he could replace the film he had lost
when his camera was stolen. On his return we had our tea break
and then left. We continued south on Ruta 1 to Nazca and booked into
The Hotel Maison Suisse.
Saturday 29th we arose early as Mervyn had booked a flight to replace more lost film. The hotel was not sure of the weather and therefore the flight times. Mervyn received a call at 0700 for a 0720 departure. We relaxed on his return. Sunday we left early for the start of our journey to Cusco. We had a gradual ascent before the mountains proper where our progress on the narrow, steep winding road was very slow. Half way to Cusco, as dusk was falling we arrived at a toll station, we asked the officer where we could camp. He said one hundred metres along the road on the right where there was a grassy patch. Monday yet another early start as we had several mountain ranges to cross. The first stage was a gradual descent following the River Pachachuca Valley almost to Abancay where we had a steep winding ascent to the town. As usual direction signs had not been posted and we lost ourselves in town. We eventually found our way out to continue the steep ascent. Over the top was steep winding descent to the Rio Apurimac followed by another mountain range of slow driving. We arrived in Cusco and soon found the road leading to the camp, but not the offshoot to the camp. A taxi driver tried to find the camp and after an hour found us a fuel station where we could park for the night. We went out for a meal, it was poor.
Tucame we failed to find the ruins, as usual
no signs! We reached Lambayeque and The Echo Hostel just after
lunch. We were welcomed back. Thursday we were told that
the road to Kuélap was open, we returned north and headed for
Jaén on the east side of The Continental Divide, the pass, Abra
de Porculla was 7000ft high. We arrived at Jaén where we
could not find a Hotel with parking. The town was full of scooter
taxis causing huge traffic jams. We eventually got out of town
and found a garage where we could park for the night. Friday we made an early
start at 0730 and continued on the road out of town. Twenty km
along the road we found we were heading in the wrong direction.
Back to and through Jaén. We eventually left at 0900 and
drove south to Ruta 5 to go east to Pedro Ruiz where we turned south
again for Chachapoyas. We had yesterday’s problems in
Chachapoyas, nowhere to park. We drove on east and soon found a
friendly farmer who let us camp in his small holding, Ribira.Saturday 8th yet another early start for the ruins of Kuélap. When we arrived at the road to the ruins, we drove three km along it decided it was too narrow and twisty, we returned to Chachapoyas to find a tour agent who could find us a
secure place to park. The first one we tried,
Chachapoyas Travel, took us to a yard where we parked. With an
Israeli tourist and a guide we set off again for the ruins. The
drive in a taxi took two and a half hours but it was well worth
it. We spent three hours in the ruins and we returned at 1815 to
be directed, by the tour operator, to a restaurant where we had a
superb meal. Sunday
we left Chachapoyas at 0730 and drove north on the twisting, narrow
mountain roads. At Pedro Ruiz we turned west and continued
through the two hundred miles of Rice fields to the Pass at 2145m, then
we descended from the Pass in 70km and drove on into Lambayeque where
we arrived at the Echo Hostel Mamita Helmita at 1815. We took a
taxi to have a meal out. On the trip we saw many King Vultures,
two Black & Yellow Birds, two dark Green Birds and two groups of
Brahma Bulls. The layers in the cliffs were really spectacular
and the “vertical“ forests had to be seen to be believed. Monday we spent the morning
going to the Supermarket and a garage. We took a taxi to the
Supermarket, via the garage (to find it’s location). When we
returned from the Supermarket we had tea break and then drove to the
garage. The LPG connection was different from that in Argentina,
the Argentinean connector was stuck on, we had to go to a mechanic to
get the connector off. The mechanic took off the whole
connection, placed it in a vice and was able to remove the external
connector. We returned to the garage where we filled up with
diesel, LPG and water. All this took until lunchtime. We had a
relaxed afternoon. As the sun went down the battery registered
zero. We had an early night. Tuesday we were up as the
dawn broke and drove into Chiclayo after breakfast. The Iveco
garage was missing. Howard took a taxi, with Mervyn following, to
a battery centre. Both the caravan batteries were finished, they
only had one battery and we had that fitted. We returned to Echo
Hostel. Wednesday
we made another early start. It took an hour to clear Chiclayo
after which we had a good drive south to just past Chepén
where we turned east on Ruta 8 for
Cajamarca. This turned to be the worst “paved” road so far.
In Cajamarca we had the usual problems, no signs and different
directions from the Peruvians, to cap it all when asking for directions
there was a rubbing sound from the engine. It turned out to be
the engine mounting bolts had sheared. The garage owner found us
a park in a neighbour’s yard. The battery was still going
down. Thursday
we were up early and then waited till 0830 when the garage
owner/mechanic arrived. We parked in the road outside his small
yard and he started work. He finished by 1300 and we left to
drive up and down the Avenue Atahualpa looking for the camp.
