Well, that was certainly an adventure. We arrived in Cusco last night, ascending through thunder, lightning, and pelting hail. It took us three and a half hard, long days to cover the 900+ km. The roads were often rough, and always super-curvy.
We left Ayacucho on Sunday by the scenic route, winding along the side of a gorgeous valley and climbing to a pass at over 4000m (just short of the peak of Mt. Rainier) just at dusk. We paused at the top to observe electrical storms on both sides and a nearly full moon rising. Bundled tight, we descended through light rain for two hours in the dark to what's meant to be the lovely little town of Chimbes, but we wouldn't know because we got in at 9 at night and left at 5 in the morning.
It's been mostly like that since. The Andes are immense, and through our days we are confronted with panorama after breathtaking panorama as we fall and climb again from pass to pass. Except for a few flats, my chain coming off a few times, and an unfortunate decision to follow a particular road sign, we really haven't had many problems. It's just been physically and mentally exhausting.
A number of teams have collected in Cusco now. More are in Puno awaiting additional paperwork to cross the border into Bolivia. At least 11 teams have despaired of waiting, left their vehicles in Puno, and continued on by bus. We're hitting up Machu Picchu tomorrow and hoping that the timing will work itself out.
For my part, I'm still hopeful. I have more time than most people, and hope some of my companions will be able to accompany me as far as Salta, Argentina, where I can drop off the vehicle and fly back to Lima. This trip has been highly disorganized, but I still want to make the most of it.
I can't upload photos because the people who run the Internet cafes in this part of the world only vaguely know what a computer is. I'll look for a better one and write soon.
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