Back to the Coast (Again)

Lima is the medium-term target, so we need to get back to the coast. The drive, via the mountain cities of Andahuaylas and Ayacucho is stunning. The towns themselves are buzzing with life and it’s good to get away from the tourist hordes. But it is the drive that is most amazing. We are constantly under-estimating the size of the Andes. Google says it is about 900km and will take almost 20 hours. Surely not (by the way, Google maps are a terrible source of information and directions for South America - you need a second source). But Google was correct. The roads are in good condition and there is not much traffic outside of the towns, but the ascending and descending is something to be experienced. On this trip we climbed (and went down) six major ranges. And by major, I mean climbs of 3,000+ metres (10,000 + feet in the old scale). On this segment of the trip we climbed and accumulated 19,000 metres, and went down over 21,000 metres.Read more