La Yeguada
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
1
94
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
La Yeguada,
Peru
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The promised 7am bus finally got going at 8.10am. Meanwhile our annoyance at having got up at the crack of dawn was dispersed by the entertainment of watching the top of the bus being loaded. Apart from our packs, almost everything as thrown up. This included 2 mesh bags of guinea pigs, They were caught, and settled into the well of the spare tyre. A chook was parked on the roof too, but at least that was carried up. The bus stopped at the 2 villages further down the hill to pick up more passengers and bags of spuds. By the time it had wound its way to the river at the bottom of the hill, an hour and a half had gone by. The upwards drive along the road that climbed the face of the mountain turned out as safe as driving any outback Aussie road. It was nothing like as fearsome as the road to Celendin had been, with horrifying drops.
Mountain scenery
We reached the town of Pallasca over 3 hours after starting, although it could be seen from La Yeguada hardly any distance away. After our 4 days in a tiny town with no facilities Pallasca was a very pleasant colonial town surrounded by mountains. What is more, it had a hotel with a decent lunch, real toilets, a hostel, and a Plaza de Armas with well kept topiary. All that said, from the mountain walking point of view La Yeguada was far better as you only had to walk to the end of the street, and the walks were there for you. Pallasca is on top of a hill and it would be a long hike to start a decent walk.From Pallasca the road wound down, and down, and down. We went through huge landslips and rock falls, with areas where eucalypts had been till they got knocked over. The land got drier and drier, with enormous cactus, then we could see a river far below us. We drove down, round series of hairpin bends, waiting at one stage for a ute with its tray full of bed frames, till we reached the river. Then it a very long drive, several hours, beside the river. On the other side of the river we could see numerous tracks going up impossible slopes. There was no cultivated land up the hills, so where did all these tracks go ?
The scenery was truly spectacular, high mountains of mostly rock, narrow gorges, short tunnels, and always the river in its rocky bed beside us. If you like stunning scenery (from a bus) this is a must-do bus trip, provided you can cope with being stranded in remote places
The hostel
.Suddenly, there was bitumen ! At a junction a road went upwards, with bitumen, but the signpost pointed to somewhere not on our maps. Maybe to Cabanas, but the sign said something else. Despite the bitumen our driver had to be very careful, as there were many uncleared rockfalls. Some of the rocks were huge. You would not want them landing on your toe. We loved the bit where the river went through a gorge no more than a metre wide.
At last we reached Chuquicara, about 9 hours after starting. It is a tiny place strung along the side of the road, very basic houses. The whole town was demolished in the 1970 earthquake, and appears to have been thrown together. After our bus had headed into the sunset without us we found that there were (a) no hostels (b) no buses going to Huaraz tonight. So much for all our carefully gleaned (mis)information from La Yeguada and the bus driver's mate. What shall we do ? we asked the police officer. A restaurant owner was sitting beside him, and he offered us a very basic room for the night alongside the restaurant. So we have a concrete floor, not earth, and out the back of the restaurant is a toilet shaped like a toilet (but not accessible between midnight and whenever the restaurant reopens for breakfast). The sound of the river will lull us to sleep.
