Drive to Vilca

It is April 18th today as I post the blogs.  We are back in Lima with internet, hot showers and summer weather. 

I wrote up my impressions on a daily basis to keep the memories fresh and will post each as a separate story of each day.

April 11

We were up and out the door by 4 this morning to begin the drive to Vilca.  What started out as a nice divided highway toll road didn’t stay that way.  Just as the sun came up, we turned onto another paved road winding its way through little villages.  Before long the road was more often like a single lane than a road wide enough for two.  Sometimes it wasn’t and one vehicle would have to pull to the side – but not too close because it was either cliff wall or the cliff edge!  Then for the last three hours or so it turned into a gravel road with potholes, washouts (driving through streams) and more switchbacks than I had ever seen in my life.  At one put there was a sign to Huancaya – 12kms.  That took us the better part of an hour.  So suffice to say, we didn’t travel very far today, but we spent 10 hours jostled about, with a few bano breaks and a coffee break.

It's desert country with forests of cacti.

Move over! 

The higher we got, the greener the landscape.

Bathroom break with flush toilets - for a fee.

As soon as we stepped out of the vehicle, we could feel the effect of the altitude, or was it the bumpy ride?  At more than 3800 m above sea level, it was definitely altitude.  I took a few steps and then I needed to sit down because I was very light-headed and completely short of breath.  This was a new experience.

Dave with Liz and Andrea, the CESO team.

Typical Vilca street.

Vilca, I’m sure, is at the end of the world.  There are mountains on all sides.  It’s a very small village and when we arrived in the village square it looked deserted.  Eventually we were shown our rooms and served a delicious lunch (at 4 pm) of noodle soup with a side of locally grown boiled potatoes. While the sun was shining, it was reasonably warm (sweater weather).  But after sunset it was as cold as they had warned us.  

The houses aren’t heated so I’m considering wearing gloves as I type and we’ll see how many layers I’ll add for night!  Gotta love camping!