Eventually Howard took a taxi and led Mervyn to the Hacienda San
Antonio, for us to camp. Friday we took
various taxis to visit The Baños Del Inca and The Plaza De Armas
in Cajamarca, where we also went into a café for tea
break. We then returned to The Hacienda.Saturday 15th we made another early start, we seem to be doing this a lot. It took us twenty five minutes to travel the two km to the Avenue Atahualpa, we found the road out of town with the help of an friendly bus driver and drove west along Ruta 8 to Ruta 1 where we turned south for Trujillo, Huanchaco and The Garden RV Park where we stayed on our journey north. We found two friendly Italians, Pietro and Silvia, in the park. We spoke to them in Torres Del Payne, Chile. Sunday we relaxed. Monday Mervyn went for a walk round the town while Howard stayed in the caravan. After lunch Mervyn edited his videos and Howard worked on his pictures. Tuesday we drove out of The Garden RV Park and followed Ruta 1 south to Casma where we camped in the yard of The Hostal Las Poncianas. We had a meal in the Hostal, it is not to be recommended. Wednesday an early start was made as we had planned to drive into The Andes to Chavin de Huntar near Huaraz. At two of the junctions local Police stated that the road was paved, this was not the case. The first section to Paramonga and Conococha was ok and we made good time. The turn north to Cátac had a poor surface and the last section to the site was only paved for sixty percent of the way. We arrived to camp in a fuel station about 1800. Thursday another early start and we arrived at the site at 0830, it opened at 0900. The site was fair, not as good as described in the guide book some of the better places were closed to the public. We left after tea break and took four hours for the first eighty eight km. We then speeded up but not appreciately. We passed over two passes at 13000 and 15000 ft. by sunset we were on Ruta 1 but we did not settle in a fuel station until1930, twelve hours after the start. We had a good, cheap meal in the local café. Friday as usual in a fuel station we made an early start south for Lima. We had an early tea break thirty km north of Lima and continued on our journey by 1000. Due to the traffic in Lima and missing two turns we did not arrive at The Hitch Hikers camp site until 1300, but we were soon settled in.
Saturday 22nd in the morning Mervyn went into the town and Howard worked on his pictures. Mervyn was back for lunch and then Mervyn’s editing and
Howard’s picture work continued. We went
out for a superb evening meal. Sunday we took a taxi for
the day to visit the three main archaeological sites near Lima.
At the first site, Huaca Pucllana, the construction was of Hand Made
Adobe Bricks, the pyramid was a solid building using millions of
bricks. The walls of the other buildings were three feet thick
. We next visited Puruchaco an Inca Chieftain’s House and finally
Pachacamac, a group of pyramids and palaces from the Lima Culture in
200AD and continued by the Wari Culture and the Incas. Monday after tea break we
took a taxi into Polvos Azul for Mervyn to look for his stolen
camera, the price to buy it back was $1200, he left it. We
then went to Hiraoka, the camera shop where Mervyn bought a lens
cleaning kit. We were back in the caravan in time for lunch,
after which we went to a supermarket. After shopping Mervyn went
to the Tourist Police to see if they could do anything about the
camera, without proof they could not. Tuesday we had a rest
day. Wednesday
we had another rest day. Thursday we left The
Hitchhikers site, it took an hour and a half to clear Lima. The
main road out of town had been permanently closed and no alternative
route was signed. By the time we had cleared Lima we had
travelled twenty four km. We drove south and headed for
Paracas. Just before we arrived we detoured east on Ruta 24 to
visit Tambo Colorado an Inca site on older buildings. As we
arrived latish at The Hotel Mirador, we dined in the hotel
restaurant. Friday
Mervyn booked a boat trip so that he could replace the film he had lost
when his camera was stolen. On his return we had our tea break
and then left. We continued south on Ruta 1 to Nazca and booked into
The Hotel Maison Suisse.Saturday 29th we arose early as Mervyn had booked a flight to replace more lost film. The hotel was not sure of the weather and therefore the flight times. Mervyn received a call at 0700 for a 0720 departure. We relaxed on his return. Sunday we left early for the start of our journey to Cusco. We had a gradual ascent before the mountains proper where our progress on the narrow, steep winding road was very slow. Half way to Cusco, as dusk was falling we arrived at a toll station, we asked the officer where we could camp. He said one hundred metres along the road on the right where there was a grassy patch. Monday yet another early start as we had several mountain ranges to cross. The first stage was a gradual descent following the River Pachachuca Valley almost to Abancay where we had a steep winding ascent to the town. As usual direction signs had not been posted and we lost ourselves in town. We eventually found our way out to continue the steep ascent. Over the top was steep winding descent to the Rio Apurimac followed by another mountain range of slow driving. We arrived in Cusco and soon found the road leading to the camp, but not the offshoot to the camp. A taxi driver tried to find the camp and after an hour found us a fuel station where we could park for the night. We went out for a meal, it was poor.
PERU-Cusco