Adventure Motorcycle Riding the Mountains of Southern Peru
Update 26 (April 2023)
Yanque to Lima, Peru
Yanque was a great place to chill out after the challenges of getting into and settling into Peru. Everyone is nice and relaxed and friendly.
I had two nights there. The day was spent just doing a few jobs. My radiator fan had been noisy since it picked up some mud when I was over in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia. It was making a super loud vibrating sound every time it turned on, which got plenty of intrigued looks when I was stuck in traffic in places like La Paz. All it took was a spray from the garden hose of my accommodation but sometimes it’s hard to come across the simplest of tools.
There always seems to be something going on in these small towns. I walked into the town square on my first night to find some dinner. The square was busy with locals socialising and kids running everywhere, having fun. The lady in a local shop made me a pizza while her kids were running in and out playing with their friends, it was just a nice community.
This update basically covers three days.
Yanque town square.
On Friday evening this band (and dog) was marching the local streets, seemingly to encourage the locals to church.
Grilled Alpaca and veggies with fresh lemonade, for dinner on day two. Very nicely cooked. The Condor is famous in the area.
Breakfast at Miskiwasi Bed & Breakfast. Best included breakfast for quite a while. Fresh pineapple juice, with fried eggs and nice bread (maybe Semita De Leche?) to come. The owner is obviously experienced with tourists but I was the only guest over two nights. Covid 19 and the protests have taken a heavy toll on the area.
Yanque is near the Cañón del Colca, one of the deepest gorges in the world. I left Yanque and headed towards the canyon through the small towns dotted along Rio Colca. The Colca Canyon is also milked for the Condors that live around the canyon. The charge of 70 PEN (30 AUD) for tourists to use the road above the gorge area was a rip off, but life goes on. Having seen a Condor up pretty close in Argentina I just passed by.
Entering the town of Yari.
Rio Colca.
The valley has many stepped terraces from pre Inca times. There is a huge amount of effort in building the stone terraces, though I guess it has been some 700 years that they have been working on them.
The road had been a nice modern sealed road until I reached the town of Huambo where it became a simple dirt road. That dark weather in the top left hand corner became quite a thunderstorm. Riding at 4,100m, 6°C, in a thunderstorm is not good. By the time I realised I was going to be hit, it was too far back to the town and there was nowhere to hide.
I got hit by some hail but missed the worst of this. Luckily it was pretty small too. I have heated handle bar grips and a heated jacket that plugs into a 12v connection, but it still gets pretty cold with the wind chill. And very scary with the lightning. Someone was up ahead of me.
I moved on from the storm. We were going in opposite directions fortunately.
As I moved closer to the coast the terrain became much dryer.
That is my road on the right in the distance. It’s easy to miss the enormous scale of this photo and river.
My first time on the Pacific coast since Antofagasta in Chile.
It’s amazing what some water will do. Note the ocean in the background.
One of the sites to visit along the coast highway is the Líneas de Nazca. You are best to search the internet for it’s history, but it is a fascinating stop along the way. There is an observation tower that you pay 6 PEN to climb. There are many other similar sites in the area.
During this update I ended up staying in Camana and then Lunahuaná. I wasn’t planning to visit Lima but Easter intervened. I have been caught by Easter accommodation shortages before and now use an Easter contrarian tactic to go and stay where everyone is actually leaving from.