The Road to Caraz, Day 2
The second half of the drive to Caraz was even more spectacular. The mountains in the lower elevations of the Cordilla Blanco mountain range are a wash of many colors, with little vegetation. The road continued to follow the river, and there were more tunnels – maybe 20 or 30 in all – the longest about 1/2 mile long. Once, we had to back out to let another car go through the other way.
We passed a great little waterfall on the way and stopped to clean up and play. A little oasis right in the middle of otherwise desert landscape, swarming with dragonflies.
In a complete shift in personalities, I actually had to convince Bode to shower in the waterfall with me. Normally I would never strip down (and Bode will ALWAYS run around naked if permitted). I implored, “when are we ever going to get to shower in a waterfall again?”
We hadn’t seen another car in the last hour, but sure enough the minute Bode and I step out after the shower a car passes. Not only passes, but slows and leers at us the whole time he drives by. Nice!
As we drove higher, we began to see some of the over 250 glaciers this mountain range has. Quite a change from leaving the beach yesterday.
Once we reached Caraz, we had a bit of trouble finding the camping we were looking for. The main streets of this town were torn up (and closed) while they repaired some pipes under the street. We stopped in the Plaza de Armas (every town has a town square named Plaza de Armas) and had some lunch.
We finally found the place, which is actually a nice hotel that allows both tent and car camping on their grounds. The weather was getting pretty chilly, so we decided to take their offer of a unfinished room for the same price as camping. Turns out, the room wasn’t completely enclosed, so we would have been warmer in the car. Oh well, at least we had our own bathroom.
Wow!…Truly amazing scenery, and as usual, great pictures too!
Safe travels.
Jim
Great scenery, and a full moon – Nice!
What a fantastic drive.
Please tell me you’ll drive on this road when you get to Bolivia:
http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin27b.htm
Alright,
whc03grady.
Amazing adventure!.Great pics and great blog too!Thanks for sharing!
What a great section of road!! What did Duke Power have to do with the road? Notced their name on the horn sounding sign.
You might check out Ayacucho and Quinoa if you have time (paved highway). It’s a hidden gem 33 colonial churches & the best Easter celebrations in Peru.
What a great idea to take a shower in the waterfall! You guys are awesome! My wife and I have enjoyed following along with you on your adventures. We were on this same road a few years ago and it was one of the worst and best experiences of our trip. It was bad because we broke down but good because of all the help we received, and the scenery really was that awesome. Here’s the post we made from that experience. Take care and continued best luck in your adventures!
http://chanatrek.com/breaking-down-in-canyon-del-pato-duck-canyon-peru-day-312/
Chad
Nice dragonfly shot. He looks like a little helicopter.
Strubbe- It’s no “super moon” 😉
Mitch – maybe. maybe.
Larry – we saw many coal mines – mostly closed – and some sort of worker complex. I assume Duke runs it all – maybe even made the roads. There really is no other reason this road would have been made.
So Mitch, you want them to drive on the “road of death”?? Nice. 🙂 I’ve seen that before – I wouldn’t need to fall off to die. I’d have a heart attack from fright before that. I’ve driven up Mt. Evans here in Colorado once…supposedly the highest paved road in North America. Never again. I white-knuckled that bad boy the whole way. My wife kept saying, “Breathe!”
Pingback: BodesWell » Best of Peru – Our Version