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28.11.2015

Peru: Im zentralen Hochland

Peru: In the central Highlands

We venture into the heart of Peru: In the central highlands we enjoy the view over the plateaus, shudder from fear on the narrow streets deep above the gorges, drive up over 4,000 meter high passes and roll down again on the other side. The only constant is our casita - Spanish endearing word for house, given by a Peruvian farmer for our tent.

It is about 600km from Huanuco to Cusco, if you measure it as the crow flies. On the road though, the distance is over 1,200 km. The difference between individual cities is even more than three times further. From Huanuco, the path first leads us back, on the way we first came, to the Junin plateau. This time we drive around the lake from its western side on a beautiful gravel road. It leads us through small farming villages, past flamingos tumbling in the lake, past herds of llama, sheep and cows, in the distance the white peaks covered with eternal ice flash up. Here, in the midst of this remoteness and natural beauty, we experience another encounter that can only be happen to overland travelers: We meet two independant bicycle travelers who also just met each other shortly before on the aforementioned hill of grass. Both have also been on the road for a long time, we immediately have a lot to tell each other before we go our separate ways or, shall we say, continue traveling at separate speeds.

We crawl out of our casita and can hardly believe our eyes: the beauty of nature is even more impressive than the evening before.

We spend the first night at over 4,000m on a hill with a spectacular view. Rolling hills, rugged rock peaks and undisctructed views from horizon to horizon. The night becomes cold, the morning sun a welcome relief. We crawl out of our casita and can hardly believe our eyes: the beauty of nature is even more impressive than the evening before. The next bigger city is called Huancayo, we avoid it as much as possible.

The next thing we do is drive down into the gorge of the Mantaro River. We can now say goodbye to the previously comfortable road situation and meander through the 150km long gorge on a mostly single-lane road. Trampolin de la Muerte, do you still remember? The spectacular gravel road in the south of Colombia with steep cliffs? This gorge is one step more extreme: Although the road is paved except for a few short sections, the slopes are one step steeper and above all deeper. Guard rails? None! Bridges? What good are they if you can also drive through the stream! Oncoming traffic? Sure, huge semi-trailers! Landslides, crumbling roadside into the abyss - but the reward is great! Nature changes again into desert, small villages sporadically line the roadside, where the valley becomes a little wider, the dominant colors alternate between white, orange to an almost wine-red and sometimes deep down, sometimes very close, there is always the Mantaro river. Deep turquoise when the water is collected in a basin, wild and foaming white in steeper sections, its beauty is definitely undisputed. We set up our tent on the edge of the river on a small hill. The next day we reach the end of the gorge without an accident, the valley widens and the new road reaches us from the other side. It is just a short joy though, and we realize that the new road doesn't go where we want to go. To get to the next town, we have to take a steep, unpaved path up into the hills. During the last 100km we have seen all kinds of roads that this country has to offer: Narrow and dangerous, super new and wide with a fast lane, and almost nonexistent. Our Transalp can do everything!

The snow-covered peaks seem within reach, the clouds below boil over at regular intervals and envelop us with their mist.

Ayacucho is the next bigger city and we realize how truly «Peruvian» Peru is. The Western culture, which is constantly pervading in different colors in other countries, is virtually nonexistent here. We like it, although we are slowly longing for a good coffee and a warm shower. Next, we go up high again and the third night in a row in the tent we spend again at an airy 4,200 meters above sea level on one of these beautiful plateaus. The next day it goes back down into the valley of Andahuaylas, only to then climb again over the tree line, which is here at about 3,800m. We spend the night there with the most spectacular view of Peru so far: The snow-covered peaks seem within reach, the clouds below boil over at regular intervals and envelop us with their mist. During the night it rains extensively for the first time on this section, at sunrise we are rewarded with a practically clear cloudless view of the mountain peaks.

Then it goes - yes, you guessed right - deep down again into the gorge of the Apurimac, the Peruvian name for the Amazon. Fascinated, we cross this seemingly average river on an elegant suspension bridge. About 5,500 km further downstream, at its mouth, this river, the largest in the world, carries on average more water than the seven largest rivers that follow. In the valley of a tributary, the path then leads us back to the plateau of Cusco. Camping in Peru is fun: Firstly, there are practically no houses in this height of over 4,000m, secondly, the Peruvian farmers are curious at first glance, but then never disturb you and thirdly, outside of the larger cities, we never have any concerns with security. All of this allows us to perfect our already often practiced skill of seaching for the perfect camping spots, with which we reached excellent results in the past four nights.

We want to close this blogpost with two more trivial facts: On the section of the route described here, we experienced an overall altitude difference of 41,000m (up and down), Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, is 8,848 meters high.

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