We left Huaraz on Tuesday morning under beautiful sunny skies. There was a dusting of fresh snow on the mountains and it was a bit crisp in the city. After a few traffic delays for road construction we got ahead of the traffic and kept following the Rio Santa southeast along Hwy 3N. The traffic stops for construction are hilarious. People sit in the line-up and honk their horns constantly. It doesn't hurry things up but it must make them feel better. We eventually came into a huge high altitude plain (altiplano) with awesome views of the 5000 meter peaks of the Cordillera Blanca. It was hard not to just park and look at the views. As it was there were lots of stops to take photos.
We had spent a good deal of time trying to figure out which route to take and how long it was supposed to take. The map I had showed a paved road from La Union to Cerro de Pasco. Neil's map showed no such road. So we asked around and the owner of the hotel we were in lent us his Peru road map-book. His map kind of jived with Neils map and the hotel owner gave us some times for traveling the route. Basically, 6 or 7 hours from Huaraz to La Union on a paved road of about 194 km. From La Union to Huanuco was going to be another 6 or 7 hours for another 135 km or so of paved road. That's too much for one day so we thought we'd be spending the night in La Union. There wasn't supposed to be much there for accommodation but we'd find something. That was the reason for all the photo stops. We weren't really in a hurry.

After we left the headwaters of the Rio Santa we entered another drainage for some more jaw dropping scenery. We were now headed northeast toward La Union. This part of the highway was in really good condition as it was built and maintained by a mining company. As we climbed the drainage the weather started to deteriorate and we had to put rain gear on. I started keeping an eye on my thermometer now because we were getting closer to the snow that had looked so nice about an hour ago. It was about 2 or 3 degrees Celsius in mixed rain and snow when we crested the Abra Yanashalla Pass at 4720 meters (15485 ft). I was amazed at how good our bikes were performing at that altitude. The engine wasn't pinging at all. I think it was a good thing that it was so cool out. 

Looking down on the town of Aquia.

You can see the terraced farms going way up the hills.

More cool mountain folding.

Just before we crested the summit of Abra Yanashalla Pass elev. 4720 m.

It was quite a relief that we didn't have to climb any higher or we'd have been in the snow. That really sucks on a motorcycle. Eventually the rain let up to just showers and we had a nice descent toward La Union. We stopped for gas in Huallanca (if you're paying attention it's a different one) and the guy at the gas station told us only three more hours to Huanuco. Hmmm. There's maybe a chance we could make it to Huanuco today. I asked again in La Union and was told 5 hours to go. Even at that, it was now about 12:30 so we decided to go for it. It was quite a road. It was paved the whole way except for the parts that weren't. Those parts were muddy. Both Neil and I agreed it was the most mountainous, narrow, twisty road we had ever been on. That includes all the logging roads we've ever been on. There were lots of stretches that would have been a tight squeeze or even impossible for a truck and a motorcycle. And there was no pulling of the road. You were either on the road or down in the river. Make that way down in the river. It was pretty freaky looking down, so I didn't. The locals honk their horns as they approach the blind corners to warn oncoming traffic. It works as long as you both don't honk at the same time. And I'm not sure why but well over 50 percent of the time when you met somebody coming around the corner he was either right in the middle of the road or completely in your lane. It was starting to piss me off after a while. To top it off it was raining and the rivers were quite high. And, most of the switchbacks were covered in this muddy clay, making us go around them in first gear. It was a good ride but demanded your full attention. Yes, I could feel a beer coming on.
We took very few pictures of the descent to Huanuco because of the conditions. It's too bad. You could easily spend two or more days taking pictures and hiking to the cultural areas along this 135 km section of road. Almost the whole way along the road are villages, farms and houses. We had to stop or slow for livestock many times. It was hard to tell just how old some of the homes were. Most of them were built of mud and straw (taipo de pelao I think) and they could have been centuries old for all I know. Some were built with rocks. There were quite a few abandoned huts with the wooden floor stringers long rotted away and only a bit of the walls left standing. The farms seemed to go from valley bottom to the ridge tops. It really looks like people have been here (as they have been) for thousands of years.

Headed for La Union.

You feel really small here.

Sometimes there were pigs, cows, sheep, goats and dogs all walking along together like a family. I even saw a duck chasing a pig.

I had been having such a good day. One part of the road with no pavement and the mud was trying to suck our boots off our feet. There were lots of muddy spots. Only one prang-up though.

When we got into Huanuco we parked in the main square and as I went to go look for a hotel a print shop owner ((Marco) came up to us and offered to print off a map of the region and in return only wanted some photos of our trip. More nice people. I cased out the hotels and had to laugh as I crossed the street back to where we parked the bikes. There was quite a crowd around Neil and the bikes. There must have been 40 or more people asking where we came from, where we were going, how long did it take, how big are the bikes? We answered questions as best we could then tried to leave to go park the bikes. No one wanted to move until we started moving the bikes into the street through the crowd. While we waited for people to move a few guys would reach in and give our throttle a twist. They just wanted to feel the power I think. We had a good laugh about that.
Today we headed for Huancayo. I'd hoped we could make it to Huancavelica but we ended up leaving a bit late and we made lots of photo stops. Again, we made a long climb and got gas at Cerro de Pasco. It's a small mining town at 4330 meters asl. It was raining off and on and it was cool at about 5 deg C. We rode along the shores of Lago de Chinchaycocha in Parque Nacional de Junin for about an hour at about 4000 meters asl.

The high water from rain in the mountains. All the rivers look like this.

Cerro de Pasco

Lago de Chinchaycocha

Lago de Chinchaycocha

On the descent from Lago de Chinchaycochah. You can just barely see the line of the railway in the distance behind the truck. It looked pretty steep for a rail line.

We then started following a valley descending off the lake towards La Oroya. The topography was fascinating because of all the cool examples of mountain folding. There was also a railway following the same valley. I think it is used to service the mines at Cerro de Pasco and La Oroya as well as others. Mining is a big thing here and we saw both large and small operations. Some of the smaller ones we saw the men were using only hand tools to extract the ore from open excavations.

Coming into La Oroya.

Wild rock formations right in La Oroya

The smelter in La Oroya. Not sure what's going on now but La Oroya has had some bad press as one of the ten most polluted cities in the world. It sounds like the new owners are trying to clean up their act.

Lots of this kind of stuff near La Oroya.

So that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to see if we can get the bikes over the 5000 meter mark. I hope it doesn't snow.
Chau