June 18 - Road to Cajamarca

David waiting for the bus outside the museum.

On the road out of Leymebamba.

At the high point in the road 13,200 feet. As we crossed the high point, a think fog rolled in and we thought that we could go no further. Fortunately, it blew on.

Land slides from the rainy season were everywhere.

An obvious warning. "Danger, narrow road."

Finally after about 5 hours on the road, we dropped into the Maranon River valley and th one horse town of Balsas. It was here at 500 feet above sea level that we crossed the river and started back up to 12,000 feet. Due to some sort of negative micro climate, the area was very dry with little or no vegetation except cactus. In the river valley, everything tropical grew but on the hill sides, nothing. The Maranon flows north here and then turns east and drains into the Amazon basin.

The bridge over the Maranon with David in the middle of the road.

Back out of the river basin.

Higher up on the Cajamarca side of the Maranon, the green returned.

One of our fellow passengers was very happy with her 3 chicks.

If you thought those emails with pictures of "Roads of Death" in China or Bolivia were bad, we experienced first hand a competitor for the title. Fortunately we survived.