MUNGO EATS Latin America

We were about due for a driving adventure, right?  Well, today was it.   Today we left Cusco, in an attempt to go to Machu Picchu.  Most tourists visit this important Incan sight in one of two ways.  They either hike the Inca trail, which takes about 5 days, or take the train from Cusco to Machu Picchu.  Because of the dog, neither option was open to us.  Well, I guess maybe we could have talked our way into the hike, but it is a very wet time of year to be hiking, and I really don’t think the  pack donkeys and Mungo would have gotten along very well.  The last option, and the one we decided to try, is to drive as close as possible to the site, and then either hike or take a train the rest of the way.  Actually, 3 of us plan to take the train, and one of us (most likely Kevin), will walk the rest of the way to the site.  So today, we started the drive.  It takes about 5 1/2 hours to drive to Santa Teresa, which is the last town you can drive to .  The road twists and turns through the mountains, and we were warned that in the rainy season, there are frequently landslides to navigate around.  We decided to go light, and left the trailer at the campsite in Cusco, so we could travel faster and be more manoeuvrable for the drive. 

All was going extremely well until we hit this!

Yep, that is a whole lot of river running across the road.  There were half a dozen vehicles on either side of the river, and the occupants of these vehicles were just standing on the road, watching the water rush by.  The water was moving very fast, and it looked quite deep.  It was obvious to me that we were not going anywhere for a while.  No work crew was on the scene yet.  I really wasn’t sure why everyone was waiting.  On our side of the barricade, at the front of the line was a group of young guys on motorcycles.    I REALLY didn’t understand what they were doing waiting.  It seemed quite obvious to me that it would take a long time to get this road open again, and if it opened at all this day, it would not be safe to cross on a motorbike.  In addition to the great amount of water rushing down the river, it was still raining.  The boys on bikes looked pretty cold, and after a while, I just couldn’t stand to see them shivering anymore and I offered to make them some tea.  They accepted, even though I could barely get them to come warm up in the van, and we got to chatting.  They were Australian, and were supposedly out for a six hour tour.  They were with a guide and were awaiting the guide’s decision as to whether they should turn back, or wait to get across  the river.  I would have turned around. 

After we had been waiting at the impasse for a while, a wheeled dozer came on the scene and started pushing gravel and water around.

He was just trying to push some of the larger rocks off the roadway so that vehicles could pass, but he was in no way stopping or slowing the flow of water.  It quickly became apparent that vehicles would still have to drive through the water.  The motorcycle boys’ guide came up with the idea to put all the motorcycles in the back of one of the trucks waiting to cross, so that the riders and bikes could get ferried across the river.  So the motorcycles were loaded into the truck bed.  The riders joined them and they were ready to wait their turn to cross. 

I did not want to be the first person to cross and see if the road was passable, but let me tell you, the Peruvians were lining up, jostling in front of each other, trying to get 5 seconds ahead of the other cars.  Crazy Peruvians!!  A large bus passed first.

It was followed by some larger trucks, and all was going well.  Some smaller vehicles passed through as well without too much difficulty.

Then a motorcycle tried to pass through.  That did not go so well.  It was a large touring bike, and the driver went through, with his passenger still on the back.  They both fell off the bike and the bike went down.  The driver was pushed downstream and LUCKILY came to a stop at some large boulders.  The passenger stayed with the downed bike and kept it from being swept down the river as well.

Kevin ran into the water to try to help the passenger, but someone from the other side reached her first and threw her a rope to hang on to and tie the bike to.  The driver was thrown another rope that he tied around his waist and 4 or 5 guys pulled him out of the water, with difficulty.

I took quite a few pictures of the scene, but I was shaking so badly that almost all the pictures were too blurry to include.  Finally, they hauled the bike out.

I really don’t know what these folks were thinking when they decided to try to cross this water on their bike.  I was worried about crossing it in a vehicle.  They were VERY LUCKY that they were not hurt. 

We finally got up the nerve to cross, but  just before we did, a fellow driving a very small taxi cab asked if we would ferry his family across for him, because he was worried about them going across with him in his small car.  We agreed of course, and so 3 extra Peruvians jumped into our van for the crossing.  It actually was fine by the time we crossed, but remember, we watched about 2 or 3 dozen vehicles cross before we worked up the nerve to try it.  Once on the other side, we offered the drenched motorcyclists blankets, and made them a cup of tea as well.  We tried to get them to warm up in the van, but they were worried about being wet and getting the van wet!!!  Silly people!  We waited on the other side until we were sure the taxi crossed safely as well. 

Tonight we are camped on the side of the road, next to a little roadside restaurant.  We had some supper at the restaurant and asked the owners if we could hang out in the parking lot for the night.  We will continue on to Santa Teresa tomorrow, once it is light again.  We were not up for driving in the dark.  We’ve had enough adventure for one day!!!