Tuesday April 30
We had stayed in a little valley
high in the Andes. From here everything changed. The mountains now have jagged
peaks, they were green and there were trees. The hazy air we had seen down near
the coast was gone. This is east side runoff to the Amazon river. It looked a lot like parts of Utah and Colorado.
We followed a river further down the valley for a while before going up over
another high pass. The peaks were sometimes topped by clouds and we could see glaziers.
They don’t mark the elevation of passes but several are over 14,000 feet. There
were no straight sections of roads. All curves.
We stopped for a snack and then for
lunch. Far too much sitting around for me. Our guide He told us that we had a
short cut. He described it as a farmer’s road. We went through a small town, then
it got very narrow, changed to dirt and started up again. There were some good
swithbacks in soft gravel and sand but we all made it.
From there to the hotel was crazy.
The traffic was all small carts, little taxis built on scooters, people walking
every direction, donkeys and dogs. Little kids sit on the side of the road
watching it all. We drive twice as fast as everyone else down the left side
of the road dodging in and out. The road
went up to a big fortress. It was heavy old cobblestone, Then it turned to tore
up pavement, then rocks. After awhile it got just unrideable so we all stopped
and walked in. It looked real bad but the hotel was great. How they get any
business is beyond me. The scooter taxis can’t go as far as we went. It had a
beautiful view of the valley.
Both Jan & I have stomach problems.
We haven’t eaten in a couple of days. Nothing
sounds good.
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