After delay upon delay, the first group of 16 teams left this morning. The Wednesday estimate was founded on undue faith in the honesty and competence of Peruvian businesses. One vehicle has already turned around after making it an hour out, braking poorly, hitting a wall, and having their gas can break and spill gas over everything.
Along with really a lovely group of folks, I've volunteered to leave hopefully Friday morning. We are: a Peruvian-English couple, another English couple, a couple from Australia via Qatar, a British-Spanish team, and myself. We're also enjoying the companionship of members of the Peruvian woman's family, who have driven us around to see some of the sights around Huancayo.
If things go reasonably well and we leave Friday morning, we expect to be in Cusco, a.k.a. backpacker central for South America, perhaps by Sunday night. These first three days will likely be the hardest of the trip, with tons of windy, unpaved roads over mountain passes. From Cusco, we'll continue South-East to Lake Titicaca on a fast, paved road.
What happens once we get into Bolivia depends a lot on what kind of time we're making. While our group is in less of a time crunch than most, we're likely to decide not to make it to Asuncion, but to take the Adventurists up on the offer of vehicle drop-off points in Bolivia or Argentina. We'll travel South from La Paz to the Salar de Uyuni, the greatest salt flat in the world. Which drop-off point we use depends on timing, the availability of flights, and the purported condition of roads.
It's been a frustrating 4 days of waiting here in Huancayo. We're all very anxious to leave. We knew this would be an adventure with many trials and setbacks, but it's difficult to know that there's nothing you can do but wait.
I'll update again when we know for certain when we'll be off.
