2CV's beaten by rocks and river

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Well, we finally got beaten by big rocks and water as we tried to negotiate the Colca Canyon loop. We could have built a bridge, as we did in a previous Rocky Road Adventure, but it would have taken all day !! The fact that there has been so much rain and snow over the past few weeks, we were lucky to have got as far as we did. We headed off to Arequipa with our sun roofs wide open, enjoying the sunshine, as we climbed the mountain we could see big dark threatning clouds building in front of us, we stopped and secured that, lucky we did as within twenty minutes and as we got to the top of the mountain at 4840 meters we were driving through a snow storm. As we descended we left the snow behind, but now we were in thick pea soup fog, being able to see only a car length in front of us at any time. As we dropped further down, we finally got out of the clouds as we approached Arequipa. Entering Arequipa and almost to our hotel, Allan hit a big hole and a steel rim in the road and bent his inside rim so badly that the tyre went flat, so we had to put the spare on to get to the hotel. We have two nights here in Arequipa, before heading South to Arica in Chile.

We arrived in Chivay, from Cusco yesterday, after driving through beautiful sunshine leaving Cusco and of course the usual snow storm as we crossed the pass at 4848 metres. This was a big day, that included eight and half hours of actual driving time to cover the 403 kms. We all arrived in a pretty tatty state, including the cars. Linton and Heather were driving a brand new rental Kia with a $1000 excess, so there was quite a bit of tension in that camp as the day unfolded. The 2CV's actually are far better suited to this terrain than a modern car, but we all arrived with no damage to the vehicles. As we approached Chivay, I was dreading that the bridge that washed out last year had not been fixed, and as we approached, I was peering through the snow and sleet to find that at least it was passable, otherwise it would have been about a another four hours back tracking to get around it.

We had a great time in Cusco, the Sacred Valley and of course our day trip to Machu Picchu. It was so good to be able to share my experiences up there with Raewyn. We even made it to the Inka Bridge. We also went up to the village of Huilloc but things didn't work out as planned, so we will reasses this in the future, nothing ever stays the same.

Cheers for now, Rosco

From Raewyn - over the past month we have experienced many facets of the weather, as well as varied accommodation (some understandably basic as the communal bunkrooms on two nights in Bolivia, and others quite luxurious compared to the surroundings we walk through exploring the cities and towns on our itinerary.)

The little 2CV's attract lots of attention, smiles and friendly waves, with vehicles screaming past us, only to pull over quickly so the occupants can take photos of us. We always have to allow extra time for questions when we stop for fuel, food or lodgings. It's a great way to meet the locals or other tourists!

The roads are always a challenge and one cannot become complacent when the going is good, for surely the biggest pothole is just around the corner! The habit of putting speed bumps on the main highway is quite disconcerting, and only yesterday nearly at the end of our 400km day, on dusk, we came around a corner of a very stony road to find three boys putting the finishing touches to their version of a fun thing to do -several large rocks across the road! Paul and Rosco leapt from the cars while the little toads ran away, ducking behind the stone walls which are EVERYWHERE - I sincerely hope the colourful Kiwi language will discourage such behaviour in the future!

We are continuing to have fun and many new experiences with a great bunch of people...

Enjoy our photos!

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Photos

Bugger!!
Beaten by nature...

Up the Road of Death
We made it even through the fog!

Liz and Juan Carlos
Liz our fixer and Juan Carlos our Guide

Checking out the rocks
Ollyantaytambo

The mateing game
Vicuna and Rosco up to no good!!

New hats all round
Raewyn, Rosco and Melean.

Allan negotiating the ' new bridge'
This was the washed out bridge from last year.

Allan's flat in Arequipa
Allan hit an open man hole entering Arequipa

Comments

[Michael Absolum]

holey schmoley!!!!
holey schmoley!!!! i didn't realise you were going over so many very high passes. Can't wait to see the full photographic exhibition. And i think the whole adventure could well be turned into a series of little children's books - 3 little cars adventure in the Andes - make millions of children very happy, bit like Thomas the tank engine